Render emergency=ambulance_station

[polarbearing]

Currently discussed on the tagging list. Usage: 8079 (3538 nodes, 4484 ways, 57 rel). https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag%3Aemergency%3Dambulance_station

The emergency key is already used here in emergency=phone.

Related discussion #1160, discussion about emergency=defibrillator #1603.

[jeisenbe]

This is commonly mapped as an area with a closed way, so rendering this would require changing the lua transformations to include emergency=ambulance_station as a polygon tag, and then reload the database on the rendering servers. See #3611, especially https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/3611#issuecomment-480679599

In most cases ambulance stations are not a public feature, but they could be rendered on high zoom level with lower priority, like offices. Perhaps a specific icon is not required.

[Adamant36]

Perhaps a specific icon is not required.

If they can be mapped as both buildings and not buildings maybe it would be good to have an icon so that when they are mapped on buildings the color isn't different then or normal, but you can still tell what it is, or something.

[polarbearing]

I propose to render the area like for fire station, and add an icon. It could be derived from the car icon, with two bobbles for flashlights on top. Icon colour could be amenity-brown like fire station, or health-red.

[dktue]

What do you think of this [1] as an icon inspiration?

[1] https://www.pinclipart.com/maxpin/xRhhJR/

[polarbearing]

We need s'thing that fits 14x14 px

[ppete2]

I support the idea of Rendering. It's a pity that as opposed to fire stations these are not rendered yet. Sometimes in the building of ambulance stations also public first aid courses etc take place, so it's a it's a location of public interest.

The argument in the former thread "rendeing is not nessesary here, because these objects are not common-useful" is not quite logical too, since in OSM also offices, (private) clubs, companies without direct public contacts are rendered within OSM too.

[Adamant36]

The argument in the former thread "rendeing is not nessesary here, because these objects are not common-useful" is not quite logical too, since in OSM also offices, (private) clubs, companies without direct public contacts are rendered within OSM too.

Only with dots though. Not a unique icon. I think I suggested rendering things like this as dots somewhere and it rejected. Although, I can't remember where now or if it actually happened. It might have been for another feature.

[ppete2]

In general I'm with you, that rendering by dots is enough. But that's just the case if the "name"-tag completey describes an object so that every map user without a doubt knows what organisation is at this dot. But in our case, emergency=ambulance_station, sometimes the name is just what village/town/street this ambulance_station is from. And the "operator" tag defines the organisation.

Example: emergency=ambulance_station operator = "British Red Cross" name = "Station Jonestown"

[nc011]

I would prefer to see this rendered in a similar fashion to amenity=fire_station. Perhaps green instead of red. Although it is not somewhere one might ordinarily visit, it is a local landmark that might be used for navigation purposes. Additionally, matching fire_station formatting just seems a sensible choice.

[Adamant36]

I would prefer to see this rendered in a similar fashion to amenity=fire_station. Perhaps green instead of red.

Green is usually reserved for leisure or natural features. Emergency objects are currently in red. Although fire stations are rendered in amenity brown. Maybe that would be an option. I'm not sure if red is good for this myself since it's not something used by the general public for emergency purposes.

[nc011]

I would prefer to see this rendered in a similar fashion to amenity=fire_station. Perhaps green instead of red.

Green is usually reserved for leisure or natural features. Emergency objects are currently in red. Although fire stations are rendered in amenity brown. Maybe that would be an option. I'm not sure if red is good for this myself since it's not something used by the general public for emergency purposes.

Ah - the line rendered around the area of a fire_station looks red to me, but I'll take your word for it!

Fair enough about green - perhaps just a locale thing, but it seemed the colour I'd most associated with the ambulance service.

The other point to note is that fire and ambulance stations are sometimes combined. If this is the case (amenity=fire_station and emergency=ambulance_station), then it is rendered as a fire_station (since ambulance has no rendering). I'm not sure what happens if we then render ambulance_station differently (i.e. which takes presidence).

[jragusa]

In case of emergency, we don't go to an ambulance station but to the doctor, the pharmacy or the hospital so brown is suitable.

[Fizzie41]

Wondering how we're going with this? Over the last couple of days, I've spotted (& corrected!) a couple of Ambulance stations tagged as hospitals, presumably to make them render? With regards to an icon, if the vehicle mentioned above is too complicated, how about the current Medical Centre (healthcare=clinic) "Doctor's bag" but in emergency brown rather than red? Alternatively, would a Maltese Cross work?

[Fizzie41]

In case of emergency, we don't go to an ambulance station but to the doctor, the pharmacy or the hospital so brown is suitable.

Just a point on this, but it's not unknown for the Ambulance station to be the only source of emergency medical care in a town / area, so yes, people do sometimes have to go to the Ambo.

[jeisenbe]

Since the database has been reloaded, most closed ways with an emergency= tag are being imported as polygons, so we could now render this feature, if desired.

The tag has been used extensively: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/?key=emergency&value=ambulance_station#map

But we need someone to design a recognizable icon if it is desireable to render this feature when it is mapped as a node, or we could consider another rendering option for areas.

Please submit a PR if you have a good idea.

[Fizzie41]

But we need someone to design a recognizable icon if it is desireable to render this feature when it is mapped as a node, or we could consider another rendering option for areas.

Earlier today, I've noticed that iD is now rendering Ambulance stations! eg https://www.openstreetmap.org/edit#map=19/-28.09921/153.44320

Could that same icon be used?

(Apologies if sizes don't match, or there are copying issues, but it would appear to be a pretty standard Ambulance icon!)

[HolgerJeromin]

Perhaps we can reuse the taxi icon but in emergency red :-) So the thing on the roof is not a taxi sign but a "Emergency vehicle lighting"

[jeisenbe]

Could that same icon be used?

I suspect we can't use the iD icon, because our icon canvas is only 14 by 14 pixels and that icon is too complex to be legible at small size / low resolution. The smallest I was able to crop that icon is 16 x 16. See the original svg at https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/blob/72a99673a0328ba4f44c58dd110797cc733f7007/svg/fontawesome/fas-ambulance.svg

But it might be possible to make a similar icon which is somewhat simplified: for example, the wheels could be solid and the front window could be more rectangular, and the front bumper could be removed, perhaps?

Perhaps we can reuse the taxi icon but in emergency red

The shape of the amenity=taxi icon is a sedan, it does not look like an ambulance to me.

[Adamant36]

It needs to be in the proper format and probably refined a little, but I think something similar to this would work. It's way hard to show any details at 14x14.

[Fizzie41]

Certainly looks like an emergency vehicle to me! :-)

Thanks

Graeme

On Mon, 7 Sep 2020 at 18:17, Adamant36 notifications@github.com wrote:

It needs to be in the proper format and probably refined a little, but I think something similar to this would work. [image: Example] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/30259065/92364239-a532dc80-f0a7-11ea-91e4-08dd32f64615.png

[kocio-pl]

Some public domain ambulance vector icons in the health color and 14 px width:

1)

[ https://openclipart.org/detail/304155/ambulance-icon ]

2)

[ https://openclipart.org/detail/314219/ambulance-icon-2 ]

3)

[ https://openclipart.org/detail/224900/ambulance-icon ]

I think 1. looks the most promising of them. I think it has the best proportions and readability, but we can for example make signal on the roof bigger, since with such a small icon size it's hardly visible. Also wheels could be made bigger for the same reason.

[Fizzie41]

Either 1 or 3 look good. Just thinking though? Could red possibly be confused with a fire truck (even though fire stations are already rendered as a flame)? How about a simple black outline of a white vehicle as you have there, with solid black tyres, red light on the roof & a red cross against the white side (& yes, I'm aware of the discussion of use of red crosses, but at least in our area, ambulances carry them!). Something like (with apologies for the quality - you can probably tell I'm not an artist!)

[nc011]

@Fizzie41 something like this?

Larger version:

Based off option 1 from @kocio-pl

[Fizzie41]

Yep, exactly what I was suggesting, thanks! (Although you can hardly see the red light on the roof - not much anybody can do about that though, due to size constraints)

[Fizzie41]

Hi, Just wondering if there had been any further progress with this? Thanks

[jeisenbe]

The icon should 1 main color, if possible, and needs to work at 14 pixel size. See https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#map-icon-guidelines

[nc011]

In that case I suggest we just go with option 1 @kocio-pl found: https://openclipart.org/detail/304155/ambulance-icon as an icon and render areas the same as fire stations (amenity brown).

[ppete2]

The same considerations have to be made for Mountain rescue stations emergency=mountain_rescue

[boothym]

Usage is now up to over 10,000. I would suggest going for brown like a fire or police station.

What about the icon already used by iD? Here's how it looks in brown and 14px:

[hungerburg]

It is a work from a US governmental agency, but this symbol gets used in Europe too, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Star_of_life.svg - At 14 pixels I'm afraid, it will make people only wonder about what it stands for. Yet, emergency rescue is as much about cars, as fire brigades are. It is about paramedics.

The iD icon looks too much like an relocation truck, IMO, and it lacks the blue-light. It may be good for patient transport, but not for emergency ambulance.

Update: The Star of Life actually does not look that bad. This here made to get coloured by an external style. Also the jsdotpattern rasterizer gives viable results.