[OSM-talk] place=small_town

[Richard Fairhurst]

Tom Chance wrote:

> If you look at a UK road atlas they tend to have various gradations:
>
> * tiny village / hamlet (light, small black font)
> * large village or with services (heavy small black font)
> * small town (larger heavy black font)
> * important town (heavy yellow font on green background block)
> * city, metropololis (capitalised heavy yellow font on green background)

Interestingly (ish), the yellow-on-green signifies a "primary  
destination". That is, a place which the Department for Transport[1]  
has decided that people will want to navigate to, either because of  
its size or its significance as a junction. These are signposted on  
all primary roads (green-and-yellow signs, the ones we call "trunk"),  
subject to the usual limits of local council clue.

So Scotch Corner, which has a population of five and a dog, gets the  
yellow-on-green treatment. But the fairly important town of  
Northallerton nearby, and the sprawling estates of Redcar, don't.

I'd say this is an argument in favour of richer tagging. A  
motorist-centric designation should have Scotch Corner highlighted  
like this; a cyclist-friendly one shouldn't; so there'd need to be an  
extra tag for towns if we thought that was important. That's not to  
say that we shouldn't aim for more detail, but we shouldn't overload  
too much on the tags we already have.

cheers
Richard

[1] why is it that what used to be the Department of Transport is now  
_for_? Would never have worked in the days of the Ministry of War. And  
don't get me started on those pubs which think the word "at" magically  
makes them go upmarket, viz.  "The Badger's Arse" -> "The Badger's  
Arse at Lower Snodsbury".

P.S. I like "metropololis" - I can has conurbayshun?