[OSM-newbies] Flats

[Chris Morley]

Mark Williams wrote:
> Chris Morley wrote:
>> Mark Williams wrote:
>>> I have an interesting layout;
>>>
>>> M
>>> A  FLATS
>>> I-STREET-
>>> N  FLATS |
>>> --STREET-
>>> R  FLATS
>>> O-STREET
>>> A
>>> D
>>>
>>> Where the _flats_ are named but the streets (highway=service, I feel)
>>> are not. In blocks of 3 x 8 flats with parking between road & flats.
>>> Additionally the streets are marked private & the main road is one-way :)
>>>
>>> The entrances are set alternately, so you gain access to 1-8 & 17-24 on
>>> one side of the building, but 9-16 on the other.
>>>
>>> This means that the streets are eg Meresmans on one side, but Waymans on
>>> the other. Sort of like terraced houses, but not. The post office
>>> address these including both names, yielding
>>> number/block/road/village/post-town/county addresses !
>>>
>>> I presume I could just put in a block & name it, or a linear feature,
>>> but it won't work for navigation, or I could name the service roads &
>>> call them residential with left / right tags; what would others do?
>>>
>> I would draw and name the flats as buildings. In your case you could 
>> even reuse the nodes of the main road and service roads. For 
>> free-standing blocks, placement and sizing are difficult without high 
>> resolution arial photography, but a guess (with a note so it can be 
>> corrected when better information is available) is better than nothing.
>>
>> The numbering is beyond what recorded in much of the database and 
>> certainly beyond what is currently rendered and I'm not sure that there 
>> is a consensus on how to record it. However, with the blocks on the map 
>> and even without numbering information, it is much easier to understand 
>> notices like Waymans 9-16 which commonly appear at the junction of the 
>> service roads with the main road.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
> Any ideas on tags that show; map features seems reticent!
> It is within Yahoo coverage so I can do this.
> 
> Obviously name=xxx, but I can't see a building tag other than
> landuse=residential, which is fairly useless as this is within a large
> area of the same... I suppose I could just tuck that past them, &
> interleave with parking, but it feels weak. Military=barracks is tempting ;]
> 

building = apartments or building = residential would work, since 
building with any value seems to be rendered in both t at h and Mapnik. It 
doesn't seem to have made it through to Map Features yet, see
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Proposed_features/Building
because there wasn't a consensus on the (less important) detail.