[OSM-talk] Mapping everything as areas

[John Smith]

2009/11/28 Roy Wallace <waldo000000 at gmail.com>:
> On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 5:47 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've been seeing this thread develop, and apart from trying to use
>> areas and relations in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways wouldn't
>> it be simpler from a logical point of view to treat ways as a grouping
>> of lanes and those lanes can be assigned tags that differ from the
>> ways, such as directions.
>
> Is a lane a directed area? If it isn't an area, then it's not really
> relevant to this thread, is it?

That depends if you are you only after opinions that agree with yours,
or if you really want a solution to a problem.

> Are you saying that you wouldn't find mapping areas satisfying? If so,
> that's fine - you don't have to.

The map data is already inconsistent for a variety of reasons, why
make it even more so, I was pointing out a solution that builds upon
the existing logic and can cascade rather than be forced to do a lot
of extra work for no extra benefit.

> But for people who want to do it, they should be able to. That's what
> this thread is about - giving them a way to map the world more
> accurately, if that's what they're into.

Sure you can go map sewers if you want, but you are describing a
radical change that is in conflict with vast amounts of existing map
data. My suggestion was to build on the existing data and cascade down
to further describe it at a smaller level.