[OSM-talk] RFC - 'living_street'

[Ulf Lamping]

USHAKOV, Sergey schrieb:
> Paul, thank you for being the first to respond to my post with the new
> subject :)
> 
> OSM wiki is a great resource and really does clarify a lot. Meanwhile it is
> "work in progress" like all wikis and still leaves some space for possible
> confusion here and there...
> 
> The reason for my question and proposal is that there is a lot of confusion
> and discussions between Russian OSM members on what should be tagged as a
> 'living_street'. I am personally not a supporter of mapping all garbage
> collection ways :) But residential areas in Russian cities are full of
> public un-named ways that are an important means for getting to the
> destination, sometimes via a long and complicated path. And traffic rules
> applicable on these un-named "streets" are very much the same as for the
> named living streets. So it is really important for navigation software to
> know about them and treat/render them appropriately.
> 
> Please have a look at this picture:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Image:Residential_area_way_1.jpg .
> Officially it's an un-named way in a residential area. Does it qualify as an
> alley? ;) What is the right word for it that you would pick as a native
> English-speaker?
> 
> The most discussed questions are:
> - is having a name really important for an object to be a 'living_street'
> (say, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway%3Dliving_street
> explicitly suggests no 'name' tag for a  'living_street' in Belarus)

I personally don't know any living_street without a name tag here in 
germany. But this is more a matter of fact on the ground than a rule 
that needs to be followed ;-)

> - is being marked with a "residential area" traffic sign really important
> for an object to be a 'living_street' ("living street" traffic rules may be
> implied on certain ways without any signs)

How are they implied without any signs? Street width, special areas, ...?

In general the sign is the case here in germany (and other western 
europe countries it seems) - if there are different regulations in 
russia then these may better be applied.

> - what may be other important characteristics of a 'living_street" as
> compared to "service"
> 
> Any feedback is most appreciated...

Well, I don't know the legal system in russia and belarus well ;-)

Here in germany, the "verkehrsberuhigter Bereich" that is tagged in OSM 
as living_street (the tag I invented years ago :-) are often "normal" 
residential streets with special legal regulations (walk speed, parking, 
...). Basically you'll tag a living_street when the blue sign shown at: 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway%3Dliving_street appears - 
if not, simply use highway=residential. Physically these streets may 
even possibly connect higher level streets, but transit traffic should 
be avoided.

I would use highway=service with it's subtags for (usually smaller) 
streets that leads to something (fuel station, buildings, ...)


All in all, if the street/legal system in russia differs in important 
points here, it's up to the russian community to find criteria for 
tagging that fit's best.

Regards, ULFL