MapQuest and OSM

[Bickendan]

MapQuest proper apparently has the Canadian provincial and territorial shields now! Alberta's currently is the generic white shield that Google likes to use, missing only the Alberta name in the shield, and its secondary are generic white ovals; Yukon currently has white squares instead of the color coded shields purported to be in the wild. But, the data for Calgary and Edmonton's highways isn't quite up to date: AB 201 and AB 216's northern leg aren't marked as freeways.

OSM's MapQuest layer reverses this: Generic shields across Canada and up to date highway data. Now to get the two to sync up...

[rickmastfan67]

That's because most of the Canadian OSM mappers refuse to add abbreviations in front of the route numbers.

[Bickendan]

As in 2 instead of AB 2?
They might think it's redundant, but it's practical.

[oscar]

Yukon currently has white squares instead of the color coded shields purported to be in the wild.

They are indeed in the wild.  But some of the colors look alike, or close to it.  When you have 12 posted route numbers (1-11 and 37), it's hard to come up with distinctive colors, though 1 (red), 2 and 3 (different yellow/gold shades) and 6 (green) do it best. 

I'm OK with online mappers not trying to color-match the Yukon routes. 

[Bickendan]

Yukon currently has white squares instead of the color coded shields purported to be in the wild.

They are indeed in the wild.  But some of the colors look alike, or close to it.  When you have 12 posted route numbers (1-11 and 37), it's hard to come up with distinctive colors, though 1 (red), 2 and 3 (different yellow/gold shades) and 6 (green) do it best. 

I'm OK with online mappers not trying to color-match the Yukon routes. 

Don't they also have a side panel with an icon associated with the route number, like a husky?

[rickmastfan67]

As in 2 instead of AB 2?

Bingo.

This is a major problem in Ontario as you can't tell which is a provincial highway compared to a regional one when they sometimes share the same numbers.

[Bickendan]

As in 2 instead of AB 2?

Bingo.

This is a major problem in Ontario as you can't tell which is a provincial highway compared to a regional one when they sometimes share the same numbers.

Next, in Texas...

[oscar]

Yukon currently has white squares instead of the color coded shields purported to be in the wild.

They are indeed in the wild.  But some of the colors look alike, or close to it.  When you have 12 posted route numbers (1-11 and 37), it's hard to come up with distinctive colors, though 1 (red), 2 and 3 (different yellow/gold shades) and 6 (green) do it best. 

I'm OK with online mappers not trying to color-match the Yukon routes. 

Don't they also have a side panel with an icon associated with the route number, like a husky?

Some of them do.  For example, YT 5 has the husky sled dog, YT 6 has a construction vehicle, VT 11 has an ore carrier.   I'm pretty sure YT 7, 8, 10, and 37 don't have icons.  I'm pretty sure the others have icons, but don't remember off-hand what they are (I have photos of some). 

The Yukon government at one point had a web page with the route color codes and icons, but I couldn't find it last time I looked for it. 

[vtk]

That's because most of the Canadian OSM mappers refuse to add abbreviations in front of the route numbers.

And because MapQuest refuses to render based on route relations instead of the simple ref tag on ways.

[NE2]

Because relations break like John Wayne Bobbitt's dick.

[Bickendan]

Yeesh, I don't want to see these highways get into a knife argument over who's duplexing with who!

[Bickendan]

As I don't feel like digging up the other OSM thread and because it's somewhat related to the discussion above...
A Colorado highway finds itself in Oregon! CO 937 on Emigrant Hill (probably doing a weed exchange...) http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=11/45.5847/-118.5384&layers=Q

[NE2]

Yeah, someone though CO was a good abbreviation for county.

[Bickendan]

Oh, definitely.

Speaking of county routes, though, are there plans to add the blue pentagon shields to MQ/OSM and how would the routes be coded? CR XX?

[rickmastfan67]

Speaking of county routes, though, are there plans to add the blue pentagon shields to MQ/OSM and how would the routes be coded? CR XX?

No idea, but you could shoot a Tweet out to them @ @MapQuestTech.  That's how I've reported some problems to them when it comes to rendering.

[NE2]

It'd be really nice to have FM/RM roads and county roads render differently.

[vtk]

Speaking of county routes, though, are there plans to add the blue pentagon shields to MQ/OSM and how would the routes be coded? CR XX?

I highly doubt it.  They already render county routes with little rectangles.  Apparently due to a bug, ref tags with unrecognized prefixes and three-digit numbers (such as ref=XY 123) get interpreted as county routes (rather than generic state routes if the number is two digits or less).