[HOT] note to Project Managers: Highway=road

john whelan jwhelan0112 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 24 12:19:18 UTC 2017


>I think the existing advice is correct. highway=road is supposed to mean
"I'm not sure what the classification is".

Some routers ignore it? Yes that is a problem. At best they should rank
it quite low. Outright *ignoring* the road seems like a bug. However
don't tag for the renderer!

Yes, it's a annoying when JOSM etc flag that as a validation problem.
The solution is more mapping.

A possible source of confusion could be the name "unclassified". In the
UK (where OSM started), "unclassified" is a road classification. Saying
"unclassified" doesn't mean the road is unclassified!

To me the problem is the sheer quantity of highways so tagged especially
bridges.  Perhaps a note in the instructions saying the most common tag?
Or since we  are mapping from imagery and the African Highway wiki
specifically says it is not possible to determine a highway's importance
from its appearance ie some quite major highways are little more than
tracks sometimes just give advice to map the highway as whatever and let
someone else sort out its importance?  But at least choosing a default such
as unclassified that will route with all routers.  I am aware that many
routers will allow you to adjust which highways they will run on.

Cheerio John

On 24 February 2017 at 04:11, Rory McCann <rory at technomancy.org> wrote:

> On 22/02/17 23:42, john whelan wrote:
> > Currently there are HOT projects that include in the instructions the
> words
> >
> > "If you are unsure of what tag to assign to a road, use the provisional
> > highway=road tag."
> >
> > Yes but many routing systems ignore this these.  When we mapped with GPS
> > traces we used highway=road because you didn't know if it was a motorway
> > or a footway with steps and that's why many routing systems ignore them
> > and JOSM validation flags them.
> >
> > I would suggest if in doubt use highway=unclassified for instructions.
> >
> > Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?
>
> I think the existing advice is correct. highway=road is supposed to mean
> "I'm not sure what the classification is".
>
> Some routers ignore it? Yes that is a problem. At best they should rank
> it quite low. Outright *ignoring* the road seems like a bug. However
> don't tag for the renderer!
>
> Yes, it's a annoying when JOSM etc flag that as a validation problem.
> The solution is more mapping.
>
> A possible source of confusion could be the name "unclassified". In the
> UK (where OSM started), "unclassified" is a road classification. Saying
> "unclassified" doesn't mean the road is unclassified!
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> HOT mailing list
> HOT at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>
>
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