[OSM-talk] mark a way as secondary

[Andy Robinson]

Immanuel Scholz wrote:
>Sent: 10 June 2006 10:47
>To: talk at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] mark a way as secondary
>
>Hi,
>
>> I would like to mark a way a secondary but I see to solutions in the
>> help ( http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Editing ) :
>> * set the class as "secondary" in the basic tab.
>> * add a key/value as "highway/secondary" in the advanced tab.
>>
>> Which is the best ?
>
>I dislike the wording "highway" as a replacement for "class", since I
>think something like "highway=footpath" or even "highway=minor" is very
>confusing. That is the reason I recomment using "class" as key and
>"highway" as value (as example for german autobahns).
>
>
>On the other hand, people have spent time to developing a scheme of
>key/values at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Map_Features. This
>page recommends "highway" as key to specify the road's class.

That's not strictly how it came about. The intention of the "highway" key
was to use it to identify the different types of highway, from footways
(footpaths) right through to Motorways (Autobahns) and everything in
between. You could use "class" in place of "highway" however it was
necessary to be able to identify between different transport modes (eg
highway or tramway for instance) which might share the same segment or way.
By splitting the former "class" key into "highway", "railway" "waterway" etc
we moved away from the non-descriptive all encompassing "class".

Having said that, the Map Features page was prepared with English speakers
in mind and to us the highway key is pretty logical. To others it may not be
so logical and for that reason alternative keys and values are encouraged.

>
>
>Ciao, Imi
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>talk mailing list
>talk at openstreetmap.org
>http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk