[Talk-GB] [OSM-talk] Improving ref=* documentation

[Andy Townsend]

On 05/08/2021 10:27, Ed Loach wrote:
> Colin wrote:
>> Problem solved, then. Thanks for the clear and pragmatic solution.
>> ref and name carry the official, proper values, and if a sign
> disagrees,
>> put that in name:signed or ref:signed together with information
>> about the sources.
>>
>> What's not to like?
>>
>> This allows two different renderings to be derived from the same
>> data - one using the official values, and one using the
> "as-signed"
>> values. The consumer can choose, according to their specific use
>> case. We provide the data for both.
> I've not been following this thread, but isn't this backwards. For
> example think of the C and U road numbers that might exist in an
> official database but belong in official_ref if they are unsigned.
>
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:official_ref
>
(somewhat confusingly, parts of this conversation are on "talk" and 
parts on "talk-gb" - hopefully this only goes to "talk-gb")

In GB, following a bit of to and fro, the most common way of expressing 
"something used by the highway authority but unsigned and not used by 
anyone else except perhaps people at https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/" is 
"highway_authority_ref":

http://taginfo.geofabrik.de/europe/great-britain/search?q=ref

For completeness, I consume this tag (and many other alternatives) for 
map.atownsend.org.uk, and names and refs that probably aren't signed 
appear in brackets.

Best Regards,

Andy