[OSM-talk] minimum standard tags

[Mike Collinson]

At 01:24 AM 6/02/2007, Robert T Wyatt wrote:
>A Morris wrote:
> > I have no idea what the common practice is, but for routing/navigation
> > purposes, it would be nice to record the speed limit and any vehicle
> > restrictions.
>
>It would also be nice if we could use miles/hr or km/hr per local
>rules as appropriate. Personally, I'm an advocate of SI and metric,
>but I haven't found a convenient way to keep a list of conversions for
>speed. Maybe this is something that the data entry tool could manage
>for us. So let's say OSM doesn't understand miles/hr, but JOSM does
>and converts it automatically.... Just thinking out loud here.
>
>Having not traveled abroad for a long time, I'm curious about how all
>the speed ranges work out. I expect that everyone pretty much uses
>speed limits on the fives, that is you may have posted limits of
>85km/hr or 90km/hr but not 88km/hr unless it is really 55miles/hr.
>Just wondering what the distribution looks like and whether any
>economies can be gained by an analysis.

I travel a lot and though it is not something I've made a general 
note of, my general impression is that:

- kph is overwhelming used with USA and possibly still Canada and the 
UK using mph.

- speed limit is generally on tens.  The only exceptions I can 
remember are some very low speed-limit areas, e.g. 15 kph, on 
properties such as schools and hospitals and the 55 mph USA limit 
during the 70s/80s when the oil crisis was raging.

Mike
Manila