[talk-au] What gives with roundabouts?

[Darrin Smith]

On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:31:02 -0800 (PST)
bluemm1975-osm at yahoo.com wrote:

> True about abstract linear vs 2D. I think of it as we draw the centre
> line of a lane (or lanes), and that lane will deviate around a
> roundabout, as opposed to a mini. Maybe the fact that there is a
> centre island is the best test. Has anyone ever seen a proper mini in
> Australia?

The 3 is Gascoyne Avenue, Hillcrest, South Australia seem to match that
idea closely. I hope to grab some pictures of them when I'm over that
way on Tuesday.

> Not wanting to put words in Darrin's mouth, but I think we are on the
> same page. I'm arguing that it is a conceptual mismatch, we are
> redefining what a mini is just for Australia. That makes it hard on
> all users of worldwide data. If one of the current features don't
> match our reality, then it's our job to propose a new tag, and assist
> with coding renderers/routers if it's important to us for it to show
> up on maps etc. In some ways, the state/federal governmental
> definition of types of roundabout junctions is irrelevant, I think
> it's more important to match whatever has been decided by the OSM
> community. Of course if it doesn't match our needs, then propose a
> new tag.

I'm totally on your wavelength with respect to the making our usage
match the worlds usage, and making a new tag when we have something
different, and I get the impression a couple of others on here have
similar opinions in a general sense.

However (isn't there always a However, or a But or some such thing ;)...

I've been thinking about my stance with this and I think I've distilled
why it's been bugging me. I tend to make sure that any reasonably size
island of any sort is represented by separating the ways since
said island is blocking normal traffic movement between the 2
carriageways (about the only ones I skip are the small lane separator
islands you get on the side roads in some small T-junctions, but I'll
clock that up to my laziness ;). So given even the smallest
roundabouts are islands of quite a large size I like to see them
represented on the map as a separating of the ways. 

So after realising this I can't actually stand in support of
junction=roundabout on a point (or some other similar proposal) as a
permanent fixture, but would fully support it as a 'temporary' tag to
indicate at some point someone with my kind of island obsession comes
along and puts in the details.

-- 

=b