[Talk-GB] OSM UK address project: tags

[Colin Smale]

> On 12/23/2021 11:11 AM Robert Whittaker (OSM lists) <robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>  
> On Thu, 23 Dec 2021 at 08:29, Tom Crocker <tomcrockermail at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think addr:substreet is probably a good addition as it's suitably unencumbered with meaning from inside or outside OSM. It also largely sidesteps the issue of whether a particular feature is or isn't a street, which isn't always obvious. Can you elaborate on using it with parentstreet rather than street. I guess this is about avoiding housenumber being put with street by unaware apps and so probably a good idea, but on the negative side we'll not be using any recognisable tags above locality for these apps.
> 
> I really don't like the idea of addr:substeet. I don't think this
> helps too much with the problem of assigning streets to non-street
> objects -- If an object isn't a "street" then surely it's not a
> "substreet" either. I think having three different addr:*street tags
> when you only ever use two at once would likely lead to more
> confusion. (We can't avoid having addr:parentstreet if we want to
> maintain the fundamental concept that addr:housenumber numbers within
> addr:street when addr:street is present.) So is there really a need
> for an additional addr:substreet tag? What does it give you that you
> couldn't use addr:street for?

How about we turn the question around and frame it as "I have this address, how do I represent that in OSM?"

What if someone legitimately (and according to the PAF) has a Dependent Thoroughfare in their address? Maybe we don't need both parent street and substreet as the PAF only has two levels for the Thoroughfare, but there are three levels defined for the Locality, including Dependent Locality and Double-Dependent Locality. Plus of course the Post Town on top of that little hierarchy. If a legitimate address includes these fields, where do we put them in OSM? We can concatenate PAF fields into a single OSM tag, but that is an irreversible transform from a data perspective, yet it may yield the right result when formatting an address as text for example.

I found these descriptions on the interweb at https://alliescomputing.com/knowledge-base/glossary-of-address-terms

Dependent Locality: A small town or village name sometimes included in an address when the Delivery Point is outside the boundary of the main Post Town that serves it.

Dependent Street: Sometimes included in an address when the Delivery Point is not on the main street, for example a shopping arcade off a high street.

Double-Dependent Locality: A business park, industrial estate or hamlet which is smaller than a Dependent Locality, sometimes included in an address.

> 
> Robert.
> 
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