[OSM-newbies] Joining two pieces of a way

[Randy]

Steve Bennett wrote:

>>I have determined by inspection that the unnamed road here (Potlatch
>>in edit mode highlights it):
>>
>>
>>http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=37.265624&lon=-121.91252&zoom=18&layers=B000FTF
>>
>>is an extension of Manda Drive, which is already a named way, and
>>which shares an endpoint with the unnamed part. It seems that the
>>proper thing to do is simply join the unnamed part to the named part,
>>but I cannot figure out how to do that. The Potlatch "cheat sheet"
>>says something about "Join/Merge to another line (if they share an end
>>point)" by Shift/click, but nothing particularly useful happens when I
>>do that.
>>
>>
>Try ctrl+clicking. Also, it doesn't matter all that much if they're "one
>way", as long as they're both named correctly. You can just make two ways
>that connect.
>
>Steve

Assuming you know the street on both sides of the divided way is in fact 
the same street name, and the way is properly mapped, then after you do 
the ctrl+click to join them, I would a) make sure it's properly classifie 
(probably so, although I didn't look at the satellite map), and I would 
delete all the tiger: data, which is no longer useful. Mostly, I leave the 
tiger:source line, just as an indication of where the original data came 
from, but in this case, once you join the two, that is only half correct, 
so I'd delete it as well. And, while there are those who disagree, I 
always go by what appears to be the majority opinion, and change the 
abbreviations (Dr, in this case) to full words.

Note that if there are any turn restrictions at the intersection, or 
anything else that might require you to establish a relationship that 
includes the two ways on each side of the divided way, then you will need 
to keep them joined, but not combined. If not, since they are only a few 
blocks long, there's certainly nothing wrong with combining them.

If you use JOSM, which I prefer except for quick fixes, it has a Combine 
Ways Tool command, and it brings up a data box where you can decide which 
values from each data set you use.
-- 
Randy