[OSM-newbies] residential street vs. unclassified

[Richard Weait]

On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 10:06 AM, Pieren <pieren3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 2:45 PM, John F. Eldredge <john at jfeldredge.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> No, but neither do most of the purely-residential streets in this part of
>> the city.
>>
>>
>
> You talk about a grey zone where both, residential or unclassified, are
> correct. Just think that some routers for bikes might give a preference to
> residential streets as they are supposed to have a low car traffic :
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bicycle#On-Road_Cycling_.28Cycle_Friendly_Streets.29

Since this is the newbies list, let's talk about a guideline a newbie
can follow.

In general, I resist re-classifying things that are already on the
map.  I presume that the mapper before me had a good reason for their
choice.  I will happily reclassify things if I have evidence that the
object has changed (new construction, road realignment), or if the
previous source was less-reliable (low-res aerial, TIGER).  This is
one reason that I really appreciate good comments and good source
tags.  Changing just because I disagree with the interpretation of
another mapper is seldom the right thing to do.  Evidence, sure;
interpretation, seldom.

I'm less restricted when I add something new to the map.  I'll tag as
well as my observational skills, judgment and available time allow.
And I try to leave good notes when I know things can be improved. For
example:

This building outline was sketched based on my gps track and a rough guess.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/51243936
You should feel free to fix it if good aerial imagery becomes
available, or if you have a suitably licensed engineering plan of the
building.

Nobody else involved with OSM is likely to have the same knowledge
that John has of his street.  So John's judgment and information at
hand is likely to be excellent.  As long as John's personal interest
is not a conflict of interest ("I think I'll downgrade my road so I
get less traffic while I'm trying to sleep.") it would be hard to
argue against John's decision to reclassify his road.

That said, John might consider taking a broader view of his town and
adjust the classifications of the other similar roads.  This should
help give John context for his edit, and my improve the overall map of
his town.