Vicroads speed zones
One of the datasets promoted for #infrahack is VicRoads' "Speed Zones Data", available at data.vic.gov.au. It's awesome. Completely comprehensive (every public road in the state, as far as I can see), simple to work with, and in a popular data format (ESRI shapefile).
There are 9 fields, some of which are self-explanatory.
VicRoads, it would be nice if you could include descriptions of these fields in your dataset description. What do they mean exactly? My guesses:
SIGN_SPEED: limit in kph, obvious.
DIRECTION: presumably, whether the limit applies in only one direction?
Def_Zone: ?
Variable: whether the limit changes at different times of day, like school zones?
Var_Code: ?
Seasonal: Whether the limit changes in winter? Or whether the road is closed altogether, like the Dargo High Plains Rd?
Seasonal_F: ?
Seasonal_T: ?
Currency: A non-standard date format representing how recently the data was updated.
I've done a simple visualisation in TileMill of the speed zones in this dataset.
This dataset is of obvious interest to anyone doing traffic modelling, but also maybe liveability (high speed roads are unpleasant), cycling/pedestrian safety, satellite navigation apps, or trip planning.