Hello and happy new year!
I have made a small but very important change at Balti jaam where there was a parking lot, which it is not anymore, and changed it to bus station.
Changeset: Changeset: 160832514 | OpenStreetMap
But according to q(q) this may be not the best change and I agree to some extend with him. However, we both would like to have more input regarding the change.
Backstory:
Balti jaam is well known for its train station. Tallinna Bussijaam is also well known for its inter-city (long-distance) bus terminal. However, Balti jaam has also a bus station where all the medium-distance bus routes start and end.
But that bus station has not been yet mapped as a bus station. Until lately, it was mapped as a big parking lot which it is not anymore.
For the change the reference points are two OSM wiki articles:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dbus_station
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:public_transport%3Dstation
There is also the original proposal:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposal:Public_Transport
If to deduce from these articles we can make a list of why the change is acceptable and why it is not.
Acceptable:
- The public_transport=station tag is used to identify a railway station, a bus station or any other kind of a public transport station.
- “Any other kind of public transport station” here could mean that this area may very well be a public transport station.
- Have a physical presence consisting of a building or other structure allowing its extent to be easily recognized and provide some protection from the weather.
- It does not exactly have as big building in immediate proximity to platforms as with Tallinna Bussijaam but it has next to it a building where reside Burger King, Circle K and Elron ticketmaster with Tallink Express.
- Have a number of platforms and stop positions organised in a structured way possibly with a central concourse area.
- In original proposal there was mentioned that other configurations of bus station may be acceptable where usually the platforms are parallel to each other. Here we have platforms in a straight line configuration.
- Not be part of the road network with limited access for private motorcars.
- Entrances to the area have a traffic sings prohibiting entrance of private vehicles except for those that have been granted permit by Põhja-Eesti Ühistranspordi Keskus (PEÜTK).
- Have amenities for waiting passengers including shops, vending machines and information services and possibly car parking - either short term or long term.
- Already explained at point two. However, no car parking except next to trainstation.
- Have a generally known name (xxx railway station, yyy bus station, zzz airport).
- Balti jaam. Jaam - station. Its not Balti Railway Station but Balti Station. The railway is definetly a Balti jaam but the question is, is the bus area also a part of Balti jaam (not to mistake as a part of railway station) or it should be considered more of a one massive public transport platform (bus platform).
- A bus station consists of several bus stops, usually allowing people to travel in many different directions.
- There are six bus stops from where to all directions buses can be taken that travel within Harjumaa county. Included the possibility to change the traveling route between train, bus and even tram.
- A station is an area dedicated to and particularly designed for passenger access to Public Transport, considerably bigger than a pair of bus stops or tram stops.
- There are indeed six bus stops and a main starting point for a lot of bus routes.
- Protection against the weather, which may be anything from a small shelter, up to a building around the whole station
- While the area does not exactly have a dedicated building as a shelter, there are bus stop shelters and already aforementioned building where Burger King etc reside which can also be considered a shelter.
- This is not a bus depot where buses stay overnight and have a cleaning service as well as maintenance in case of some damage.
- Until lately it was mapped as a parking lot which it is not anymore for quite some time.
- Area has open-sky rest area between bus stops and a building where Burger kind etc reside. This area could be considered as a waiting area for passengers albeit without much of the protection of weather elements. It has a flush toilet too now.
Not acceptable:
- Tallinna Bussijaam is defacto a station and no questions here. However this change implies that Balti jaam bus area is on part as Tallinna Bussijaam which may not at all be so.
- For tourists it may get confusing as to what bus station is what. Tourists or any other data user may mistake Balti jaam bus station for long-distance bus stations where buses between countries travel which no such bus does from Balti jaam. Balti jaam buses travel inly within Tallinn and Harjumaa.
- Have amenities for waiting passengers including shops, vending machines and information services and possibly car parking - either short term or long term.
- Area does not have nearby ammenities that are explicitly this bus transit area’s like for example the Tallinna Bussijaam has with its bus ticket vending machine, many inbuilding seating places for waiting bus, cafe, etc. All the ammenities look to be separate entities that just happen to reside very close to bus transit area.
- Have a generally known name (xxx railway station, yyy bus station, zzz airport).
- It does not have such naming. Its just Balti jaam which can mean anything e.g. it may as well mean only the train station excluding the whole bus transport area.
- All the buses that stop there may be considered long-distance buses but long-distance buses have a distinction where they usually do not have bus stops between point A and point B. For example bus between Tallinn and Tartu have bus stops within Tallinn and very few of them but once out of the city limits, barely any bus stops if any at all. Hence these buses are not the long-distance buses.
- Area appears to look like only as many bus stops in which case whole area could be mapped as a public transport platform:
Tag:public_transport=platform - OpenStreetMap Wiki
Under these circumstances I decided to change the area to Bus Station/Public transport station. But as it was already said, the change may not be the best change and area could be improved or further better clarified on what it actually is and what it should be on the map.
Possible alternatives:
- Change to just public transport platform similarly like Estonia bus stop transit area is where there are five bus stops one after the other for various bus routes but the difference is that these routes just pass through from there.
- Update Balti jaam railway station POI to include along with train also the bus as a vehicles tag.
- Plain remove the parking lot that was changed to bus station by me and leave only but stops there and render it as some kind of service area.
Hereby I request your opinion on how to update this area at Balti jaam where all the bus routes start and end that travel outside of Tallinn.