[Talk-GB] OSM UK address project: tags

[Tom Crocker]

On Thu, 23 Dec 2021, 10:14 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 don't think"sub-" necessarily works like that, it just means under,
below, etc to the thing (street in this case) as in subsurface, submarine,
substandard...

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?
>

To my mind using substreet simplifies things a bit (in one sense) because
when you have two elements between house name/number and locality the
latter is always a street (I think) and then there's a generic (to me)
placeholder above that. I'm not sure about street vs. parentstreet but I
think all of the options require some reworking of nominatim, osmand, etc.
e.g. Osmand requires street to match an existing highway, nominatim
requires place to match a named landuse, place or highway (I can't remember
if this is a complete list but it doesn't include building). Sometimes
these requirements can't be met (more on this later). So substreet could
maybe work independently of named map elements? I should say I've been
using place & parentstreet / street & parentstreet combinations so I'm not
set against that.

Thanks Sarah. I've used the naming a landuse=residential area approach a
few times so a place will work with nominatim, and used that in combination
with parentstreet. An example address that's been discussed on this list
before is one where the named building complex (a terrace) is half
residential, half commercial, so it seemed inappropriate to use that
strategy https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/844068161 one downside of which
is that nominatim still sees the address as being 4 Otley Road (the
parentstreet)
https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ui/details.html?osmtype=W&osmid=844068161&class=place
I
suppose we could use
addr:unit=4 Richmond Terrace
addr:street=Otley Road
(the business next door have invented a house name for 4 of the houses
together). This seems like an example where substreet would help and be
consistent with other terraces and courts depending on the requirements
nominatim placed on the name (if any).

Happy mapping

Tom

>
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