[OSM-talk] Landuse areas etc. abutting highways

[Lester Caine]

Mike Harris wrote:
> Chris
> 
> Despite the well-argued views of a minority, I am persuaded by the equally well-argued views of the (considerable) majority who favour option (b).
> 
> That is not to say that there isn't room for using a bit of common sense! I wouldn't divide up Delamere Forest into individual areas bounded by paths etc. - the paths in a sense form part of the forest landuse - but I would probably divide a residential area with, say, a major road going through it and would certainly divide landuse=farm either side of a road, for example, if I knew that it was a different farm on either side.
'Peak district national park' for example needs a boundary, but there is 
one hell of a lot of detail contained within ;) And as you say there is 
no need to break large areas of landuse='farm' if there are many 
footpaths and roads crossing it - BUT at some point it may be necessary 
to be able to calculate the 'cultivatable area' and this needs the 
detail to remove those areas of roads and the like. I think this is 
where the a/b camp do not actually conflict, as long as the dimensions 
of the roadways can be calculated from something. But at some point it 
WILL be necessary to actually draw the 'cultivatable area' and then the 
extra elements make life a lot easier than trying to extract width and 
side area information from tags on the single roadway.

> Like everything else in OSM, it all a question of judgement!
> 
> I asked the original question from a neutral standpoint but - in the light of the responses have now developed a preference for option (b) - with exceptions.
If the data is available to 'micromap' then this should be the norm and 
I have no doubt at some point even roads will be represented by areas, 
BUT with a macro view that presents things as a simple 'way based' view.

> Of course, nothing is ever final ...
With ever more people adding data, the 'macro' view is straining to 
contain the micro details, so this IS going to carry on evolving.

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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