<html><body>OK, I'm interested in what you say about lanes= John (and the rest too!)<br /><br />I use lanes=1 to indicate that a road is generally only wide enough for one car, if one approaches traveling in the other direction, both need to slow a little and pull of to the side. Similarly for overtaking. Thats actually a pretty important factoid, lots of caravaners for example would studiously avoid such a road.<br /><br />I agree lanes=2 is almost certainly unnecessary. Think the wiki already says so.<br /><br />So, I suggest, your comment does raise the question of just how narrow a road needs to be before it gets called lanes=1 ? Most drivers on a dirt road with good visibility tend to sit close to the middle and drift off to the left when some one approaches. Thats one end of the scale. At the other, you are continuously (and nervously) looking for somewhere to pull in case there is oncoming traffic. (anyone been down Bull Track in the high country ?) I tend to think that somewhere in the middle (so to speak) is right, if you expect to need to slow down substantially to allow another car to pass, that is lanes=1.<br /><br />Sadly there is quite a lot of roads that fit that description.<br /><br />Agree with your other comments, especially about the Hume !<br /><br />David<br /><br /><blockquote><br />----- Original Message -----<br /><div style="width:100%;background:rgb(228,228,228);"><div style="font-weight:bold;">From:</div> "John Henderson" <snowgum@gmx.com></div><br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">To:</div><talk-au@openstreetmap.org><br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">Cc:</div><br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</div>Sun, 21 Oct 2012 13:11:07 +1100<br /><div style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</div>Re: [talk-au] dirt roads<br /><br /><br />
On 21/10/12 12:03, dbannon@internode.on.net wrote:<br /><br />
> lanes=[1; 2]<br /><br />
I thing the "lanes" tag is best not used, unless there's more than two<br />
marked lanes on a two-way road, or more than one lane on a one-way road.<br /><br />
This is the recommendation in the Australian tagging guidelines:<br />
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Australian_Roads_Tagging#Number_of_lanes<br /><br />
I have two reasons for arguing this.<br /><br />
Firstly, it's something else that would need checking when doing OSM<br />
maintenance (and quite unnecessarily). And it's something else to get<br />
wrong if it's used routinely. It's easier for everybody if its used is<br />
reserved for the special cases.<br /><br />
Secondly, as an active mapper, I often download the whole of Australia<br />
every week for use as route-proving on my Garmin GPSs. If every road in<br />
Australia had a lanes tag, that'd be a lot more data to download.<br /><br />
> Similarly, even on the east coast, its not unusual to see dirt roads<br />
> defined as 'tertiary' or even 'secondary'.<br /><br />
I think a lot of roads get "pumped up" to be more important than they<br />
are. The great majority of country roads should be "unclassified".<br />
It's hard to make a judgement as to when a different tag should apply.<br />
Is it a main connecting road between towns with a Post Office? How many<br />
cars per hour travel it?<br /><br />
Another example is the tagging of the Hume Highway as a motorway. Most<br />
of it isn't. The Hume Freeway in Victoria is, but most of the NSW<br />
section has normal side-road junctions, and is certainly not a motorway.<br />
By tagging it as a motorway, we've destroyed this useful distinction.<br /><br />
John<br /><br /><br />
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