[OSM-talk] Segments with 0m Distance
Simon Hewison
simon at zymurgy.org
Sun Apr 23 20:03:54 BST 2006
Jim Ley wrote:
> "Tom Carden" <tom at tom-carden.co.uk>
> On 4/16/06, Jim Ley <jim at jibbering.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> There's one place near me which is a one way street for 0 distance -
>>> well
>>> it's not a one way street, there's just a no entry sign preventing
>>> access
>>> when travelling in one direction, it's 2 way traffic everywhere.
>>> I've not
>>> got it in OSM yet (I don't go there often enough 'cos it's no entry,
>>> and at
>>> the top of a very steep and inconvenient hill) I think that would be
>>> best
>>> modelled as a no distance segment in a way, but I could be wrong.
>>>
>>
>> Interesting - that's why initially I said yes but only if it has no tags.
>>
>> Still - I'm not convinced as to why this shouldn't just be a tag on
>> the node at the no entry end... perhaps a noentry key with a segment
>> id?
>
> I think the routing people need to decide on that one - I'd just been
> imagining them preferring not to have to spend too much time checking
> the tags on every single node?
Routing decisions have to look at the tags on every single segment and
every single node.
For instance, there could be a single node which represents a low bridge
at 3.5 metres maximum height, and the user's defined his vehicle is four
metres tall, and a way might represent a road that is hundreds of
kilometres long, and there's no way that a single low bridge should
affect the whole length of the way.
In order to simply find one of a number of possible routes, it barely
needs to look at any tags, but once it's narrowed down the list of
possible routes, it makes sense then for it to carefully examine each
suggested route to check for things like low bridges and the like,
before presenting it's choices to the end user.
A routing engine should think of ways as merely a method of obtaining
high level information from the tags about segments that are part of
that way, and to simplify written instructions, though it does make
sense to attempt to stick to a signposted route since this makes the
turns easier to follow.
If the routing algorithm was dumb enough to just try to stick to ways,
it would end up like Google Map's routing algorithm, which sticks at all
costs to long distance roads and motorways, even through there are far
more direct routes that can cut a long distance. (eg on
maps.google.co.uk, route from "Riseley, Berkshire, RG7" to "Guildford")
--
Simon Hewison
More information about the talk
mailing list