Travel Mapping
Tracking Cumulative Travels
Travel Mapping Manual: Create a new highway system - Draft
New highway systems are developed by our volunteer highway data managers who went through the
procedure of getting a contributor. When they have reached the
right level of experience, they can start developing further highway systems. The subsequent list describes the
procedure on how to develop a new highway system. It is mandatory for new highway data managers to work through
it step by step. It is recommended for highly experienced highway data managers.
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Steps to introduce a new highway system
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Research about the highway system and discussion on the forum
Before you can start the development of a new highway system, the following requirements must be fulfilled:
- 🔗
Check which regions are covered by the highway system you want to develop
- Are there already TM routes in that regions?
- Check the routes whether they need a revision because of changed alignments, new routes or low data quality.
- Does another highway data manager claim any region affected?
- You need to ask the manager whether he/she wants to develop the highway system by himself/herself.
- 🔗
Get familar with the highway systems of the region.
- Search for route lists and maps of the region(s) and highway system.
- Is your highway system the highest system of the region(s) that is not yet covered by TM?
- We usually start with the freeway systems and develop the other systems top down. Consider to develop the higher system first.
- Does the highway system in question fulfill the TM highway system requirements?
- 🔗
Open a new thread on the In-progress Highway Systems & Work board of the forum.
- Present your source for the routes.
- Describe what you found out about the highway system, especially about the quality of signposting.
- Ask whether there are objections to add the highway system.
- Suggest the highway designation types for this and other highway systems to be used in waypoints.
- Suggest system code, tier index and color code for the system.
- Be patient since we are volunteering contributors and don't have time to answer immediately. Accept asks
for better research and accept when we don't see the system as a future TM highway system.
Note that there are a few exceptions to the strict
TM highway system requirements.
Don't hestiate with opening a thread on the forum to ask whether the potential highway system is qualified for TM.
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Check existing routes and add waypoints
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If there are already routes in the region(s) of the future highway system, check them for accuracy first.
- 🔗
Add the waypoints which are required for the future highway system to the existing routes.
The existing wpt files are stored on
Github. They can be
loaded into the
Waypoint File Editor for modifications. The changed files must be submitted
to Github with a pull request. Please refer to
the development instructions for more info about
how to deal with the files and tools.
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Develop routes in devel status
- 🔗
Develop routes by creating highway data files (
.wpt).
- Create the files route by route in a desired order but make sure that you don't miss any route.
- Use the Waypoint File Editor to find the coordinates for the waypoints:
- Waypoints to include
It is recommended to start with copying the required waypoint coordinates from existing files for:
- Intersecting routes:
Waypoint labels must usually be renamed
- Concurrent routes (multiplexes):
Waypoint labels are usually not renamed
because they must have the same coordinates.
- Positioning waypoints
- Labeling waypoints
- Do not use commercial mapping sources, such as Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, or Bing Maps.
- Properly shaped routes in non-remote areas
typically have average waypoint spacing of 1.5-2.5 miles for surface
routes and 2.0-3.0 miles for freeways, considering all visible and
hidden waypoints together. There are routes that should fall outside
those ranges, but those ranges are the norm. These averages are not
suggested spacings to aim for. When the routes are worked out according
to the above instructions, these ranges are typical of the average
waypoint spacing.
- Only add routes which are fully signed
- Signed at the beginning of the route.
- Signed at the end of the route.
- Signed along the route so that there is no doubt about the actual routing.
- If the routing is partially not clear or obvious, you need to shorten or interupt the route.
- If the number of fully unsigned routes is small, they can be included when there is a clear evidence for their existance.
- Evidence is, when they are on the latest official list from the responsible road authority or state institution.
- For some regions, e.g. with poor street view coverage, it is sufficient when the routing is indicated on maps.
- Notes to exceptions should be clearly described on the forum thread and / or in a README.md file on the Github folder for the wpt files.
- Waypoint order
- In general, put the waypoints in the order normally used by the
country. Exit numbers or roadside distance markers often reveal this order.
- In the US and Canada, most highways should have waypoints in order
from west to east or south to north. Some spurs might not follow this
as they begin at a parent highway and end away from it (e.g., NC I-795:
north (I-95) to south).
- UNECE International 'E' Roads should run west to east and north to south.
- Some countries use a major city as the origin and have exit
numbers increasing radially outward and circumferentially in a certain direction.
- 🔗
Make the highway system lists (
.csv)
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Promote the system to devel status when a first batch of routes is available.
This requires a new entry to system.csv on Github:
- Enter a new line to the last segment of the file where the in-development systems are listed. The structure is as follows:
System;CountryCode;Name;Color;Tier;Level
...
brabr;BRA;Brazil Rodovias Federais;green;4;devel
...
The system code starts with the country, region or continent code, followed by a system abbreviation
The region or continent or country code can be found in
regions.csv
The system name starts with the English region name followed by the system name in native language
- Use an English term like Motorways or Main Roads if the native name is not using a Latin-script alphabet.
The color represents the color which is used on maps to draw the TM graph.
- The color must be unique for each region to distinguish the systems.
- The color should represent the color which is used on signs to indicate the routes.
- Available colors are: blue, brown,
red, yellow,
teal, green,
magenta and lightsalmon.
- Standard colors are often used for a continent to avoid confusing users.
The tier index is used to distinguish systems top down.
- It is used on maps to draw the TM graph. If there are concurrent routes, the color of the higher level system is on top.
- The more important the system to non-local travel, the lower the tier index.
- Standard tiers are often used for a continent to avoid confusing users.
- We currently only use
tier 1 to tier 5.
The level is always devel at this point.
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Create the system shield (.svg) (optionally)
- A svg file is used to show a system specific shield in the highway browser. They are generic and hosted on
the web repository on Github.
- If no specific svg is available for the system, the standard shield is used.
We don't notify the promotion of a highway system to in-development
on the updates page but on the forum thread only.
When promoting a system to devel, the system is processed for the first time.
If any wpt or csv file has an incorrect format or reference, the site update will fail. Please run
data verification
to find the errors before submitting the files.
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Indicate the highway data sources on the site
The sources for the system must be indicated visibly on the site under
credits.php.
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Promote highway system to preview
When the first draft of all routes is in the highway browser, you can promote the highway
system to
preview status.
- 🔗
The entry from system.csv
must be moved from the in-development segment of the file to the preview segment.
- The
level column must be changed from devel to preview.
System;CountryCode;Name;Color;Tier;Level
...
brabr;BRA;Brazil Rodovias Federais;green;4;preview
...
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It must be logged on top of the system updates list,
so that the notification will appear on the updates page.
Especially when drafting a huge highway system, it is possible to split it into several sub-systems with partial preview promotion.
Ask on the forum thread for more details.
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Clear datacheck, broken concurrencies and NMP issues
A first complete check should be done when the system is in
preview status,
a second run must be done
before the activation of the system.
Errors from active systems should always be corrected or reported as false positives short-term.
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Request peer review
- 🔗
Notify on the forum thread that the system is ready for a review by another contributor.
- 🔗
Any other user can also report issues which should be considered.
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The peer review is complete, when the reviewer says it is complete.
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Make changes based on peer review
Changes proposed on the forum thread should be processed short-term while the peer-review is still ongoing.
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Make changes to the routes as required from users on the forum.
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If you don't agree with proposed changes, explain on the forum why they should not be made.
Provide a link to the manual or other sources if possible.
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Care must be taken to ensure that changes do not "break" a user's list file.
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Activate the highway system
When the system is complete and there are no critical open issues, promote the highway system to
active status.
- 🔗
The entry from system.csv
must be moved from the preview segment of the file to the segment with active systems.
- The
level column must be changed from preview to active.
System;CountryCode;Name;Color;Tier;Level
...
brabr;BRA;Brazil Rodovias Federais;green;4;active
...
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It must be logged on top of the
system updates list, so that the notification on the updates page will appear.
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Maintain the highway system