[OSM-newbies] Fwd: Re: residential street vs. unclassified

[Mike Harris]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [OSM-newbies] residential street vs. unclassified
Date: 	Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:09:11 +0000
From: 	Mike Harris <mikh at delco.idps.co.uk>
To: 	newbies at openstreetmap.org



There is (still) a lot of confusion about the use of the tag 
highway=unclassified - see the wiki for the long history.

Some mappers have used "unclassified" with what often be regarded as its 
"natural" meaning of "not classified" or "not otherwise specified".

Other mappers - perhaps especially in the UK - have used the value of 
"unclassified" in a way somewhat similar to that used conventionally by 
the UK Ordnance Survey - i.e. to describe public motor roads that are of 
lesser status than 'A' and 'B' roads and 'tertiary' (in the OSM sense) 
roads (often 'county' or 'C' roads) and are also through routes or 
'useful' cul-de-sac routes in rural areas; these may have scattered 
residential (or other) buildings along them but are not primarily 
'residential'.

In urban areas, similar roads are often tagged as 'residential' where 
there are buildings (usually - but not necessarily and certainly not 
exclusively - residential buildings) along much of the length. While we 
OSMers certainly would not copy OS mapping in any way ( O:-) ) the 
analogy with OS practice - purely for the purpose of understanding how 
tags have often been used - would be for OS 'yellow' roads to be tagged 
as 'unclassified' and OS 'white' roads to be tagged as 'residential' in 
built-up areas (with a case-by-case approach for the small number of OS 
'white' roads in rural areas).

The other option to consider is highway=service, which has a number of 
uses. One of these is often for roads that serve for access to a 
building (e.g. a driveway to residential / commercial / industrial 
premises) or within a commercial or industrial land-use area.

Perhaps a simple summary is that the value "residential" is unlikely to 
be much used in rural areas (except on housing developments) and does 
not exclude urban roads with premises abutting that are not only 
residential. The value "unclassified" may be unhelpful in urban areas 
and other options such as "residential" or "service" may be more 
informative: the value "unclassified" in rural areas should perhaps be 
used with caution - at least in the UK - as it has often be used with a 
rather specific meaning (as opposed to "not classified").

I am trying here to be careful not to make any firm recommendation or to 
start a detailed thread in the 'newbies' list but merely to record what 
- so far as I can currently understand - is actual usage within the OSM 
mapping community. Inevitably a summary as short as this will be 
imperfect (just like my understanding ;-) ) but it might provide some 
background for further reading. As ever, there is no "right" or "wrong" 
- although hopefully we will one day reach the nirvana of total 
consistency ( =-O ).

Mike

On 19:59, John F. Eldredge wrote:
> I live on a street that is currently marked as "residential" in the OSM database.  However, it would better be described as mixed-use, as it has single-family houses, large apartment complexes, and commercial offices (both stand-alone buildings and low-rise office parks) along it.  There are also a couple of convenience stores.  It gets some through-traffic, but most of the traffic is people who live and/or work on my street or its side-streets.  The street is two lanes wide and winding, not designed for heavy traffic.  Should I leave it tagged as residential, or tag it as unclassified?
>
>    

-- 
*Mike Harris*

-- 
*/Mike Harris/*
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