[OSM-newbies] Adding a cul-de-sac to an existing street

[Richard Weait]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 10:10 PM, John F. Eldredge <john at jfeldredge.com> wrote:
> On 08/19/2010 08:23 PM, Steve Bennett wrote:
>> On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
>>
>>> OSM expects a 'way' to be either a line, or a simple, closed polygon.
>>> Self-crossings, bifurcations and self-intersections other than a
>>> simple closed polygon are errors.
[ ... ]
> When I mapped the Mill Creek Greenway (see
> <http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=36.0607659816742&lon=-86.6719150543213&zoom=15>,
> it was not a closed polygon, but Potlatch didn't report any errors, and
> no one has "corrected" (i.e., removed) it.

It appears that you built Mill Creek Greenway from several,
intersecting, simple line "way" features.  That is not a problem.  And
I should have stated that in my original answer.

Simple lines, and simple closed loops can be used to represent other
features.  Two or three simple lines with one intersecting point can
represent a "Y-shaped" road, a closed loop and a line can represent a
"P-shaped" road.