Automated edits/RobJN
addr:place clean-up
As we learnt when discussing address tags on talk-gb, the addr:place tag has often been incorrectly used here in the UK. The tag addr:place is meant to be used when the address does not reference a street (tagged with addr:street) at all. This is frequently seen in small villages in continental Europe which often don't have any street names at all.
In the UK most cases of addr:place and addr:street being used together are incorrect and are cases where addr:suburb should have been used instead of addr:place. You can browse the Nominatim QA to find examples and help clean these up.
To help with this clean up effort I use an approach in JOSM that some might consider as captured by the Automated Edits code of conduct. I therefore posted to talk GB and added this test to this wiki page.
Step 1:
Identify a potentially incorrect use of the addr:place tag. To do this I am looking at the list of values used on TagInfo GB and checking if any of these are villages/towns. If they are then there is a high chance that the addr:place tag is incorrect.
https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org.uk/keys/addr%3Aplace#values
Step 2:
Open the data in JOSM using an overpass query. An example query I am using to download the data is:
[out:xml][timeout:90];
{{geocodeArea:England}}->.searchArea;
(
nwr["addr:place"="Eccleston"](area.searchArea);
);
(._;>;);
out meta;
Step 3:
Inspect the data in JOSM paying particular attention to other addr:* tags. To do this I start by doing a Ctrl+F and search for e.g. "addr:place"="Eccleston". This selects all the features with this tag. I can then see the full range of addr:* tags used on these features. High use of addr:street reiterates the incorrect use of addr:place. I can also see if the addr:suburb tag has been used on any features -> if it has then I go investigate this separately. I also investigate uses of all other addr tags except housenumber/name, unit, flats and street.
Step 4:
Change addr:place to add:suburb. I get to this stage quicker if step 3 does not identify any conflicting addr:* tags (e.g. if the only other addr tags are housenumber/name and street). The more addr:* tags there are the more I look into individual OSM features before making this change.
As always, if in doubt then I don't proceed.
HSBC UK edit in the West Midlands
Key introductory information:
This edit updated all HSBC banks in the West Midlands to reflect their new HSBC UK branding.
- Type of automated edit: Useful edit that would be tedious to do manually.
- Region affected: West Midlands, United Kingdom.
- Who is making the change: OSM user RobJN.
- Discussion held at: talk-gb-westmidlands mailing list here.
- When the change was made: One off edit on 30 November 2019.
Motivation for making the change and why it is important: HSBC UK has been created as a separate ring-fenced bank in response to the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013. HSBC created the stand-alone entity for its UK high street banking business and updated it's signage to reflect the new legal entity and brand in 2018. As at 23 November 2019 there was some 480 amenity=bank objects still with name=HSBC[1]. The OpenStreetMap community does not have a good track record of keeping details related to banks up to date. For example, there are still 75 instances of Lloyds TSB some 6 years after the bank split. An automated edit (to HSBC) is the fastest way to improve the overall quality of OpenStreetMap.
Description of the algorithm you will use to decide which objects are changed how: The edit will be made in JOSM. Data to be edited will be download by using the following Overpass API call (where 151283 is the relation ID for West Midlands region):
[out:xml][timeout:90]; area(3600151283)->.searchArea; ( node["amenity"="bank"]["name"="HSBC"](area.searchArea); way["amenity"="bank"]["name"="HSBC"](area.searchArea); relation["amenity"="bank"]["name"="HSBC"](area.searchArea); ); (._;>;); out meta;
Using JOSM, the following tags will be updated/added. These are selected as they are the same tags that the iD editor recommends via it's "Upgrade" option. These tags are documented in the Name Suggestion Index (NSI)[2]:
- brand=HSBC UK
- brand:wikidata=Q64767453
- name=HSBC UK
- operator=HSBC UK
The edit will be made and uploaded in a single changeset. To indicate that the edit has not involved a survey the comment will include the text "Automated edit without survey" and will include a link to this page. The source tag on the changeset will be source=automated_edit.
Information on how to "opt out": Please provide a list of OSM object IDs with a written explanation for each one explaining why it should be excluded.
Toucan, tiger, pelican and pegasus crossings in the West Midlands
Key introductory information:
This edit will update all referenced crossings (except zebra) West Midlands to add the crossing_ref tag.
- Type of automated edit: Useful edit that would be tedious to do manually.
- Region affected: West Midlands, United Kingdom.
- Who is making the change: OSM user RobJN.
- Discussion held at: talk-gb-westmidlands mailing list and monthly meet-up.
- When the change was made: One off edit completed on 22 December 2019.
Motivation for making the change and why it is important: The names we use for each type of pedestrian crossing (zebra, toucan, pelican, tiger & pegasus) here is the UK are not widely understood in other countries. This has led to a number of issues including the misuse of the crossing=zebra tag abroad following it's use by the iD editor (i.e. the tag was being used for generic crossing). More recently the iD editor has started using crossing=marked in place of the crossing=zebra tag. Whilst we could spend more time complaining, it may be better for us to simply recognise that OSM is a global project and it is our responsibility to unsure that the UK specific tags are understood. The fact that the tag page on the wiki implies that you can use a "UK Shortcut" which would overwrite the proposed crossing=* tag is in itself confusing. Whilst this edit does not change the crossing=* tag it does add the relevant crossing_ref=* tag to ensure that the UK specific details are retained in the case that more people start to amend the crossing=* tag to the global crossing=marked version.
Description of the algorithm you will use to decide which objects are changed how: The edit will be made in JOSM. Data to be edited will be download by using the following Overpass API call (where 151283 is the relation ID for West Midlands region):
[out:xml][timeout:90]; area(3600151283)->.searchArea; ( node["crossing"="toucan"][!"crossing_ref"](area.searchArea); way["crossing"="toucan"][!"crossing_ref"](area.searchArea); relation["crossing"="toucan"][!"crossing_ref"](area.searchArea); ); (._;>;); out meta;
Using JOSM, the following tags will be added. Existing tags will not be amended as part of this automated edit, however it should be noted that mappers may amend the existing tags to the global standards - hence making this edit is useful to retain the UK specific detail.
- crossing_ref=toucan
The edit will be made and uploaded in a single changeset. To indicate that the edit has not involved a survey the comment will include the text "Automated edit without survey" and will include a link to this page. The source tag on the changeset will be source=automated_edit.
This will be repeated for tiger, pelican and pegasus crossings.
Information on how to "opt out": Please provide a list of OSM object IDs with a written explanation for each one explaining why it should be excluded.