NYSDOT photolog

[Buffaboy]

On the NYSDOT website it says their photolog browser is coming soon. Have any of you tried it in private or do you use FOIL requests to get images?

[vdeane]

Not sure if they're referring to the new iVision system that's been in development for who knows how long, but if they are, don't expect "soon" to come very soon.  They've been telling the regions that its release is imminent for years now.  I'm not holding my breath.

[Buffaboy]

Yeah that must be it.

[machias]

I have visited the photolog in Albany a couple of times and the staff there has always been very helpful. I believe the log goes back to 1976.   According to some folks I know at Region 2 there could be older photos in storage at individual regional office, but mileage may vary.  As far as online access, I don't seem them digitizing all of the early photo log stuff any time soon... I think the online access mention has been on the NYSDOT site for a couple of years.

[dgolub]

I had tried to obtain it on CD from them back where I was in college, and they told me it was so big that just the photos from one route would be enough to fill an entire CD!

So, yes, I'd be very excited to see it made available over the Internet.

[Rothman]

I had it on my desktop for years.

Frankly, a lot of it is obsolete.

I'm with vdeane; at the last conference I was at where iVision was discussed, pessimism outweighed optimism about its implementation.

[vdeane]

I'm not sure if VisiData even works any more.  In any case, the image quality isn't much better than the old street view imagery, and the last year done was 2010, so unless that's all there is (or there's nothing as far as street view), there's not much point to using it.

iVision SEEMED complete when it was demoed at the Highway Data Services conference last year, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a holdup along the lines of "how do we restrict people working from one region from viewing roads in another region?", given how NY state agencies like to compartmentalize information the same way as the defence department does.

[Rothman]

...but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a holdup along the lines of "how do we restrict people working from one region from viewing roads in another region?", given how NY state agencies like to compartmentalize information the same way as the defence department does.

HA!  Reminds me of when NYSDOT started to hand out regional allocations individually...despite them all being visible anyway in NYSDOT's Program Support System.  Blows my mind that the scheme actually worked to keep Regions from saying that they didn't get their "fair share."  If somebody doesn't lay it out for them, they don't go looking!

[empirestate]

I had it on my desktop for years.

Frankly, a lot of it is obsolete.

I'm with vdeane; at the last conference I was at where iVision was discussed, pessimism outweighed optimism about its implementation.

Surely, the fact that it's obsolete is what interests us the most? We can check current conditions using GSV, but being able to look back at our state highways in earlier times would be a treat.


iPhone

[vdeane]

As I recall, iVision was only going to have the most recent three years of imagery (which already puts the oldest iVision imagery as newer than the latest VisiData imagery).

[Rothman]

I had it on my desktop for years.

Frankly, a lot of it is obsolete.

I'm with vdeane; at the last conference I was at where iVision was discussed, pessimism outweighed optimism about its implementation.

Surely, the fact that it's obsolete is what interests us the most? We can check current conditions using GSV, but being able to look back at our state highways in earlier times would be a treat.


iPhone

True.

[machias]

Looking back in time in the photolog makes me realize how much simpler our highways appeared back then. We sure have a lot of symbols and a lot of signs on the road these days. I wish I could find the photos of the first run of signs on the NYSDOT interstates. From what I can figure out from archived newspapers, parts of I-81 didn't get exit numbers until the early 1970s.

[route17fan]

The photolog is amazing! My first experience was in Buffalo and I looked at NY 17 (original) from NY 5 in Barcelona (south) eastward through Cattaraugus County. I believe it was started in 1977 and, as a road enthusiast, I definitely recommend it - especially for old signing standards.

For example:
> Reassurance shields. So you would have, for example, EAST 17 full assembly...then about 500 feet a stand alone 17 shield without a cardinal direction above.

> "ALL TRAFFIC EXIT 1 MILE" signs - some were black on yellow while others white on red

> A hitch-hiker! (as seen on a reel - 17 east in Chautauqua County - the DOT vehicle did not pick him up (laughs))

> Even the Thruway is captured on film. Although archived in a different way, it is still accessible and in the white on dark-green button copy era (as opposed to the even earlier white on blue button copy)

> Copious amounts of "no U turn" signs in all-text
> miles and miles of concrete
> even more "state named" interstate shields!
> appointment is itself free - prints can be ordered

If there is anything I can recommend more to an old sign buff (especially NY state), I would recommend a visit to the photolog.