[OSM-talk] [tagging] RFC :left/:right (asymmetrical roadside features)

[Andrew Chadwick (mailing lists)]

Further to Tobias's raising of :<mode>, :wet, :<direction> etc. for 
pseudovoting, I'd like to raise a general method for tagging properties 
of the two sides of the road:

   http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/right_left

The proposal suggests an interpretation of suffixes like

   <property>:left=<value>
   <property>:right=<value>

which works in a backwards-compatible way and which is machine- 
interpretable for different classes of application. It does not suggest 
any particular keys for <property>, however it might ultimately be used 
to resolve the inability to specify which side(s) of the road a cycleway 
is on, for example.

I think it would work quite well for static, non-access-related features 
applicable only to single sides of the road. Abutters, cycleways, names 
spring to mind as immediate uses.

-- 
Andrew Chadwick