[Tagging] road names and refs

[Paul Johnson]

On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 3:15 PM Kevin Kenny <kevin.b.kenny at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 2:50 PM Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net>
> wrote:
> > Honestly, there is, and it's as Paul and I have described - you put the
> ref
> > in the ref tag and leave the name tag blank. This is how it has been in
> OSM
> > since pretty much day one. If a newbie in Europe puts a ref in the name
> tag,
> > it gets stomped on pretty quickly.
> >
> > The reason it might seem otherwise in the States is that the TIGER import
> > didn't populate the ref tag, just the name tag, and a lot of the TIGER
> > import still hasn't been cleared up. So there's a bunch of TIGER-derived
> > roads which have things like "name=County Road 23" (or Township Road, or
> "Co
> > Rd", or many other variations).
>
> OK, I'll add that to the things I look for. As I said, I'd been
> retaining it only when it's the only name, and I never added any new
> ways with that, merely refrained from repairing that case.
>
> It's encouraging that in this particular discussion, that's the only
> detail you guys say I got wrong. 'ref' tag on the way for the
> renderer; road route relation with detailed network and ref; never an
> alt_name or name_1, etc. with a route reference.
>
> Oh, and a further corner case: Are we agreed that something like "Old
> Route 7" has become a name?  It's no longer a ref, because Route 7 is
> now elsewhere. It appears on street signs like any other name, not on
> a reference banner, and it's the 'addr:street' of the houses on it.
>

Eeeh, I'd generally suggest tagging that as noname=yes old_ref=US 7 (if the
old route was a US route) to retain more information.  Signing is pretty
similar, too, some places will leave the old shields up and change the
banner from a cardinal to OLD until the signs wear out as a wayfinder for
folks with outdated maps.  Much of the midwest, on nameless roads that have
routes, just put something like "SH 33" or "Hwy 412" on the finger signs as
a low-budget solution to posting a proper, potentially multicolor, die-cut,
screen-printed shield and a double-ended arrow as is MUTCD standard for
such a case.  addr:street still goes with however the post finds it.  It
helps to know the local context quite a bit when trying to sort out how
local authorities cheaped out on posting standard signs.
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