[OSM-talk] Misclassified roads

[David Earl]

On 11/07/2008 09:43, Steve Hill wrote:
> The definition of living_street is a bit vague in the wiki.  A relevant 
> bit seems to be:
> "Simply tagging them with something like highway=residential, max_speed=7, 
> motorcar=yes, motorcycle=yes, bicycle=yes"
> 
> Which implies to me that the living_street tag almost never applies in the 
> UK - The vast majority of our residential roads have a speed limit of 
> 30mph, with newer ones tending to have a 20mph limit.  Just about the only 
> roads you'll see in the UK with a 5-10mph speed limit are service roads to 
> amenities such as schools.
> 
> I don't know enough about the road systems in other countries to comment - 
> from your description, it sounds like maybe you have living streets (very 
> low speed limit) rather than residential roads (20-30mph speed limits). 
> As I said, I really don't like the residential tag (although I do use it 
> in order to be consistent with the rest of the map).  For roads with speed 
> limits over 30mph I don't tag them with highway=residential, even if they 
> have houses along them.

You are right. Living streets are uncommon in the UK. I believe "Living 
Street" is a translation of the Dutch "Woonerf" where the concept was 
invented. The equivalent here, to which the tag would be applied, is 
known as "Home Zone", and it has a specific sign:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tss/general/coll_newroadsignsandmarkingsleaf/dft_roads_022863-16.jpg
(which is taken from this page
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tss/general/newroadsignsandmarkingsleafletb?page=1
)

Like all these things, the details vary from country to country. What 
makes some European Living Streets so much better than those in the UK 
is that they place a default responsibility on the motorist for any crash.

David