[Tagging] Wide steps

[David Earl]

On 07/10/2011 18:13, Peter Wendorff wrote:
> I'm not sure, but perhaps the area:highway-proposal [1] is useful here.

There are already numerous highway areas for things like market places 
and piazzas, but it's done as highway=x;area=yes, not with its own key. 
These are properly rendered on Mapnik (e.g. 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/27918828 ).

(I don't see any need to change this unless we adopt a proper area 
primitive).

> Before we have to discuss the general pros and cons of that proposal: I
> don't think it's necessary to tag all streets with an area (but it would
> be possible, sure), and I don't think, it's useful to do so in general
> before we have tools to support that.
>
> But I think, in cases where the line generalization of a highway is not
> enough - like it's here in the steps issue, it would be useful to do that.

As I said, yes, an area for what is a significant area rather than a 
linear feature is the obvious method, but the difficulty with steps is 
indicating which side(s) are the top and bottom. (We also have L shaped 
step areas, and semi-circular ones among others I have come across in 
the last week).


> The additional highway:steps would stay at separate ways "on top" of the
> area.

This shouldn't be necessary, any more than any other highway area. It's 
like putting a node for parking in the middle of a parking area.

David