geocoding for intersecting streets

[shay-geo]

Hello ,


We were trying to set up a geocoder for intersecting streets.

We took the intersecting points from street file, which has the information to set up geocoder. Then we dissolved all points to get 2 points per intersection. We then combined street names like "COUCHMAN AVE & POPPY ST" into addressCombined (new field) to bring all intersecting street field to search upon?


Questions are -
1. Is this a right way to set up geocode service for intersections?
2. Can point file work to set up geocode for intersections and what Locator Style, i will have to use?
3. Can geocode for intersection work just on input as "COUCHMAN & POPPY" or it needs Zipcode or City also?


Thanks and Regards,
Shay ~

[AmySmith3]

You would need to decide on a naming convention; that is really important since point based locators are typically not very forgiving.

Wow! Thanks, Joe, this has been immensely helpful. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to respond to my questions on this forum.

My concern about the point you made above is that, because point based locators aren't as forgiving as other types of locators, many of the intersections in my table may not be matched. For example, if I have a point called "US Highway 1 & Orange Ave", and my table has an entry such as "hwy 1 & orange av", would a match be made, or does the table entry need to match the point name exactly?

Amy

[JoeBorgione]

Regardless of locator type, it's always a good idea for naming conventions when you do a lot of geocoding.  I work at two 9-1-1 call centers and I've made it my life's work to enforce conventions.  I don't know how you are getting your address lists or who creates them, but your life will become increasingly easier and much less frustrating if you come up with some kind of convention.  In my world it's AVE, not AV, not Avenue;  It's HWY 1, not US 1 or US HWY 1; its S not So or South.  You get the idea

It'll take some time and trust me who ever you are working with is going to whine and complain.  Make up a few of your more popular sites; see how forgiving you can get the locator by adjusting the spelling sensitivty before you start getting false hits...

[AmySmith3]

Regardless of locator type, it's always a good idea for naming conventions when you do a lot of geocoding.

Fantastic advice! Much of the data I work with are from publicly accessible tables downloaded as text files from organizations' websites. They often requires a decent amount of cleanup. Luckily, it seems like there are some good techniques that can be used to impose conventions after-the-fact, such as the "Standardize Addresses" tool, or simply writing scripts to clean up text files.

By the way, at the moment I'm 85% through a geocode of 20,000+ records with a current unmatched rate of 4%. 😉

Take care,

Amy