[OSM-newbies] What's the easiest method to "snap" an area boundary to adjacent ways?

[Russell Harrison]

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 11:35 PM, Samat K Jain <lists at samat.org> wrote:
> Best practice is to NOT have ways share nodes unless there's an actual
> intersection.

I think I sort of rationalized this by thinking that the ways are
intersecting over the entire border.

> Why? Well, after you've created such a thing… try to select and edit it. Yeah,
> it's a pain. No editors make it easy (though I've found Potlatch makes the
> most easy).

I can see how that would be frustrating.  Especially for new mappers.

> Two alternatives:
>
> (1) Draw a parallel way, with its own nodes.
>
> This is "correct" if you want to be philosophical and think about the
> abstractions maps represent… the way representing a road is supposed to be the
> centerline for the road. If you're sharing the nodes with another way, that's
> implying that the boundary of that area (commercial zone, residential area,
> etc) extends to the centerline of the road. In all jurisdictions I'm aware of
> this is legally untrue (the same does not apply for administrative boundaries,
> however). If you take a look at well-mapped areas of OSM, this is typically
> what others do.
>
> (2) Create a relation, making the way a component.
>
> Regarding the philosophical viewpoint above, this makes a way part of a
> boundary, which I believe is legally true in certain situations. E.g. the
> middle of a road may actually mark two different counties/states/etc. Using a
> relation is probably preferred but much more work.

OK, it sounds like this is what I need to do in my specific case.
Logically it does seem like the correct answer.  The way is shared by
both borders and the relation is what creates the poly.

Russell

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