[Tagging] Dispute prevention: meaning of lanes tag

[Andrew Errington]

On Mon, April 23, 2012 03:57, Martin Vonwald wrote:
> 2012/4/22 Jason Cunningham <jamicuosm at googlemail.com>:
>
>> After reading through these emails I'm beginning to think the lanes=1.5
>>  would less confusing for narrow two lane roads.
>
> The problem with lanes=1.5 stays: data consumers might not be able to
> handle this correctly.
>
> What we need right now is a recommendation how to handle this "narrow
> road"-problem, without using a tag, that might cause more problems than it
> solves. What is the problem with the following: __________
> If a two-way road is so narrow, that passing cars have to slow down,
> then besides lanes=2 either 1) measure the width and set the tag
> accordingly (preferable, but usually much too difficult) or 2) simply use
> est_width=4 (or width together with source:width). __________
>
>
> Instead of one problematic tag (lanes=1.5) we would use well established
> tags.


I agree.

I think lanes=* should record the total number of marked lanes (i.e. road
markings must be present to indicate the lanes).  lanes=1.5 is subjective,
and anything subjective should be avoided.  Instead, record width=*
(estimated or actual) then the onus of interpretation falls on the user,
not the mapper.

Best wishes,

Andrew