Hi,
reading the English page for tag highway
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway and comparing it to the
German version, I found some inconsistencies. Whilst I generally would
have tried to transfer the English content to the German page, in this
particular case I think that the German version is better.
The main definition in English is:
The '''highway tag''' is the primary tag used for highways. It is
often the only tag. It is a very general and sometimes vague
''description of the physical structure of the highway''.
This goes back to an edit from 27th Oct. 2007 (Etric Celine). Until
then (from March 06) there was just this: "Applying to feature type:
Physical ".
The German version defines:
"Das highway Tag ist das Haupt-tag für Straßen. Oftmals ist es auch
das einzige Tag. Es ist recht allgemein und bestimmt in etwa die
Verkehrsbedeutung der Straße. "
(translates ~ "The tag highway is the primary tag for highways. Often
it is the only one. It is quite general and defines ~ the importance
of the road for the traffic"
There are then 2 examples to show the advantage of a physical
classification in respect to an administrative one (on the English
page, dating back to the same edit):
"Here are two examples where the highway tag differs from the legal status:
Some roads in the UK that were legally classified as trunk roads
have been "detrunked" and are no longer designated by the government
as trunk roads. These roads should still have the tag highway=trunk.
/* This first example is valid for a classification according to the
importance as well, while the 2nd would result in different tagging:
*/
A road which is legally designated as trunk road has a section
where the road is not built to trunk standards, e.g. a single lane
with passing areas. The section that is not built to trunk standards
should be given a different value for highway other than trunk.
_____
If the highway-tag was the only tag on a road, I would agree with this
approach, but as we are meanwhile tagging physical attributes as
supplementory tags (e.g. lanes, surface, traffic-lights), as we do for
administrative classification (ref), I am in favour of changing the
definition for highway (no longer mainly physical but mainly according
to importance / logical position in the grid). The other properties
and attributes will still persist (ref, lanes, dual-carriageways,
surface, tracktype, ...) and describe the situation. Also there won't
be many changes / tagging-modifications necessary, because bigger
roads are generally more important roads.
What do you think about this?
cheers,
Martin
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