[OSM-talk] mapping driveways

[Mike Harris]

"... People think they edit a map, but in reality they edit a database ..."

When I was a complete newbie - not long ago - it took me a while to realise
this. It is an important point and once I had cottoned on to it I understood
the philosophy and practice of mapping and tagging much better. Perhaps the
concept should be given greater prominence in the wiki - especially those
bits aimed mostly at newbies. It helps to explain many aspects of what the
more experienced mappers and taggers seem to be doing.

Mike Harris

-----Original Message-----
From: Ulf Lamping [mailto:ulf.lamping at googlemail.com] 
Sent: 25 January 2009 15:19
To: Greg Troxel
Cc: talk at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] mapping driveways

Greg Troxel schrieb:
>   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.
> 
> OK, point taken.  (I know I am not 100% clear on the norms, which is 
> why I'm asking first.)

And that's much better than other people removing stuff without asking first
;-)

> I am most used to the USGS 1:25K paper maps, and at that scale there 
> is a sense of clutter vs useful.  I get the point that the database 
> doesn't have that notion, but that when rendering the tags determine 
> what's included.  So I think my real issues are about tagging.

Yes, it's often that people think they edit a map, but in reality they edit
a database -> resulting in several very different maps.

> Driveway has a connotation of private road that one should not be on 
> unless a guest of or going to the place at the other end.  Service 
> road doesn't t me have that kind of notion.  Thus the road to a tiny 
> airport that has a restaurant open to the public is an access road, 
> but the road into a manufacturing company that's posted No Trespassing 
> is a driveway, even if there are 10x the people using it daily and it 
> has a yellow line and streetlights.
> 
> In the end I think I am wanting a way to tag residential driveways 
> from industrial driveways and commercial driveways, as the 
> social/privacy issues of using them are different.
> 
> I'll go with highway=service, service=driveway, and perhaps for 
> commercial driveways where the public is welcome access=permissive and 
> for private ones access=private.

The access tag makes perfect sense here, especially access=private when
there's a "no trespassing" (or alike) sign there.

Regards, ULFL