[OSM-talk] Relations not always brilliant

[Lester Caine]

Robert (Jamie) Munro wrote:
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> Steve Hill wrote:
> | Putting all of the separate bits of the UK's M11 in a single relation
> | sounds about as silly as putting all the roads in the UK called "Station
> | Road" in a single relation - they are separate roads and there is no good
> | reason to treat them in any other way.
> 
> Seriously, you can't see a difference between the M11, and the
> collection of roads called "High Street", all over the UK and even the
> world? You don't think that the second is just a bit more "silly" than
> the first?
> 
> You don't think that searching for "M11" should produce one result for a
> road that covers the whole country, and searching for high street should
> produce hundreds of separate results?

This is EXACTLY the problem I'm trying to highlight!
The CURRENT data produces hundreds of High Street's and a large quantity of 
them are duplicates. You can not produce a single set of 'High Street' 
objects, ADDED to which identifying the LOCATION of each 'High Street' is an 
even sillier exercise.
This is why we need to agree a method of identifying unique versions of an 
object such as 'High Street', 'Evesham', 'Worcestershire', 'England'. And then 
we can find High Street, Evesham from all of the other High Streets, and 
HOPEFULLY identify all of the segments that make it up.
The missing piece of the jigsaw is a means if linking all of the High Street, 
Evesham segments into one object, so that a search only produces ONE result.

Problems like the A11 using part of the A14 as it's route North of Cambridge 
are just a matter of deciding if the A11-South is a separate road to the 
A11-North. Directions would have to say - Turn onto A14 - Take slip road 
signposted A11 - So in this instance they are two separate roads, but other 
uses of the road data MAY require that just a single record of A11 is 
returned. It is THAT relationship management that is missing. Although the A11 
passes through Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, and sensibly each section 
should be able to provide that information so that 'Pass into Suffolk or 
Norfolk' could be identified. The hierarchy is never going to be simple, but 
some means of adding sensible data IS required?

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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