Proposal:Animal crossing

Tag:hazard=animal_crossing
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	overflorian
Tagging:	hazard=animal_crossing Data item
Applies to:
Definition:	A road sign warning the possibility of domestic or wild animal crossing
Statistics:
Rendered as:
Draft started:	2015-06-04

Proposal

I propose an animal crossing sign to be described as hazard=animal_crossing.

I think that hazard=name_of_the_animal should be avoided. The hazard tag should be more generic because sometimes it is hard or even impossible to identify exactly which animal could cross the road.

Example of tags I propose to avoid:

• hazard=moose
• hazard=sheep
• hazard=moose

This proposal is consistent with a previous discussion about hazard, and an other one (in French) on the talk-fr mailing list.

What this is not

Most of the time the danger displayed by the sign applies to a section of a road. Therefore this section could also be and should be tagged with hazard=animal_crossing. Nevertheless my proposal aims to describe the sign itself as an independent element and is NOT about a way.

I think it worth describing the sign independently because:

1. there is currently very few hazard=animal_crossing signs. Adding a simple node is an easy way to contribute and a good quality step to achieve. Once the data is correctly mapped on this node, it is easy to tag the section of the road without having to come back on site.
2. the sign itself worth to be mapped. It is a precious information for describing reality but also for routing (e.g. "turn left after the next animal crossing sign"). Moreover, some local communities begun to map them massively, for example in Finland.

I am aware than the information should be mapped twice with this proposal (once on the sign, once on the road). I don't think it's a problem but quite the opposite, I think it's precious information for quality assurance.

Objects

This tag should only apply to nodes: by definition a sign is always a very precise spot.

Tagging

Where to map the sign node

I propose the signs should be mapped as an independent element and not be part of the road way.
No relation should be used.
to be detailed

The related tags for hazard=animal_crossing would be the following ones:

highway

The hazard=animal_crossing tag is not self sufficient to identify a road sign. It could be used for example on a natural park or on a road.

Therefore traffic_sign=* should be used to identify a road sign. to be detailed

traffic_sign

Some signs can be identified by a unique reference so animal_crossing=wild should be used.

A complementary local id could be used as a complement, such as traffic_sign=COUNTRY_CODE:reference

E.g. : would be traffic_sign=FR:A15b

to be detailed

species

• species=latin_name
• genus=latin_name

to be detailed

traffic_signals:direction

• traffic_signals:direction=forward;backward

to be detailed

position

• position=left/right/both/above

to be detailed

distance

• distance=distance_in_km

to be detailed

Rendering

There is no international consensus and a huge amount of different signs for animal crossing.
It seems fair to create a sign by animal, that is the only way to render correctly the real danger.

Here is the table of standard European signs:

	Austria	Belgium	Czech Republic	Denmark	Estonia	Finland	France	Germany	Greece	Hungary	Iceland	Ireland	Italy	Netherlands	Norway	Poland	Russia & Belarus	Slovakia	Spain	Sweden	Switzerland	Turkey	Ukraine	United Kingdom
Domestic animals
Wild animals

UK sign should not be used as the driving side is left side and a majority of people on the planet drive right side.

Therefore as a first step I suggest to use one of the most common / generic signs of the list above:

• for wild animals
• for domestic animals

Dedicated website PanneauxBiche.com

PanneauxBiche is a website rendering hazard=animal_crossing on a worldwide map.

"Panneaux biche" literally means in French "deer's sign". Its goal is to render all animal crossing signs with a different icon for every species.

Examples

Signs	Tags	Comment
	hazard=animal_crossing animal_crossing=wild highway=traffic_sign position=right traffic_signals:direction=forward distance=7	Even if it looks like, this french sign isn't specifically about a deer. Therefore the tag species=* should not be used. It is a general warning concerning all wild animals, so we use animal_crossing=wild instead.
	hazard=animal_crossing animal_crossing=domestic highway=traffic_sign species=ovis aries species:en=sheep species:fr=mouton
	hazard=animal_crossing animal_crossing=wild highway=traffic_sign position=right traffic_signals:direction=forward species=alces alces species:en=moose species:fr=élan distance=1.5
	hazard=animal_crossing animal_crossing=domestic highway=traffic_sign position=right traffic_signals:direction=forward species=vicugna vicugna species:es=vicuña species:fr=vigogne
	hazard=animal_crossing animal_crossing=wild highway=traffic_sign position=right traffic_signals:direction=forward genus=rana genus:fr=grenouille genus:en=frog	Frog is not a specie but a a genus. Therefore genus=rana should be used instead of species=rana

--Overflorian (talk) 02:34, 4 June 2015 (UTC)