[talk-au] Junctions (to name or not to name)

[Rick Peterson]

Thanks everyone for your input regarding roundabouts and under what 
circumstances to tag them with a name=*

Whilst some opinions differ, I'd suggest that the majority of people who 
have responded to my post name roundabout junctions only when the 
roundabout has an official name (not the name of any primary road that 
forms a part of the junction) To me this seems a logical approach and is 
based on the "mapping only what we see" method that I often see written 
or referred to.

I agree that it doesn't make sense to name junctions purely to get a 
particular renderer or routing program to perform as required.

When approaching an unnamed roundabout with my particular GPS navigator 
using OSM routable data, it will speak - "enter roundabout and take 
second exit to Foo street" This is a perfectly acceptable and practical 
driving instruction.

At this stage, I've removed the naming of roundabouts in the data that 
I'm working on, as none of them have official names.

That leaves outstanding, two issues:
1. The error warnings in JOSM Validator for unnamed ways that are 
junction=roundabout
2. Lack of wiki information for newcomers (such as myself) when 
researching under what circumstances to name junction=roundabout

Given that roundabouts are an incredibly common form of junction in 
Australia (I'd imagine in other countries too), I'd like to promote a 
consistent approach to how and under what circumstances they are named.

As a newbie, I'll have to research further on how to reach agreement at 
an international level on naming conventions for junction=roundabout and 
then contact the JOSM development team regarding the Validator selecting 
roundabouts as error warnings.

In the interim, I'd draw your attention to 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Australian_Tagging_Guidelines#Roundabouts 
as a potential location for expanded information to assist people in 
Australia when looking for clarification on this issue.


Cheers,

Rick :)