VT Surface Shields
v1.01 28 Jun 2022
In early 2022, Pete (whoaitspete) and I discussed adding surface street turn instructions with shields.
Vermont has a pretty good (and consistent) system whereby signs in advance of an intersection identify control cities and at the intersection signs identify the routes. This has been implemented on a few intersections in VT, as a way to gain editor insight in what needs to be done to properly add these in WME, as well as to see the results whilst navigating.
Let's review one that can be found at the intersection of VT-346 and US-7 in Pownal VT:
As you drive southeast on VT-346 you encounter the control cities sign approximately 450 feet from the intersection:
Details of the cities sign:
Route signs are located at the intersection, or in this case, slightly before the intersection:
By highlighting the last segment of VT-346 that connects to US-7 we see the turns with the little icons as noted by the red arrows (which indicate something has previously been added here).
Hover over one of the arrows, then move the cursor up to Instructions, and click: Edit Instructions:
Here is what both of the turn instructions look like, for US-7 North and US-7 South:
Using the information we gathered from the control cities signs and the shields that followed:
- For visual instructions, entered the shield for US-7 followed by the ordinal direction remembering to use the right case - the script makes that easy
- In the Toward box we add the info from the control cities signs There were two to the north, so we separated them with a /
The turns on North and South US-7 were accomplished in the same way - use street view to locate the signs with the cities.
In some places there will be five or six of those VT control cities signs - editors will have to use best judgement to choose one or two that would make sense to the Wazer going that direction.
Long term goal would be to get a database of the locations of all the control cities signs (and possibly what's on them and the coordinates of where they are). That would make the process of working through adding these for the majority of highway intersections in the state fairly easy.