[Talk-us] Motorway vs trunk classification for RI-4 and US-1 in Rhode Island

[stevea]

> Evin Fairchild <evindfair at gmail.com> wrote
> NE2 has been banned from OSM for almost eight years now. Why do you keep bringing him up and blaming him for things? Seems like you're just heading a dead horse... Please cite a discussion where there is a consensus that people besides you agree that this approach allegedly introduced by NE2 was bad practice. 

Evin, while I am this instant too lazy to find even one of numerous examples, eight, nine, ten years ago I recall bumping into NE2 as a mapper in the US South (Alabama, Georgia, Florida) where he exhibited quite "inspired" (a clear euphemism) tagging on bicycle routes, railroads/railways, trunk roads, freeways/motorways and more.  I had personal, off-list interactions with him and he was generally rude, insistent on his "my way or the highway" attitude as always-right and swore like a drunken sailor.  These were behaviors which contributed to his being summarily shown the door, a boot firmly in his backside not-soon-enough for many (me included).  The legacy of his wacky, "creative" (wrong) and idiosyncratic tagging are detritus I still bump into in the map today (as I edit all over the USA).

The reason people keep bringing him up is not to "beat a dead horse."  It is because NE2 was prolific and profligate (dissolute) at the same time.  His noisy, dirty legacy remains like the many stains on the map that his editing was.

I am not usually so lazy at offering examples of what I discuss in talk-pages, especially as I point fingers at the bad behavior of others, but if I must dig up and hunt for these at your insistence, I can expend some time in that regard.  (I would find doing so of very little value, though you might disagree).

FWIW, Bradley's description of "U.S. ... national standard for what a freeway looks like" (where "freeway" is Californian for UK English / OSM-speak "motorway") is excellent.  I've driven California SR 154, 192 and 108 and while they DO have "Begin Freeway" signs at on-ramps (slip road / motorway_link) they are NOT "freeway" ("motorway") as OSM defines it, nor would I dare tag them that way.  Sometimes, "what the sign says" isn't quite what OSM does in the rest of the world.  As a result, we should tag "what is" rather than what locals and state road legislators have jumped through some hoops to wish into existence when it isn't really there.

SteveA