Tod Fitch wrote on 2014-09-21 18:05:
On the second point, looking on printed maps of many vintages and at several routing engines,
> I see a distinction between "paved" and "unpaved". But not, with the exception of maps for a > pretty specialized small group of people like highway engineers, between various paving types. > So I think the biggest use of the "surface=*" tag is to determine "paved=yes/no". Giving a > multivalued field to data consumers that need a boolean value requires a translation of some sort.
As others already pointed out, the definition of 'paved' depends on the use. And OSM gives us the chance, contrary to vintage printed maps, to customise maps to specialised users, even if that group might be very small. To cite the gravel road again, while the truck driver is happy that she does not sink in the mud, and consider this as a kind of paving, the cyclist will avoid it if somehow possible. Thus the detailed list of surface is fine, and the router can decide based on the user profile what to use and to avoid, i.e. what this particular usage considers paving. And the list is easy enough for a novice to understand, better than letting him make the decision what paving means. _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
