[Tagging] drinkable vs. drinking_water

[David ``Smith'']

Not specifically to roads, tertiary is the natural next step after primary
and secondary; the next one would be quaternary, I think.

In the US, official language pertaining to warnings and hazards tends to
stick to older words like non-potable or inflammable.
On Jul 22, 2012 9:33 AM, "Philip Barnes" <phil at trigpoint.me.uk> wrote:

> On Sat, 2012-07-21 at 11:43 -0400, David ``Smith'' wrote:
> > Just contributing another data point on vocabulary…
> >
> > I am a native English speaker from Ohio, USA.  I have been aware of
> > the term "potable" for many years, probably since asking what it meant
> > after seeing a water source labeled "non-potable".  I have seen that
> > warning on taps in public parks, and on many trucks and railcars.
> I am a native English speaker from the UK, I have never seen the term
> potable used in the UK. Labels on taps use the term 'drinking water', or
> 'not drinking water'. Any council using the word 'potable' is likely to
> be slammed by the Campaign For Plain English.
> I only understand potable because I have studied French, and have a good
> memory. We really should stick to 'Drinking Water', as does real world
> signage.
>
> > On the other hand, I'd never heard of a "trunk road" before joining
> > OSM.  I still don't know any objective way to tell the difference
> > between trunk, primary, secondary, tertiary, and unclassified roads,
> > and I'm amazed there aren't rampant edit wars over those distinctions.
> > I think it's silly that "unclassified road" is in fact a specific road
> > classification.  I'd never heard of a "weir" before joining OSM,
> > desptie the existence of several in my home area.
> >
> The classifications, certainly Trunk, came from the UK. I do not know of
> any easy way of identifying a Trunk road. Other than googling my way
> through various local authority/highways agency websites (which then
> cannot be used on OSM). Trunk roads are 'Primary A roads, funded by
> central government. Other primary A roads are funded by local
> authorities, both have green signs and in the UK are mapped as Trunk
> roads, as there is rarely anything on the ground to differentiate them.
>
> Trunk road is a largely outdated term, in the same way as wireless is
> when referring to a radio receiver.
>
> We map secondary A roads (white signs) as Primary, and B roads as
> secondary.
>
> I don't know where the term tertiary came from, its a word outside of
> OSM I have only heard in The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, The
> Tertiary Phase. But really have no idea what the word means of why it
> was chosen. You will not find any highway authority referring to roads
> as Tertiary. My view is that tertiary roads are C roads, but the numbers
> rarely appear on road signs. I have seen maps showing these, but again
> they are copyright and unusable on OSM. But there are a lot more than
> many think, they IMO are the non-M/A/B roads that are gritted in the
> winter and hence every village will have at least one. But in reality
> mapping them is a matter of if it feels right.
>
> Phil
>
>
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