[OSM-newbies] Small streams under minor tarmac roads

[Paul Johnson]

James Ewen wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 5:34 AM, Kjeldgaard Morten <mok at bioxray.dk> wrote:
>
>> You might disagree, but you are also wrong. OSM is a database, not a
>> map. It is very important to get features tagged correctly from the
>> start. If you don't do it from the beginning, someone else will have
>> to come back, notice the error and correct what you've done. That's a
>> complete waste of your time, so why participate in the OSM at all?
>
> In this vein then, why are we tagging the roads incorrectly in North
> America? In Canada we do not have a "Motorway" designation, yet there
> are many thousands of miles of "Freeway", or "Limited Access Highway"
> tagged incorrectly. There's no tag for business frontage roads, those
> are mostly tagged as service, but service also is what we have to use
> for alleys, a totally different type and class of roadway.

Cultural equivalence, though a frontage road should be tertiary as long
as it's got at least a painted centerline...

> If we get to the point where anyone adding data to the OSM database
> has to become an expert at every feature before they can tag it, then
> we will lose most of our support.

That's where tagging tools like potlatch and JOSM's presets come in. 
God knows most of us don't punch every last tag in by hand.