[OSM-talk] Divided roads proposal [tagging vs. area mapping]

[Jean-Marc Liotier]

Morten Kjeldgaard wrote:
> On 04/12/2009, at 06.49, Steve Bennett wrote:
> 
> This discussion is reminiscent of other discussions just like it.

Indeed it now reminds me of the "mapping everything as areas" thread 
that I recently started.

> There are two orthogonal approaches to mapping in the OSM. One is the  
> "drawing" approach, which is the most intuitive, since it reminds of  
> the way maps have been drawn with paper and pencil for hundreds of  
> years. The drawing approach is favoured by newbies [..]
> [..]
> There's nothing you can do with drawing that can't be done with  
> tagging, and there's in principle nothing being done with tagging that  
> can't be rendered beautifully on the final map. It only depends on the  
> richness of the tagging language and the sophistication of the  
> renderers.
> 
> It is very important that OSM keeps its head straight and doesn't  
> succumb to the increasing pressure of making the map a 2D-drawing of  
> the world.

I'm one of those newbies who got tempted and that was the reason why I 
asked the questions in the above-mentioned thread. Now I am increasingly 
realizing the power of connectivity and how the useful graph results 
from the node & way tagging approach that seems to be the foundation of 
OpenStreetMap as it stands today. Area mapping does have a role, but it 
now seems to be more specialized than my innocent eyes used to believe.

But although I'm learning the ways of OpenStreetMap, I'm learning by 
observing what others do and experimenting on my own. It works and in 
due time I'm sure I'll become a decent mapper, but that process could be 
more efficient. Some people on this list, such as you, seem to have a 
good grasp of the concepts. Would you be so kind as to start a wiki page 
that explains good practices and discernment in choosing what should be 
mapped as a tagged line and what really requires an area ?

I'm sure that the whole project would benefit if arguments could be 
articulated in a demonstration that would convince the wondering newbies 
such as me. There is surely not a single best way, but the need for a 
correct connected graph is definitely a good frame into which our 
methods must fit. Leveraging your experience to get everyone to 
understand that will surely be a significant contribution to data quality.