West Virginia

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Not to be confused with Virginia.
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West Virginia, United States, North America
Wikidata

latitude: 38.5, longitude: -80.5
Browse map of West Virginia 38°30′00.00″ N, 80°30′00.00″ W
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West Virginia
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West Virginia is a state in United States, North America at latitude 38°30′00.00″ North, longitude 80°30′00.00″ West.

Getting started

Publicly available resources useful for mapping in West Virginia:

For help with mapping in West Virginia, check out #local-west-virginia in the OSMUS Slack.

Current projects

Road tagging guidelines

See also: United States roads tagging and United States roads tagging/Routes § West Virginia

Interstate Highways

I-79 (WV).svg
Main article: Interstate Highway relations

Interstate highways should be tagged as highway=motorway and ref=I num (without a hyphen), and their route relations with network=US:I. Interstate ramps onto or from a motorway should be tagged as highway=motorway_link; destination=* tags should be added according to signage.

US Highways

US 50.svg
Main article: United States roads tagging § U.S. Highways

Most US highways in West Virginia will be tagged highway=primary, though this is not a hard and fast rule; some non-motorway divided highways (such as US 50 between Parkersburg and Clarksburg) are more appropriately tagged as highway=trunk. Controlled-access highways occasionally exist near (relatively) major cities, and should be tagged in the same fashion as an Interstate Highway. Tag all US highways as ref=US num, and their route relations with network=US:US.

State Routes

WV-20.svg

Most state highways in West Virginia can be either tagged highway=primary or highway=secondary, depending on the usage; occasional exceptions do exist, such as highway=trunk. Tag all state routes with ref=WV num, and their route relations with network=US:WV.

Do note that the WV Department of Transportation uses the term “trunk” in a different way than OSM does[1]. For example, WV 5 between Glenville and I-79 is considered a trunk road by the WVDOT, but would only be considered highway=primary by OSM standards as it is (relatively) low-volume.

County Routes

Circle sign 220-7.svg

Most county highways—technically secondary state highways as they are managed by the WVDOT[2]—are most often tagged as highway=unclassified, highway=residential, or highway=tertiary. Tag all county routes with either ref=CR num for “whole number” routes, or ref=CR numerator/denominator for “fractional” (spur) routes (e.g. ref=CR 220/7 for the sign displayed on the right); tag their route relations with network=US:WV:County[note 1] and is_in:county=CountyName, where CountyName is, e.g., “Gilmer” or “Harrison”.

Do NOT tag county highways as highway=track; instead, use highway=residential or highway=unclassified, and some combination of surface=*, smoothness=* and/or tracktype=*.

Beware that TIGER can be notoriously inaccurate for county routes, especially small spur roads. Real-world examples[note 2] of such inexactitude include (but are assuredly not limited to): a ten-meter driveway being displayed as “State Route 47” on the latest TIGER overlay; ref=CR 7/3 being erroneously tagged name=County Route 73 in the original TIGER import; and three roads with identical names intersecting each other in the 2016 shapefiles.

Home Access Road Program (HARP)

WV HARP 908.svg

HARP roads are almost always highway=residential. Tag all HARP roads with either ref=HARP num for “whole number” routes, or ref=HARP numerator/denominator for “fractional” routes, similar to the county route scheme; tag their route relations with network=US:WV:HARP and is_in:county=*.

Delta Roads

Delta road 71 shield.svg

Delta roads are entirely defunct[3] despite the rare sightings of remaining signage. Do not tag delta roads in ref=*; instead, use old_ref=*.

Park and forest routes

WV PFR 803 mockup.svg
Main article: United States roads tagging § Tagging Forest Roads

Roads in nature reserves (i.e. parks) can generally be tagged as highway=unclassified or highway=path; use discretion as appropriate. National Forest Roads will use either ref=NF num for primary forest routes, or ref=FR num for secondary forest routes[4]. State Park and Forest roads (depicted right, though generally unsigned on-the-ground) are notated as ref=PFR num[5].

Officially labelled trails, meanwhile, are to be tagged as ref=TR num[4].

Other mapping information

Please follow OSM Good practices, especially by avoiding using wrong tags to “improve” rendering.

Orthoimagery

Imagery layer comparison as of April 2023
Imagery layer Coverage Resolution Age in years Alignment Tree leaves
Bing aerial imagery Statewide 11.5-23 cm/px[note 3] 2–3[note 4] Varies Varies
Esri Statewide 50 cm/px[note 5] 1–8[note 6] Good Varies
Esri Clarity Beta Statewide 30 cm/px[note 7] 12[note 8] Very Good Varies
Mapbox Satellite Charleston, Huntington and surrounding areas 3 cm/px[note 9] 6 Good Off
Outside Charleston and Huntington 1 m/px[note 10] 3–8 Fair Varies
Maxar Premium Statewide 50 cm/px[note 11] 1–8 Fair Varies
MMAGIC 2022 imagery Monongalia County 5 cm/px[note 12] 1 Very Good Off
National Agricultural Imagery Program Statewide 1 m/px[6] 1[note 13] Good On
WVGISTC Best Leaf-off[note 14] Statewide (by county) 5–20 cm/px 2–7 Very Good Off

Note that Mapbox and Esri take the imagery mostly from Maxar.

Deciphering signs

A key for deciphering weight limit signs.

See also

Surrounding states

Notes

  1. ↑ The most common practice prior to 2022 was network=US:WV:CountyName, e.g. network=US:WV:Kanawha.
  2. ↑ As spotted by Sterling.
  3. ↑ Checked from JOSM.
  4. ↑ The age can be found by the metadata on the particular tile. This applies to the metro area as well.
  5. ↑ The Esri map viewer
  6. ↑ The Esri map viewer is useful for checking the age of a given tile.
  7. ↑ Checked from JOSM.
  8. ↑ The Esri Clarity map viewer is useful for checking the age of a given tile.
  9. ↑ Checked from JOSM.
  10. ↑ Checked from JOSM.
  11. ↑ Checked from JOSM.
  12. ↑ Checked from JOSM.
  13. ↑ As of March 28, 2023, 2022 imagery in West Virginia imagery is now available. Also, USDA Geospatial Data Giveaway early this year predicted that sooner or later it will be updated for the state.
  14. ↑ The legality of using Dataset 442 imagery on OpenStreetMap is uncertain, at best[7]; proceed with caution.

References

  1. ↑ West Virginia Code §17-4-1.
  2. ↑ West Virginia Department of Highways. “As a Matter of Fact…”. p. II-1. 
  3. ↑ Turnbull, Andrew. “West Virginia Highway Classifications and Route Markers”. Retrieved 2021-04-27. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Monongahela National Forest GIS Staff (2010). “Dolly Sods Wilderness”. 
  5. ↑ Unnamed desk clerk at Cedar Creek State Park (2020). Personal conversation.
  6. ↑ USGS EROS Archive - Aerial Photography - National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)
  7. ↑ Meng, Christopher. “Add West Virginia high resolution imagery”. Retrieved 2021-05-17. 
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