[Talk-GB] Made-up motorway junction names

[Richard Fairhurst]

Mark Goodge wrote:
> That's why I think that the best check, most of the time, is to see
> if the local media are using the names. If they are, then that's
> good evidence that their readers are using the names.

It's not really. The Reach/Newsquest local media has devolved into a knowledge-free regurgatron that basically just rewords whatever press releases they're sent. In this case, they're probably going off incident reports from either the local highway authority's incident desk, or the local police force - both of whom are essentially highways professionals, so not really a good guide to what's in general usage.

I used to drive past Bicester on my daily commute. I remember BBC local radio telling me about an incident at Binglysplott Roundabout*. I'd never heard that name, nor was it signposted. Turns out it meant a roundabout I'd been driving round every weekday for the last two years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We make maps for people to use. If we tag a junction with "name=Binglysplott Roundabout", despite a lack of signage, we are doing a disservice to anyone who's using OSM to navigate and ends up being told to "Turn right at Binglysplott Roundabout". It's the same reason we don't tag C roads with ref=. Use loc_name or alt_name or official_name or highway_authority_name or engineers_name or whatever, but it's not what the name tag is for.

Richard

* not the actual name used, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Whatever it is, it's still not signposted.
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