[OSM-newbies] How to map routes

[Germán Buela]

OK guys... I suppose routes were not seriously considered in the
original design and now we have these different approaches. I was
looking for a platform on which we could save bus routes from users
knowledge, solving once and forever the problems of inaccurate or
outdated guides and websites that are painful to use (that's the case
of my hometown which has a complex bus network). A mashup with OSM
sounds like a good idea. But I find the official approach a bit
disappointing. It feels totally wrong to have to split physical
entities (like streets, roads...) into arbitrary segments to
accomodate for routes, and then we can't make sure the segments keep
the same tags because they're independent entities. Given the current
model, there is an approach that feels to me far more natural for
routes, not mentioned at least in this thread: why not make them a
relation of NODES (usually intersections)? From A to B, B to C, C to
D... no need for overlapping ways, no need to split ways. And it
should be possible for an application to "describe" the route in terms
of ways, because the line A-B most likely goes along one particular
way. Could this work? Am I missing something important?
Sorry to bring this up here, I'm a newbie after all :) and I would
like read what you think about it.
Thanks