[Talk-GB] OSM UK address project: tags

[Rob Nickerson]

Hi all,


A few more responses to the comments received since I last replied. Just
for the avoidance of doubt, I am not replying to anything that relates to
Postal Towns or such like as this falls into the second half of an address
(the “Locality Elements” in RM’s language) and the OSM UK project will not
ask users to collect this. Why? Because they are hard to get ground surveys
for, and often can be determined programmatically anyway. We therefore
focus on ground survey of the first part of the address (the “Premise
Elements” and “Thoroughfare Elements”).


*Neil Matthews:*

You suggested we “Add an area subdivision smaller than suburb”. As it falls
into the Locality Elements part of an address I am not going to say much
here other than to point out that others have already tried to clarify that
these addr:* tags are about a hierarchy and not needing to be linked to
physical features. Hence the suggestion by others to use addr:city as the
postal town even if the location is not a city. I think the same extends
here. What is a suburb anyway?!


*Tom Crocker:*

You asked if I could “elaborate on using it with parentstreet rather than
street” and went on to “guess this is about avoiding housenumber being put
with street by unaware apps and so probably a good idea”. That’s exactly
why I put it like that as I was trying to reflect this concern that others
had previous raised.


Flat numbers should go in addr:unit (for a single number) and addr:flats if
it is a range of flats. I’ve not used addr:flats in the algorithm to turn
tags into something to write on an envelope as addr:flats doesn’t represent
a single addressable location.


I didn’t put addr:floor into the algorithm as it probably goes further than
you need for a delivery address. I don’t think others include this either,
hence you sometimes see it on the recipient line (e.g. “Acme Ltd, Floor
2”). None of this obviously stops other people using it or including it in
any algorithm they use.


The tool will offer suggestions for the streetname based on what is nearby.
Will add your suggestion to our topics for review list.


*Robert Whittaker:*

Others on this list stated that they didn’t want addr:street to be used for
features that are not streets. Hence I tried to find a general tag that can
be used. Sub-street came from the BS7666 standard. On “If an object isn't a
"street" then surely it's not a "substreet" either”, I disagree. Breaking
down sub street we have “sub” = under/beneath/below; that is we are looking
at a feature which is a child feature of something else. The feature itself
need not be a street.


*Sarah Hoffmann:*

Whilst I might have come across a bit moaning yesterday about the
addr:place tag, I do get your points about how data consumers could use /
interpret it. Really interesting history about the reason the addr:place
tag came in to existence. Perhaps someone could add that to the wiki as it
helps to provide extra clarity and guidance.


Your tag proposal for Example E would certainly work from a point of view
of taking the tag values and laying them out on an envelope to make a
sensible address. That is the bit that is important and I am hoping to get
a map render up which shows how an address would appear on an envelope. In
some places, there might be a couple of ways to fill in the addr tags that
yield the same address-on-an-envelope. Personally I am ok with that but
best to keep it to a minimum where possible.


I read the examples you gave to Tom in the same way you do, albeit the
number appears leftmost on UK addresses (Robert W has already commented so
I won’t repeat that).


Thanks and happy holidays,
*Rob*
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