[OSM-newbies] highway=traffic_signals

[Richard Weait]

On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 3:14 PM, Dave F. <davefox at madasafish.com> wrote:
> Right, OK, let me clarify my understanding of traffic lights. The nodes
> I place represent not only the actual lights but also where the vehicles
> are meant to halt. I see it as a type of barrier.
> That pole is a combination of two lights for traffic travelling
> different directions who's halts are positioned at the nodes.
> Similar to the one in the middle of the pedestrian crossing.

Dave, I suspect that you and I will continue to disagree on the matter
of highway=traffic_signal.

I'm not sure I understand your argument above.  Surely if you want to
indicate where vehicles are to halt, that should be on the way?  In my
experience, the place to halt is different from the location of the
signal controlling the intersection.  If you are tagging beside the
way, are you marking the location of the supporting pole?  If the pole
supports more than one traffic_signal[1], do you tag one or more?

I don't support your method of tagging highway=traffic_signal, and I
don't recommend it for newcomers to OSM.  At a minimum, what you are
doing is more complicated than the widely accepted practice of tagging
the intersecting node that is controlled by the traffic signal.

I do support your right to engage in this bit of micro-mapping.  If
you must continue this, please also include highway=traffic_signals on
the intersecting node.  Failing to do so will break the tools that
expect the much-more-common intersecting node use.  See also the
area-micro-mapping example that includes traditional vector mapping,
to support existing tools.

To attempt to innovate at the expense of the accepted model seems
ill-considered.  And please consider working to advance the practice
of micro mapping, by improving an existing proposal for junction, or
intersection relations or something similar[2].  The best complex
innovations in OSM are created deliberately, and by considering many
contexts. [3]

[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/30249912@N00/351789829/
[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Relation:type%3Dtraffic_control
[3] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/House_numbers/Karlsruhe_Schema