[OSM-newbies] Separating streets that don't join

[Paul Johnson]

Randy wrote:

> By the way JOSM, at least, will be much happier if you change all those 
> street abbreviations (Ln, Dr, etc.) to full words. And delete the 
> tiger:review=no entry on those ways that you have either verified or 
> corrected, to indicate that you have reviewed the TIGER data. That will 
> help prevent your corrections  from being replaced with new TIGER data 
> when newer TIGER data is imported. You wouldn't want to have all that hard 
> work disappear.

Do not abbreviate:  You should also be expanding N, S, E, W, NW, SW, SE,
SW abbreviations in names as well, though JOSM's validator is not yet
being informative about this.  Worst local offender in my part of the
world so far seems to be any street named after Martin Luther King,
Junior.  For example, TIGER imported it (wrong) as "NE MLK Jr Blvd." 
Great, but say I grew up under a rock and don't know who MLK is.  Is NE
part of the name or just a navigational quadrant of the city?

This doesn't solve the fact that the city itself seems to alternate
between using 6-8ft long directional boards to fit the whole name
proper, or standard two foot ones using purely initials, though (and
makes me wonder why Portland keeps changing that street's name every 15
to 20 years...TIGER also tried naming portions of it "Railroad Avenue,"
and "Union Avenue," after it's original name owing to the fact the
railways ran on it originally, and later Union Avenue after the labor
movement (which made me wonder if Portland hates labor since no other
street took the Union Avenue name).