[Talk-us] [Imports] Zipcode Import

[Jeremy Adams]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Serge Wroclawski <emacsen at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Jeff Barlow <Jeff at wb6csv.net> wrote:
> > Anthony <osm at inbox.org>  wrote:
> >
> >>No.  Zip codes do not represent geographic regions.  They should not be
> in a
> >>the map data, but in a separate database.
> >
> > Please explain your reasoning. This claim seems quite
> > counterintuitive to me.
>
> A Zip Code is a routing code. It doesn't represent geography any more
> than you can do a 1:1 mapping of iP address to physical location.
>
> You can do a "Pretty good" job by simplifying the data, but zip codes
> are attributes of addresses, not regions.
>
> If you want to add these zip codes to objects with addr fields, that
> would be accurate, but you can't accurately represent a zip code as a
> region.
>
> - Serge
>
> I don't understand why you wouldn't want ZIP Codes in OSM.  Do they not
represent a geographic area in some parts of the country?  In my area, each
ZIP Code represents a specific geographic area.  One can easily figure out
what town someone is from based on their ZIP Code.  Is this not the case
everywhere?

-Jeremy
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