Sometimes it's physical, sometimes administrative. Generally it's administrative where that is clearly defined (ie the higher road classes in developed countries), and more physical when it isn't.
So saying either is correct wouldn't be entirely true. Richard On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 7:16 PM, Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdre...@gmail.com > wrote: > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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