Proposed import of City of Toronto Parks and Recreation Washroom Facilities

Communities Canada
,
1

Toronto Public Washroom Import

Hello Canada, we are proposing to import the Toronto Park Washroom Facilities dataset, sourced from City of Toronto Open Data.

Documentation

This is the wiki page for our import: Import/Toronto Public Washroom Import

This is the source dataset’s website:

https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/washroom-facilities/

Transformation scripts, files to be imported for each changeset, and some example .osm files following the process outlined on our proposal import wiki page can be found at our GitHub repository here: GitHub - tallcoleman/toronto-osm-washroom-import: Analysis and prep files for importing City of Toronto washrooms into OpenStreetMap

License

We have checked that this data is compatible with the ODbL.

This data is distributed under the Open Government License - Toronto, which has been previously approved by the DWG (see: osmfoundation.org - OGL Canada and local variants)

Abstract

The goal of this project is to import the locations and details of public washrooms in Toronto, Ontario, Canada using open data provided by the City of Toronto.

Park Washroom Facilities includes the location and key details of 418 City-run public washrooms in parks and community centres. This dataset will be imported in this project.

We expect to import just under 300 data points after filtering for quality, type, and status. Of these, around 100 will be conflated with existing washroom locations and around 200 will be locations that were previously un-mapped. These will be broken up into 25 changesets based on City of Toronto ward.

In addition to the 300 data points in the main import sets, there are also approximately 25 washroom locations with service alerts that will be manually reviewed and added or conflated if appropriate. (Service alerts range from total closure of the washroom for one gender to a single broken stall or sink.)

The import will be a two-part process:

  • Transformation of the source data into OSM tags, using the script in our GitHub repository

  • Manual conflation, review, and import using JOSM and following the protocol we have outlined on our import proposal wiki page. This process is designed to retain the geometry, edit history, and original tags (where relevant) for City washrooms that have already been mapped.

More information about the tag transformation logic and the instructions for JOSM conflation can be found on our import proposal wiki page.

If you have any questions or suggestions to improve the import plan, please let us know!

4 Likes
2

Hello,

Thank you for making this proposal and setting up the code and the wiki page!

As a user of Toronto parks and washrooms, this looks generally good to me. I trust that care will be taken to use existing nodes/ways where they are mapped.

Minor note: asset ID 58062 (Jack Layton ferry terminal washroom) has description stating “accessed after ferry ticket purchase”, so access tag should probably be access=customers rather than access=yes? This is probably an exception since generally City-operated washrooms are not behind ticket lines.

My main thoughts are about the seasonal opening hours, in particular the winter closures.

It is unfortunate that source data doesn’t have information on which washrooms are open in the winter. This would be great to have directly from the City. I see the note in wiki page to check again in November, and I have my fingers crossed!

As I understand it, most outdoor washrooms are to be tagged with opening_hours=May-Oct 09:00-22:00 and note=Please survey to determine: is this washroom open in the winter? If yes, opening_hours are likely May-Oct Mo-Su 09:00-22:00; Nov-Apr Mo-Su 09:00-20:00

  • The suggested opening_hours include Mo-Su which I believe is not necessary
  • I am uncertain about using note for the request to check for seasonal opening: 1. This is really a fixme, not a note. 2. But using fixme is also not ideal since I feel personally it’s a bit rude to add 300 fixmes in the city unless you then organize a project to survey all/most of these in person. Others might think it’s OK and if so, I’ll defer
  • I would include a suggestion to explicitly tag that the bathrooms are closed in the winter if that’s the case: Nov-Apr off. That way we can distinguish between washrooms that were not yet surveyed, and washrooms that are in fact closed in the winter (even if the note tag is removed without checking, or accidentally left in after checking)
  • Perhaps we could get away with not including the note/fixme at all? The fact that it might be closed in the winter is evident in the opening_hours being only May-Oct, and then if it is surveyed, the winter opening hours can be added.

Thanks again!

3

Thanks for your thoughtful review! Please see responses below:

I trust that care will be taken to use existing nodes/ways where they are mapped.

Yes - I’ve updated the instructions to make this clearer; it’s also aligned with the settings specified for the JOSM conflation plugin where the “Replace Geometry” setting is disabled.

asset ID 58062 (Jack Layton ferry terminal washroom) has description stating “accessed after ferry ticket purchase”, so access tag should probably be access=customers rather than access=yes?

Good catch - I’ve added this to the script as an exception and documented it on the import proposal.

It is unfortunate that source data doesn’t have information on which washrooms are open in the winter. This would be great to have directly from the City. I see the note in wiki page to check again in November, and I have my fingers crossed!

Me too! The GottaGoTO project has a layer indicating washrooms open in the winter from November 2021, so I have some reasonable hope that the City just updates the data along with the seasonal changes.

The suggested opening_hours include Mo-Su which I believe is not necessary

Good suggestion, have removed this after double-checking the validator results with the simplified syntax.

I am uncertain about using note for the request to check for seasonal opening: 1. This is really a fixme, not a note. 2. But using fixme is also not ideal since I feel personally it’s a bit rude to add 300 fixmes in the city unless you then organize a project to survey all/most of these in person. Others might think it’s OK and if so, I’ll defer

I decided against using a fixme per the documentation stating “This is not a tag…for any automated edits”, whereas the note documentation specifies that “hints for further improvement” are an intended use.

I would include a suggestion to explicitly tag that the bathrooms are closed in the winter if that’s the case: Nov-Apr off.

Good suggestion, have added to the script.

Perhaps we could get away with not including the note/fixme at all? The fact that it might be closed in the winter is evident in the opening_hours being only May-Oct, and then if it is surveyed, the winter opening hours can be added.

I do like the simplicity of this idea… the one benefit of the “note” approach is that it makes it easier to know the right syntax to use. I’m not sure any of the main mobile apps have a UI that would allow you to easily enter seasonal hours.

Thanks again Jarek! If you think of any other improvements or things we should look into, let me know.

1 Like
4

@tallcoleman, it was thoughtful of you to start this project! I thank you for all the work you do for the map.

After you’re done the washrooms project, I wonder if you might please consider importing the parks water fountain data too? There’s a downloadable GeoJSON dataset, which is updated upstream once per day.

(If you reply, feel free to reply either below or in a new thread.)

5

@unforgettableid I’ll consider it, or even better if someone wants to give it a try, I’d be happy to help them. The tagging and geometry for water fountains appears to be much simpler than for washrooms, so that’s promising.

6

Update: the import is now complete (although I’ll plan to check back in again in November to see if the City data is updated with winter hours as described on the Import Proposal plan).

Big thanks to RockTeam for helping with the changesets!

1 Like
7

Have you considered importing or at least validating park shapes/names? Toronto has a nice map with close enough borders and names, and OSM is very behind – many parks are unnamed, conflated, has incorrect borders.

8

Maybe one day… I’ve never mapped land use, so I’d have to get more familiar with it. Good to know it’s an issue worth looking into though.

1 Like