[Talk-GB] OSM UK address project: tags

[Colin Smale]

Phil, nobody actually navigates to an address based solely on the Post Town, especially not delivery drivers. You enter the destination address into your sat nav. Navigation is a multi-step process, which starts with correctly identifying the destination (and of course your current location). Only then does routing get involved, followed by mapping the technical route back onto human directions for display purposes. The address ceases to be relevant once the destination has been selected. If a package gets misdelivered to a similar-sounding location 12 miles up the road, the error occurred at the point the wrong destination was selected, and not during the routing or driving. The point of an address is to facilitate the selection of the correct building/delivery point/letter box.

How does the system cause problems and confusion, and to whom? As long as you don't try to pretend that RM's addressing system is anything other than that, it seems straightforward enough. It is a system for identifying delivery points for mail. It is not a system for giving each "building" an identity. It is not a system for navigation or routing (except internally within logistics providers such as RM).

What's the significance of a large "Welcome to Leicestershire" sign here?

> On 12/22/2021 11:04 PM Philip Barnes <phil at trigpoint.me.uk> wrote:
> 
>  
> On Wed, 2021-12-22 at 11:28 +0100, Colin Smale wrote:
> >  
> > >  On 12/21/2021 10:14 PM Dave F via Talk-GB
> > > <talk-gb at openstreetmap.org> wrote: 
> > >  
> > >  
> > > General comment: OSM shouldn't become beholden to Royal Mail. They
> > > are just one of many delivery services. 
> > >  
> >  But Royal Mail has an effective monopoly on addressing (the only
> > "competitors" I can think of are things like W3W and Google's Plus
> > codes and they are very "niche"). All the delivery services use Royal
> > Mail's addressing system. 
> >  
> >  What's so bad about adopting the RM model? Given the huge levels of
> > "tradition" in UK addressing (particularly in rural areas) they had a
> > big challenge to come up with a data model that would accommodate all
> > the quirks while providing an efficient way of uniquely identifying a
> > delivery point for post. We are not going to a better job than they
> > have done. Are we just being stubborn? 
> 
> We are not being stubbon, Royal Mails system works for them but causes
> problems and confusion for others. 
> 
> The postal addresses are a political issue, something councils spend
> time on and treying to pursued Royal Mail to fix. 
> 
> Delivery drivers often head for the big town on the address, which is
> 12 miles away, with deliveries at the wrong 'same address'.
> 
> When we navigate to a place, we generally do not care where Royal Mail
> say it is.
> 
> This sign https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=451520636572556 is here
> for a similar reason, to dispell the geographic myths that important
> features belong to a different county. We should not proliferate this
> myth.
> 
> Phil (trigpoint)
> 
> 
> 
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