[Talk-us] Street Naming Conventions

[Val Kartchner]

The "Editing Standards and
Conventions" ("http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Editing_Standards_and_Conventions") page says: "In the name tag, enter the full name as it appears on the street name signs. [...]  Do not abbreviate words."

Some sample ACTUAL street signs around here say "14th Street", "1400
South", "A Ave", "Bee Ct", "Cheyenne Dr".  If we expand the
abbreviations, this still doesn't carry the other directional
identifier.  (e.g.: W 1400 S)  However, if the directional identifer is
added and expanded then "A Ave" becomes "South A Avenue" which really
buries the most important part of the street name "A". (Two areas I've
mapped have single-letter street names, one A-H Ave and the other A-K
Street.)  Even expanding the local convention (for instance) of "S 1000
E" should be expanded to "South 1000 East Street" (according to the
wiki), again burying the most important part.

Using USPS abbreviations is the convention used by all commercial online
mapping providers that I've seen.  (i.e.: maps.google.com,
maps.yahoo.com, www.bing.com/maps )  I think that OSM should adopt the
same convention.

What do people think?

- Val -