[OSM-talk] zones for motorway/in town/outof town?

[Guenther Meyer]

Am Thursday 21 May 2009 schrieb Lester Caine:
> Guenther Meyer wrote:
> >> So while discussing HOW the default speed for roads are calculated is
> >> important, can we not simply apply that speed without adding another
> >> layer of complexity?
> >
> > I wouldn't do that, because it's a derived value depending on a lot of
> > things like road type, time of day, weekday, construction sites, ...
> >
> > ok, you might add this value additionally with a special tag, to give a
> > hint to routing applications.
>
> Why? maxspeed IS that tag
no!
maxspeed is the tag, that specifies a given speed limit, and is legally 
defined. it is NOT some average speed value for a specific road.

> > but there are more applications than just routing, to  which that data
> > may be useless.
>
> Does that matter?
> maxspeed is already defined and exists
> Additionally there is a page for speed limits against highway tag and I
> remember a discussion about low speed limits in traffic calming areas
> which proposed an alternative to highway=residential for those areas, so
> the type of road is already included in defining the default maxspeed.
>
> > on the other hand the speed limits are defined values (at least in every
> > country I have been so far...).
>
> What I'm failing to see here is the REASON we need to add another set of
> area definitions simply to do with speed when that information is
> already well covered in existing tags - if they are used properly?
>
my first suggestion was exactly this: why not use and extend the already 
existing tags for that, like "maxspeed = DE:in_town".
but after some discussion it was clear that such a tag would imply more than 
just certain speed limits, as I already mentioned. that's why the idea of 
using a more generic key was coming up.



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