I wouldn't stop somebody from recording multiple tracks as individual ways
as it does reflect what you see on the ground. In stations and other areas
where there are complicated track layouts it is the right thing to do (and
tracing from Bing is a great resource for this). However, elsewhere I would
argue it adds little value to rendering. At small scales you cannot see the
individual lines. At large scales any failure to get the lines truly
parallel is cruelly exposed. Also bridges and tunnel bores will render
separately for each track which is often not accurate (is there a way to
control this?). So for me, a single way with a tracks=* tag is much better
and the renderer can draw it as a double line (if tracks=2) etc. And for
other applications, I would have thought a single way with tracks=* tag is
easier to handle than working out whether 2 ways are adjacent and within the
same curtilage. Of course, you are left with an untidy join between the
single way representing multiple tracks and multiple ways representing
individual tracks.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Sturdy
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 5:05 PM
To: Talk-GB
Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Stations and platforms=*
Given the level of detail that much mapping is at these days, using a
single way and "tracks=*" seems to me to be somewhat behind the rest
of the mapping --- are there reasons in favour of it, other than it
being quicker to do in initial mapping of an area? I've sometimes
been tempted to convert them to separate ways when they run through
areas I've been mapping, but I've hesitated to do so in case there are
reasons that I haven't thought of, to leave them as they are.
__John
_______________________________________________
Talk-GB mailing list
Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
