[Tagging] exit_to on motorway_junction

[Tobias Knerr]

On 20.11.2012 23:42, Paul Williams wrote:
> I don't see any reason to deprecate exit_to, it seems to be the simplest
> method of mapping a destination sign on a motorway junction or similar
> exit.

Isn't adding a destination tag to the outgoing highway fork just as simple?

When you have two tags where one (destination) can express all the
information described by the other (exit_to), but not the other way
around, then deprecation of the less powerful variant is the logical
course of action. The only alternative would be permanently having two
tags for (largely) the same situation, which makes documenting,
evaluation for applications, and providing assistance in editors harder
than it needs to be.

> The Taginfo stats also seem to show
> that exit_to is the most popular of the three different ways of mapping
> destinations: a destination relation, exit_to on a junction node, or
> destination as a tag on a way.

I think that nobody contests this, but it's to be expected given the
existence of a JOSM preset and the current state of the documentation.
The difference in usage isn't that large even today, though.

Tobias