[OSM-newbies] service:alley or highway:residential?

[Simon Ward]

On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 10:38:06PM -0600, James Ewen wrote:
> http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.541206,-113.315593&spn=0.000875,0.002414&t=h&z=19
> 
> Here's a roadway with 3 lanes in each direction, with a physical
> divider that accesses residential areas, as well as going around and
> through them. This fits the use criteria, but I would and have tagged
> it as a secondary road. Lower level roads that feed into the
> residential neighborhoods are tagged as tertiary, and then the lowest
> level roads are tagged as residential.

That actually looks like a classified road, even though it may not be.
We tag what’s on the ground, so I would probably tag it the same.  It’s
fine to have a primary road (for example) with houses abutting, and it
happens a lot in the UK.

I’m not going to argue over different tagging schemes as so many seem
wont to do, but I will point out where your assumptions about tags might
be wrong.  My original suggestion (highway=residential, but not
necessarily access=private) works for similar areas in the UK:  “show”
housing estates can be somewhat similar, as well as gated communities.
Obviously, I haven’t been to the estates you give as examples, so I’m
not the best person to decide how they should be tagged.

A problem is, there is an overlap between residential and service in
language:  (disregarding any specific tagging) a residential road is a
type of service road, servicing residential areas.

In tagging, highway=residential got there before highway=service,
service=*, and is what many people use to describe, well, residential
roads.  If maps of residential estates (an example) don’t show your
highway=service, and you think they should, you might want to tag the
same way everyone else does.  You can always add lanes=*, width=*, etc.

> I'm going to continue to tag roads according to their physical
> attributes AND use, creating a useful map that portrays the roadways
> in a manner that will allow others to visualize the area that they are
> viewing

If I had a scheme for tagging administrative, purpose, and physical
attributes separately rather than bunging them all into these highway
classifications, and could somehow convince everyone to move over to it,
I would much prefer that.  That is more useful data than the misuse, or
rather varying use, of kitchen sink tags.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
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