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

[Aspen Swartz]

On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 9:27 PM, Isaac Wingfield <isw at witzend.com> wrote:
>
> On Aug 21, 2010, at 4:00 AM, newbies-request at openstreetmap.org wrote:
>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Isaac Wingfield <isw at witzend.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I did that. The two ways are still separate (they do not highlight at the
>>> same time when one is selected, as I expect they should). Will they
>>> "become
>>> one" at some future time when the server figures it out?
>>
>> They will remain separate and independently selectable.  So what you
>> see now is the expected behaviour.
>
> Expected, huh? Perhaps, but not very functional. I certainly would "expect"
> all of the elements of a single street to be selected when any part is
> clicked on -- especially when they are as physically close as these are. I
> would modestly suggest that OSM's definition of a "way" is a bit too
> restrictive to properly handle the real world.
>
> Anyhow, thanks for telling me that's how it is.
>
> Isaac
>
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I think the problem is that if all the elements of a single street or
way were selected when a single part were clicked on, some "streets"-
like an interstate highway, or the Trans-Siberian Railway- would be
objects much too enormous to select conveniently.  So we edit them in
segments.  I do think there's a way to select all the segments of a
particular way, but I am too much of a newbie to direct you to it, and
it's not the default.  You can merge segments of a given way if it's
too chopped up.
I'm sure this isn't the best way, but the way I do that in potlatch is
to select one of the ways, delete the last point in it (the
overlapping one), and then shift-click on the last point of the second
way to merge them.

-Aspen (eulochon)