I am looking for some local knowledge as we have had a complaint about a corporate mapper, Saucon Technologies | OpenStreetMap who are making a large number of changes to speed limits based on a customer says so.
This is a sock-puppet account, they were previously blocked for the same type of changes, not following organised editing guideline and not responding to changeset comments ( Blocks on Saucon Support | OpenStreetMap ) and rather than discuss these issues with us they have chosen to create a new account.
Before I revert their changes, does anything look sensible to the local community?
Hi Phil, thank you for investigating this. I reviewed a change on a local road to me, the DC Beltway (I-495). The beltway has a posted speed limit of 55 as do all expressway/motorway beltways in Maryland.
This changeset is wrong. Maryland maintains an open dataset of speed limit signs. (Full disclosure: I work as a GIS consultant for the Maryland State Highway Administration.) Users can use this to infer speed limits. Maryland does not publish line data representing speed limits.
What is more alarming is that I blocked another user’s edits and reverted most of them which followed a very similar pattern earlier this year. It is baffling to me why anyone would want to artifically raise speed limits in OSM. I wonder if their intentions are nefarious.
I know that some insurance companies grant discounts for monitoring and evaluating your driving. You get benefits for not hitting speed limits. They usually use OSM data. So raising the speed limit enables you to speed a little in your area, without getting in conflict with your insurance.
This might be a reason.
Elliott, quick question on that one for you, as a local. They attached an article saying that the express lanes default to 65mph, but that overhead signs can change the speed limit. Is this part of the potential conflict? Are the express lanes integrated into the same way (i.e. not physically separated) as non-express lanes, but they have different speed limits? I’m wondering if there’s a data model issue here and they’re updating to a valid value (for that changeset at least), but OSM isn’t set to capture multiple speed limits along a single way?
Just a thought from looking at it. Would love your take on that.
EDIT: Answered my own question. Their link is for the Virginia portions of the highways, so if they’re making those changes in Maryland, then it doesn’t apply. You can ignore my comment, but leaving it here. It does seem like there’s potential it’s an honest mistake in this case, but I don’t know their history.
A quick update on the Maryland side, I asked the local maintenance district if any part of I-495 has been changed to 65 MPH. The state went out to look and did not observe any 65 MPH signs along the entire Maryland section. One 65 MPH sign was visible on an adjacent way, I-95 here.
Nick, Hi! I saw you figured this out. The express lanes in Virginia do have a higher speed limit, but on the approach to the Md. side they end. Md. is studying a similar “Op-lanes” concept.
Yes, there is maxspeed:lanes for that. maxspeed should have the highest value and companies need to figure out the exact lane on which the vehicle is driving.
I first encountered this account a few years ago when they bungled a speed limit change. From my limited interactions with them, I get the impression that they’re well-meaning but kind of clumsy, and maybe they aren’t circumspect enough about the user feedback they’re responding to. Can we get them some help maybe? Or steer them toward notes?
I spent a shedload of time with the previous account trying to steer them in the right direction; I got the impression that they simply did not understand what they were doing and weren’t able to even hold a basic conversation about it.