[OSM-newbies] defining an area with potlatch

[ael]

Cartinus wrote:
> On Saturday 10 May 2008 17:15:16 ael wrote:
>> I have many quite large enclosed parking areas in residential parts in
>> my locality. And also industrial estates with large car parks and yards.
>> There doesn't seem to be any existing tag to handle that although
>> "square" is near. Instead I draw a closed way tagged as a service road.
>>  Then I add the area tag.
> 
> A more common way to map these is to draw a closed way and tag it as 
> amenity=parking. The renderers know that they have to treat this as an area 
> even without the area=yes tag.

Yes I do that for car parks. But the areas that I am talking about are
not car parks in the conventional sense, and certainly not public car
parks.

The residential "squares" are usually paved areas surrounded by housing
and are typically multi-purpose including access. Residents and their
visitors often park in many of them. In the case of the industrial
"yards" these usually have many purposes including access to loading
bays, buildings, sometimes with open air machinery, and quite often
parking. It would be quite inappropriate to mark them as car parks in
the usual sense.

I would get lynched by residents and industrialists if their areas were
marked on the map as if they were public car parks :-) And quite rightly so!

ael