[Tagging] housenumber on node and area

pmailkeey . pmailkeey at googlemail.com
Fri May 29 00:39:34 UTC 2015


On 28 May 2015 at 09:49, Colin Smale <colin.smale at xs4all.nl> wrote:

>
>
>
> Addresses are just labels, with (in the general case) an N:M relation with
> "areas". Addresses are not used to identify buildings, as that would imply
> that all buildings (even sheds and garages) would need their own address.
>

Addresses are used to identify buildings. Not all buildings need to be
identified.


> In multi-occupancy buildings (apartments, shared offices etc) each
> separately registered unit needs its own address (in order to ensure post
> etc is directed to the right party); the geometry of each unit can vary
> wildly, in three dimensions. A 1:1 relation between addresses and "areas"
> (actually "volumes" might be a better word here) is certainly very common,
> but not enough to cover the reality.
>

The purpose is to get a person (postman or otherwise) to the right place.
It might not be accurately mappable where the right place is and the person
may have to use initiative at the 'general location' to find the right door
or letterbox.



> International addressing in databases is an extremely complex area, which
> is caused to a large extent by people thinking they understand their own
> address (after all, everybody has one)
>
No they don't ! (long list of examples intentionally omitted!)

I've added mine at the bottom.



> and then expecting the rest of the world to follow the same model. The UK
> address model lives in a parallel universe compared to the administrative
> boundaries. It needs extra fields ("locality" for example) to disambiguate,
> when a Post Town has multiple roads with the same name. The UK has
> properties which don't have a number (just a name). Until recently it used
> counties which hadn't existed for years. All this because the addressing
> system is run by Royal Mail, purely for its own convenience in delivering
> mail, and there's nothing better.
>
> I pity some countries which don't have addresses, and have stuff delivered
> based on mileposts and landmarks. Maybe what3words[1] will catch on. How
> will we put that in OSM I wonder?
>
> Ireland still doesn't have postcodes by the way, despite "working on it"
> for the past million years. All they have at the moment is "Loc8" [2] which
> is a private initiative, probably born out of frustration with the lack of
> progress by An Post. They are about to get "Eircode"[3] which looks
> incredibly complex for what it is.
>
> //colin
>
> [1] http://what3words.com/
>
> [2] http://www.myloc8ion.com/
>
> [3] http://www.eircode.ie/
>


Mike.
54.212404,-3.270514
<https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=54.212404,-3.270514&aq=&sll=54.212154,-3.270836&sspn=0.001441,0.004128&vpsrc=6&t=h&g=54.212404,-3.270514&ie=UTF8&ll=54.212404,-3.270514&spn=0.001441,0.004128&z=19&iwloc=A>
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