OpenStreetMap community @lemmy.ml BitSound @lemmy.world 2mo ago

What value should I use for traffic_signals=*?

I'm looking to tag a simple 4 way stop with typical US red/yellow/green traffic signals. I was wondering what the difference between signal and traffic_lights is in iD, and the wiki page just says this about traffic_lights:

A typical traffic signal. This value was the second most common value as of 2021-09-15 despite being undocumented until that point.

Looking at the talk page there, it links to this post, where an iD dev seems rather annoyed at the wiki:

I took a look at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:traffic_signals and now I'm furious.

Forget it.

There is no way I'm going to support traffic_signals=yes for pedestrian signals, after the wiki folks aren't even ok with iD using traffic_signals=signal for a normal traffic signal - a tagging that was accepted just not very widespread before iD started doing it.

The OSM Wiki needs to end. Seriously. It's ruining this project.

I'm using iD, so should I just leave it as the default signals and leave the fighting up to the devs? As an aside, does anyone know why there seems to be so much animosity there? Kind of surprising TBH

4 comments

@BitSound @openstreetmap

There have been many disputes between the way the iD developers want to do things and the community over the years, to the point where they are now unique in having a dedicated page on the wiki documenting all their controversial decisions.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ID/Controversial_Decisions

I wouldn't pay much attention to it.

The main thing is to have highway=traffic\_signals either on the intersection node or on all the inbound ways. Any refinement beyond that is just a bit of a bonus.
Is there a traffic signal nearby that you could use as an example and go with that? I would look at more than one, but that'll likely give you your answer.
- Thanks, yeah. There weren't any immediately nearby, but I'll try searching farther out.
The wiki has a lot of good info. The wiki also has a lot of vague, conflicting info. Because of this, when in doubt, I look at what other people are doing and follow their example. Use tag info to figure that out. For example, signal is by far the most used value for traffic_signal=* (sauce), so yes, just use that.