[OSM-talk] Highway tags and other junk

[Ben Robbins]

David:  In milton keynes the biggest consern for the reduction of your 
average speed is the traffic lights in the center.  They are green about 24% 
of the time, so a big hold up.  Being super specific to these speeds is a 
bit of a escalating debate, as this could get more and more specific until 
people tag the speed they take each corner at.  I', just suggesting 
generally dividing the 4 types of small road, and giving them a set average 
speed unless its stated otherwise.

Bart:  the expected speed is very very variable on smaller roads.  In the 
middle of the night you may be able to progress 4 times faster down one.   
Although I think your point about being able to somehow state wich motorways 
are commonly overloaded, I think this is a different topic really.

Andy Allan:  Thats good to know it can be changed in bulk if nessesery.  
Thanks for pointing that out.

The highway=motorway tag does inply rights of way, Although the definitions 
maybe varie in countries.   But if i looked at a map and saw a motorway, I 
would know that riding my push bike onto incomming traffic on one would be 
illegal.  Therefore the tag has told me some legal information about the 
way.  If it wasnt anything to do with rights of way then the tag would just 
be surface=cement, lanes=3 oneway=yes

I do indeed want to be detailed, but I don't think anymore than most.  While 
most seem to want very speciic tags for abbutters, landuse, amenties etc in 
towns, these have little value to me.  Vice versa I would like to be 
specific to laybelling the features that are in the area I am mapping, 
although these may be of little use to people mapping urban areas.

I don't wish to make generalize tags just to avoid typing many tags about a 
ways phisicial properties particaully.  But if the road is just a string of 
bits of data then at some point prier to the data being rendered someone of 
somecode would need to decided what the over all value of the tags is, and 
how the road should be displayed.  E.g  if i list all the properties of the 
track, then it just displays it as a grade2 track, then I might as well have 
added that tag.

Matthew:  Im awair what a tertiary road is, and the tag has its uses in 
other countries, but there is no such thing as a C road anymore in the UK.  
The only differences between unclassified and tertiary's therefore are 
phisical, and I still think do not belong in the highway group.  If it does, 
then so do all the other types of minor roads.

Your second point is true, and that point can be used against having tracks 
there.  They are not rights of way unless stated otherwise.

Footways as I use them are rights of way.  Cycleways also.  In towns it is 
different but thats a different debate.  The additional permiisive tag is 
the current solution.

Jörg:  Good point

Ben

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