[OSM-talk] definition of the main highway-tag

[Liz]

On Mon, 3 Aug 2009, Elena of Valhalla wrote:
>
> >
> >  So is it really a big change for Germany and Italy to
> > define the highway tag as the administrative classification of the road?
>
> As Martin already said, yes, it would be a big change, and it would
> become quite meaningless (I speak about Italy, don't know about
> Germany)
>
> At least in Italy, the law states that the importance of a road
> defines its administrative status, and this in turn decided who is
> going to maintain it: if it was like this it would be great for OSM.
>


this makes a fascinating problem the organised germanic heirarchiacal system 
vs the romantic italianate system


and because you are on the same continent you have to solve this problem

i believe that i map what i see on the ground - our Australian governments are 
closer to the italianate system than the germanic when it comes to logic and 
organisation
so we have to decide for ourselves what is what, and in Australia we use the 
descriptive terms as "who maintains the road" defines nothing for us.