[OSM-talk] tagging roads

[Blaž Lorger]

On Sunday 02 August 2009 11:49:06 Pieren wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 10:59 AM, John Smith<delta_foxtrot at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I agree with everything else you wrote except width since I really don't
> > want to get a tape measure out and measure widths of roads, using lanes=*
> > to estimate widths would be more sensible and is already in use.
>
> +1
>
> I prefere to add "narrow=yes" combined with residential or
> unclassified (or any other) highways. It should be interpreted as
> "between 75% to 50% narrower than the default width of this highway
> type".
>
> Pieren

Wiki clearly states why tag narrow=yes would be a bad idea 
(http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:width#Using_relative_sizes).
Basically, what is wide for bicycle is narrow for a car, what is wide for a 
car is narrow for a truck ...
Besides, I am not much bothered by narrow roads when driving a car. On the 
other hand some drivers will drive very slow when lane width drops under twice 
the width of their vehicle. Whose estimation of whether road is narrow or not 
is appropriate?

Specifying actual or at least estimated width is only way to ensure that data 
is universally usable. I guess heavy truck driver would not be amused when 
navigation system would direct him in 3m wide residential street, while car 
driver would only see it as a problem when passing another car.