[OSM-talk] TIGER data abbreviations

[Cameron Patrick]

David Earl wrote:

> You're right of course, but I don't think there'll be that many special 
> cases, at least so long as we are dealing with US English. Even though 
> "St Peters St" is ambiguous, it is completely reasonable to have "Saint 
> Peters Street" from the position in the phrase (actually, I think one 
> would normally leave this as "St Peters Street").

Note also that not all occurences of "St" are actually abbreviations;
e.g.  it is not correct to expand St Kilda to "Saint Kilda" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda%2C_Scotland

The heuristics involved in shortening street names can also get quite
complex.  For example, there are streets near me named "The Avenue" and
"The Boulevard".  It would look weird to see those written "The Ave" or
"The Blvd" on a map - certainly, no road maps or street signs that I've
seen shorten it that way.

Cameron