[mkgmap-dev] Commit: r1445: Hide underground railways. Map railway=abandoned to highway=track.

Tue Dec 29 10:43:01 GMT 2009

Hi Charlie,

On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 09:56:12AM +0000, charlie at cferrero.net wrote:
> Quoting svn commit <svn at mkgmap.org.uk>:
> 
> >
> > Version 1445 was commited by marko on 2009-12-29 09:45:48 +0000   
> > (Tue, 29 Dec 2009)
> >
> > Hide underground railways. Map railway=abandoned to highway=track.
> 
> Out of curiosity, why hide underground railways but not underground roads?

Because, as far as I know, Garmin units do not support railway navigation.
Actually, the underground railways are now omitted from the translation
altogether; I do not know how to create invisible routeable ways.

The reason why I committed this change is that underground railway tracks
tend to be very long and built deep underground, below roads or even
residential areas.  There is a 30km long harbour tunnel near my home
(not completely mapped yet, but I already find it a little confusing to see
it on the map).  Also, some time ago, I found it confusing to see subway
tracks running through a pedestrian area in the centre of Helsinki.

Given that Garmin units do not work deep underground, omitting the underground
railways should not hurt navigation.  Railways that are visible on the ground
can be useful, especially when visiting incompletely mapped areas.

I may create map layers for public transportation routes in the near future.
Then I will have to make sure that underground railways do appear on the
railway route layer.

If someone knows how to create invisible routeable ways, then we might
consider hiding underground roads.  I would only do that when a special
tag is set, for very long tunnels that go through cities, such as those
in Stockholm, Sweden or Brussels, Belgium.

Best regards,

	Marko