Editing the map

Hi everyone,

as it seems that Google satellite is not really up to date in Thailand,
how you do it normally editing the map?

For example, there is a Hwy - on OSM and Google is 2 lanes but in real is 4 lanes already…since more than 1 year.

Greets
Six

Welcome!

I sincerely hope that when you say Google you mean Bing, because Google does not allow its services to used this way (to create maps).

If you can access the location May I suggest you use either a GPS or a suitable app on your smartphone and drive the road in both directions, saving the track as you go. You can then upload this track to OSM. Using this track (and quite possibly others already uploaded) the dual carriageway can then be mapped. Also, don’t forget to align any imagery in the editor with the GPS tracks, as images are often mis-aligned.

And a note on 4 lane highways: is there a physical separation of the carriage ways?
I.e. two lanes in this direction, and two lanes in opposite direction, and between them something which you cannot simply cross, e.g. a ditch or guard rails? In that case, we should map two separate ways with two lanes each. Mapping the U-turns is also very appropriate with such highways (often missing on the map).
If it’s only some white area painted on the surface, it’s one “way” with 4 lanes.

Sometimes that can be seen from imagery like Bing or ESRI, but the images are most often older than just one year.
And true, we are a rather small community, not many people gathering data on ground in Thailand. I recently changed a large section of road #4 between Phuket and Khao Lak from a “common” primary to a dual-carriage “trunk” - and I am sure that some of the construction was done a couple of years ago.

Hi again,
thanks for your replies and sorry that I am late with mine. I was a bit busy tha last days.

My name is Andy, originally from Germany but stay in Thailand (Sisaket area) half year from Okt till April.

OSM and OSMAND I found from Komoot which I use for my biking.

If you want, I can help improving the map in Thailand.

Before I do something wrong, is there a page about how to do it correct?

About 4 lanes highways, often 2 lanes are seperated by some yellow stripes. This is a saftey zone (police tell me) and this one is not allowed to enter (even people do so). The penalty for that is up to 1000 THB.

There’s a wikipage which takes hours to load at
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Thailand

In case of the highway “seperated by some yellow stripes”, that’s one “way” with a lanes=4 tag.

Thanks for the Wiki… and for the tip with the Hwy :slight_smile:

I have a question about gas stations:

some have parking roads some not. What is true?

And usually there is an entrance and and exit. Should the parking in the gas station be one way?

as the entrance and exit are one-way it is fine to have a road connecting them oneway as well.

Depending on the size of your petrol station you might have additional roads as well leading to parking spots, garage, cafe amazon or convenience stores.

While technically you often can drive in both directions, even on one-way roads, there is a way it is intended. Do map it like this.

Thanks a lot, that helps

Andy …

There are a considerable number of Gas Stations not yet plotted, including many new PTT’s that are popping up everywhere.
In this case if you have the time, you could spend hours adding all the buildings and tagging them, but in reality, the aerial pics are often outdated so its a bit of a guess where the buildings are.
I agree that’s its important to add a simple in and out service road, and tag it one-way if appropriate. If it sits on a dual carriageway, then automatically its one-way. If its a small rural station on a single carriageway, then leave the one way tag out (unless the signs within the station are explicit).
The reason for adding at least one simple in/out way is for GPS routing … most GPS’s will navigate to the nearest point 90 degrees perpendicular to the POI you are heading for. So in reality, on a fast road, you will have passed the Gas Station entrance before your GPS tells you to turn … adding a small in/out service road, ensures the GPS gives you the turn instruction at the appropriate & correct point.
I don’t feel its necessary to make the service roads encircle the whole parking area, but you will see some mappers do this. PTT parking lots are a bit of a free-for-all anyway.
Another tip I can offer, is that rather than just dropping a single node on the gas station, try to draw a rectangular square around the canopy over the pumps, and tag as building=roof, amenity=fuel, name=xxxx
This renders as a red building on many Garmin units, and tells the user the station has been added already.
If I do fly past a new PTT, I mark on the GPS, then later when back on the computer, add a symbolic rectangle about where the canopy is, adding the Cafe Amazon & 7-11 nodes later if the station has them (as virtually all do). I do leave a note to say the info is derived from a GPS and not a aerial pic.

Here would be such an example :
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/18.55413/98.84911

Later on when the aerial pics are updated, you can refine to something like this :
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/18.31092/100.29721

There will always be more info that can be added, but without doing a physical ground survey, I believe this is sufficient.
Hope this helps, Russ.

Hi Russ,

thanks for your information.

Not only PTT popping up, PT as well.

Without a proper areal it is almost impossible to map them.
I will only map gas stations I know exactly where they are by pass by them.

The examples helps a lot thank you

Greets
Andy