[OSM-talk] mapping driveways

[Ulf Lamping]

Greg Troxel schrieb:
> Sorry if this is on the wiki - I've tried to read the relevant parts.
> 
> I live in a semi-rural area where there are a lot of long driveways.
> Some of these show up on the map, mostly due to MassGIS bulk imports.
> 
> For commercial places, and other places where the public might go, I've
> set a few to these to service.  An example is the access road to
> Minuteman Airfield in Stow, MA, USA:
> 
>   http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=42.46068&lon=-71.51526&zoom=17&layers=0B00FTF
> 
> But there are some that seem to be just some person's house, probably in
> the databsae because it showed up on the aerial photo, and some that
> just seem a bit goofy.  An example is the unnamed way going SSE from
> Crescent St.:
> 
>   http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=42.43777&lon=-71.5016&zoom=17&layers=0B00FTF
> 
> Should I just remove these ways?  They seem like clutter and not useful.
> The USGS topo maps show very thin lines for driveways, so it's clear
> they aren't real roads.  Calling them service doesn't seem right.
> 
> 
> So my real question boils down to: when there is an area perhaps 100m
> long and 3m wide paved to get to a single house, should that be
> represented, and how?  How do we do this so it's clearly rendered
> differently than a proper road.
> 

First of all, you should NEVER remove anything from the database, unless 
you have made certain by your own eye that the object in question is an 
error and not existing in reality! Even than take care not to remove 
anything marked as abandoned or alike, that marks this object was once 
here and the info is kept for historical reasons.

Here in germany we are simply not asking if something should be 
included! People in densely mapped areas are starting to map single 
trees and litter bins - not all of us doing so, but that's not the point 
here.

How this should be tagged depends on what's on the ground. Please have a 
look at: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Map_Features

It indicates to use highway=service together with service=driveway.

Funnily enough, I don't have a clear understanding what a driveway 
actually is, seems to be an american english specific term?

Regards, ULFL