[Xastir] A rant on the shapefiles...

[Gerry Creager]

Curt did such a nice job of summarizing what I could have said in 10k 
words....  gerry

Curt, WE7U wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Richard Polivka, N6NKO wrote:
> 
>> I am wondering who participated in getting these maps made? Was it state,
>> county, feds?
> 
> Blame the census takers.  Feds.  Federalies.  Men in black?
> 
> For the purpose of taking the every-10-year federal census they've
> kept track of roads.  Unfortunately the census-takers haven't had
> any cartography training (hey, it's really not their job, right?).
> The maps were not intended to be used for the purposes people put
> them to.  That philosophy is changing a bit lately and they're
> trying to do a better job on the data.  I suspect Gerry or Tom can
> fill us in on the details, but that's my vague recollection.
> 
> Even with that less than stellar cartography start, they're awfully
> nice road maps, and free.  Hard to beat that in most other
> countries!
> 
> Many of the commercial mapping programs start with Tiger data as
> their base and add to/correct it.
> 

-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.862.3982 FAX: 979.862.3983
Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843