[josm-dev] Validator

[Dermot McNally]

2008/8/20 Dirk Stöcker <openstreetmap at dstoecker.de>:

> Is this different in your area?

In a word, "yes" :)

Map Features doesn't suggest this tagging scheme, and, while I can see
why people might do it, it makes little sense based on my local
mapping practice (caveat: I'm the first person to have mapped rivers
in Ireland, so I set the precedent). To me, rivers aren't below roads,
roads are above the streets. I reserve a layer attribute for an actual
crossing - that is, the bridge gains a layer attribute and is
conceptually rising above the road around it, which has none. You can
argue that only hump-back bridges are well-modelled by this method,
but remember that we're trying to capture the ordering of the layering
of overlapping elements here, not actual elevations (or we'd need a
lot more layers than we have).

It's probably appropriate that we hear from others on this, but if
there's sufficient consensus that waterways should be deemed to have a
layer, we should try to get acceptance of the principle that they
should carry an implicit one of -1 _or_ that Map Features should
promote the "German Way". But IMHO that's getting us into a world of
tag-spam. If all waterways require it, it shouldn't require an
explicit tag to say so.

Dermot

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