[Talk-us] proposed first principles for United States road tagging

[Paul Johnson]

On Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:19:31 +0000, Emilie Laffray wrote:

> On 7 March 2010 10:46, Paul Johnson
> <baloo at ursamundi.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>>
>> Perhaps we should be working more towards worldwide consistency.  I
>> don't know about you, but I don't expect the same map to work
>> differently in the UK than it does in Canada, or in Canada differently
>> from the US.  So why should the same map work differently in Oregon
>> than it does New York or Washington?
>>
>>
> I don't know but when I read a map from a different country, I read it
> with the new context in mind. Maps are highly contextual piece of works.
> I have lived in France, US, UK, and Curacao, and I can assure that if
> you expect to give you the same information you are mistaken. Roads that
> can be considered primary in Curacao will definitely not looked like the
> one you would see in France, etc...

That's true, which makes me wonder if it's time to move primary/secondary/
tertiary from ways highway= tags to route relations (since those three 
highway tags speak more to the kind of route on the way rather than the 
way itself).

> Everything has to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don't believe in
> absolute systems, but in relative systems.
> Consistency is a good thing but you have to look on what aspect they
> need to be consistent. 

I'm looking at relative to the rest of the world.