[OSM-talk] Good routing vs legal routing (was: Path vs footway vs cycleway vs...)

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Anthony wrote:
> But in order to make a decent
> routing application, someone is going to have to maintain a database
> of certain laws in any states they wish for their routing application
> to work. 

It is certainly good to know what is allowed.

But a good routing application should also consider (and I think this 
was recently mentioned by someone else) the physically possible which 
might be more or less than what's legal (there are over-cautios and 
litigious jurisdictions where the allowed is often a subset of the 
possible, and there are laid-back jurisdictions where there's no speed 
limit but if you go too fast you die and rot).

And then both axes are not really "boolean". Between the physically 
possible and the physically impossible may lie an area that requires 
more skill, better vehicles or simply means a higher risk of accidents. 
Between the allowed and the forbidden lie several steps of badness - how 
likely is it that I am found out, and what fine or punishment am I in 
for if I am found out?

A good routing application will lay this wealth of information out 
before you, so that you can decide whether you'd rather risk injury, 
penalty and being re-born as a rat, but save time and fuel, or whether 
you prefer to pay a little more for safety.

Existing commercial routing applications take the easy way out by 
excluding anything that is not legal. I hope we won't!

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"