[Tagging] "width" on streets: Time for a recommendation

Supaplex supaplex at riseup.net
Wed Sep 16 08:22:16 UTC 2020


> I expect the "width" of a way to be the actual width of the object it
> represents. 
It depends on how we define "highway" in the OSM sense. You could also
assume that sidewalks etc. are "sticking" on the highway merely for
pragmatic reasons. Depending on the point of view, sidewalks and
highways represent different entities. (There is no law definition here,
I only find a German court decision that deals with street widths and
thus means the distance between the curbs, with carriageway and parked
vehicles, so as definition 2 above.)

But I agree that it would be better to always specify which width is
meant exactly when mapping widths on streets (especially to use
"width:carriageway" for the rating of traffic suitability).
Nevertheless, a default, which meaning of "width" is meant without a
prefix/suffix, would still be helpful. Fun Fact: On the wiki highway
page - in contrast to what is discussed here - it says since 2012 that
"width" means the width of the carriageway (but it does not look like
this paragraph has ever been discussed):
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highways#Surface.2C_width_and_lighting

Alex
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