[OSM-talk] Place:municipality; roads?

[Alex Mauer]

Mike Collinson wrote:
> Then the ideal solution would be "place=city" when you start and then 
> "designation=municipality, population=24000, function=capital, 
> place=city" when you've done more research and want to be more precise?

But it's easier to determine that a place is a municipality, than to
determine that the relevant government has designated it as a city,
town, or village.  Most places I've seen don't have posted anywhere what
sort of government a place has, and it takes more research to find
whether a particular municipality is a city/town/village/hamlet.  And
"suburb" is a subjective determination, orthogonal to any of the above.

> My observation to date following many debates is that there needs to 
> be "Phase I" tags which are easy to fill in from field observations / 
> common sense and then complimentary "Phase II" tags/values that allow 
> more rigorous accuracy and also minutiae.  I think you are after 
> phase II as initially did I.  

I agree with your analysis, but I just think that "municipality" should
be used as the general/"Phase I" tag for a place, with the
city/town/village/etc. being a more specific/"Phase II" distinction.

> One, road classification is done mostly on gut as they are not 
> normally street signed - a "primary" road is primary because of a 
> judgement call on the amount of traffic and where it goes, not that 
> is an "A" road as usually easy to determine in the field in the UK.

Agreed.  Additionally I think that having only primary and secondary
roads is insufficient...but I don't really have a better alternative.
Looking around my area, I see a 4-lane road through town that I would
classify as "primary", then a two-lane road running parallel with
turning lanes for certain intersections but no parking lanes that I
would classify as "secondary", and then a wide two-lane road without no
turning lanes but two parking lanes which connects the two.  This last
is clearly less significant than the parallel "secondary" road but more
so than the other roads connecting the two...but has no way to be shown
as such by OSM.

And then of course a "primary" road in my area would be lucky to be
counted as "secondary" in a major city.

I'd say that at least 5, probably 6 levels of road classification below
"motorway" should exist, but I have no idea/opinion how to meaningfully
differentiate them.

-Alex Mauer "hawke"

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