Are you seriously suggesting that emergency services will trust a satnav
in preference to their own eyes and brains? Especially a satnav driven
by data with no proactive quality control and no-one you can
sue/complain to? And seriously incomplete data? I think you are looking
at a multi-year project to get all this information into OSM (read:
"review and correct the tagging and topology of every road in the
database") while all the time thousands of people are adding new "bad"
data? A popular dutch saying "mopping up with the tap still running"
comes to mind.
Let's not have a purely hypothetical debate, let's keep it practical.
Assuming that emergency services currently use satnavs (consumer or
special-purpose) based on commercial data, what would they say if we
asked them "what would you need from OSM data to make it a better choice
than your current supplier?" I can imagine that the time delay between
changes on the ground and their availability in a map update might be
one concern; inappropriate road classifications might be another. I
would like to hear it from them, though. Then we can look at the
requirements and assess whether it is a viable project.
Colin
On 16/10/2012 10:37, Simone Saviolo wrote:
2012/10/15 Colin Smale <colin.sm...@xs4all.nl
<mailto:colin.sm...@xs4all.nl>>
I don't understand why emergency vehicles are so important in this
discussion.
Because OSM publicly advertises the fact that its maps are being used
in the Gaza's strip by emergency vehicles that would otherwise have no
map? Just to name one. Also because emergency vehicles may happen to
operate in unknown territory. Don't limit yourself to the ambulance
that runs around its home town.
In the first place they have wide-ranging exemptions from traffic
rules, which (let's be honest) we are never going to tag in OSM.
This is meaningless. We will map all restrictions; consumers will have
an "emergency vehicle" flag that will route ignoring those
restrictions. Also, while an ambulance is allowed to go the wrong way
in a one-way street (when its siren is on, of course), it is usually
advised against doing so, as in a narrow road it may find regular
traffic, which would be dangerous or at least slow down the ambulance.
So, restrictions may be ignored, but drivers should be informed about
them.
Secondly they are never going to be relying on OSM data (or indeed
any normal sat-nav) for lane-precise routing. They are trained to
use their eyes and brains to make split-second decisions on what
is safe and an acceptable risk under the circumstances of that
moment.
Sure. Let's make an example. There's a long primary road between
towns, with solid double lines all the way from town A to town B.
Let's say it runs North-South from town A to town B. A farmyard east
of the road is burning. It can be accessed by a road that reaches the
large road; under normal circumstances, someone coming from town A
couldn't reach the crossroad and go to the farmyard, but would be
legally forced to go to town B, turn back, reach the crossroad and go
the farm.
The firemen turn on their GPS navigator, because they're being called
in from a far away city and they've never heard the name of that
farmyard. The router lawfully sends them to town A, then to town B.
They go past the crossroad and can't notice the farmyard, because it's
far away and there's a wood in between that covers it. Also they can't
see on the screen that ten kilometres ahead they would have to turn
back and go back to the crossroad they're approaching. The firemen get
there fifteen minutes late and the farmyard is a bunch of ashes. Great
work dividing the way on a legal restriction! :-)
Thirdly, they will be about 0.0000000001% of the potential users
of OSM data - why should we compromise "service" to the vast
majority of real users for the hypothetical benefit of the very few.
I know who makes this consideration: commercial map providers. It's
just not worth the cost, right?
Cheers,
Simone
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