[OSM-talk] Tagging bridleways

[Richard Fairhurst]

Steve Hill wrote:

> On Tue, 13 May 2008, Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists) wrote:
>
>> This is an example of confusing the physical space with the legal
>> administrative description.
>
> Yes, but sadly the highway tag is defined in Map Features to encompass
> that confusing mixture of physical and legal descriptions. :)
>
> (It is something we should probably try to move away from, but that's
> another discussion).

Apologies to those who've heard me blether on about this before, but  
in my mind the highway tag indicates "purpose". In other words: what's  
the way there for?

In the UK, at least, the administrative category (M, A-primary, A, B  
etc.) usually correlates pretty well to the purpose (in fact, one  
influences the other).

But occasionally there's a really glaring discrepancy between purpose  
and category. In which case, we follow the "Oxford High Street Rule":  
tag for purpose, but make sure the administrative category is still  
recorded. (The High Street in Oxford is nominally the A420, so we tag  
ref=A420, but it's no good as a through-route - the bollards are a bit  
of a giveaway - so we tag highway=tertiary.)

Skimming the thread, your road sounds like highway=unclassified;  
designation=bridleway. Or something - finding a consensus for  
designation= is left as an exercise for the reader.

cheers
Richard