OpenStreetMap
Is it better to tag the complete fuel station area as amenity=fuel or is it better to tag only the roof with building=roof along with amenity=fuel.
Also, will it create any data duplication if I use amenity=fuel tag to the service road after adding the same tag to the area around fuel station?
Discussion
Comment from n76 on 12 September 2020 at 17:51
Look at how other fuel stations in your area are tagged, there may be a local convention.
What I usually do is tag the building=roof only. There is usually another building on the same site that may have a repair station, restaurant or convenience store which I tag separately. If the fueling area and repair/restaurant/store share an address then I put a landuse=retail around the whole area and put the address on that.
I have never tagged amenity=fuel on any road and I’ve never seen it done that way. But conventions do vary somewhat depending on where in the world you are, so maybe it is done elsewhere.
Again, look at other fuel stations in your area and see if there is a local convention. Or check out the talk email list for your country. it looks like there is one for India: https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-in
Comment from MichaelRaj on 13 September 2020 at 08:05
Hi, Thank you so much for your valuable inputs and guidance.
I checked few other mapped fuel stations here and found most of the fuel stations here were tagged only with single address point. Also most of the fuel stations in our country would be fully owned and operated by the gas companies which provides fuel and other free services ( Compressed Air or Nitrogen Refilling, Purified Water and Toilets). I believe covering the area with fuel station tag and describing toilets, water doctor and Compressed Air Dispenser with point tag separately inside the area would better define it.
Also thanks for letting me know about India talk-in mailing list. I am subscribed for it now :)
Comment from skquinn on 13 September 2020 at 22:30
I tag the roof as amenity=fuel and then tag the building with shop=convenience (or whatever fits). I really try to avoid giving a single address to the landuse area, instead giving addresses to the buildings. There is at least one case where someone gave an address to a landuse area stretching across multiple streets not terribly far from me, and I don’t know enough about the college/university in question to know where that address should actually go.
I have cleaned up quite a few mis-mapped fuel stations where amenity=fuel was mapped as a node where the convenience store would be. This is clearly wrong by just about any standard.
Comment from DarkDays on 19 September 2020 at 09:54
@skquinn how does that work with one feature, one element? Here in the UK they are usually one establishment, they may have different opening hours, but still typically one establishment in reality.
Comment from skquinn on 19 September 2020 at 10:07
I’d say they are in fact different features even if they are the same establishment. With pay at the pump, it’s possible to refuel without ever setting foot inside the c-store.
Different opening hours has been enough for me to split off the amenity=pharmacy part of a Walgreens or CVS into a separate node from the shop=chemist. It’s not an optimal solution to me but it’s the best alternative I have so far.
Comment from DarkDays on 19 September 2020 at 13:50
On the pharmacy example, in the UK typically have one node for small pharmacies like Boots or Superdrug, which would be
amenity=pharmacyif it does prescriptions, andshop=chemistif not. And then larger supermarkets that have a separate pharmacy kiosk inside are mapped separately. When I stared typing this I thought opening_hours:pharmacy had more traction, so I don’t know.It’s an interesting problem, “shop in a shop” isn’t really that well expressed in OSM. Like this, it’s not uncommon for defibs or post poxes being inside another shop, but there isn’t really a way to say something is only available when another is open. I guess the current solution is to duplicate
opening_hours, but then it quickly falls out of sync.Comment from n76 on 19 September 2020 at 16:59
I guess I am driven by the OSM QA tools that complain if multiple objects have the same street address.
In my area the most common configuration is a filling area (with a canopy
building=roof,layer=1) and a convenience store (building=retail,shop=convenience). But both share the same street address as shown on purchase receipts and signage.If I put the same address on both buildings I will get nagged by the QA tools about duplicate addresses.
Which is the reason I put a
landuse=retailand address around the area. If there is an existing land use, then I will carve my new one out of the old one: No overlapping land use, and my new land use only covers the area for which the address is valid.