[OSM-talk] Post code areas

[Brian Quinion]

> Brian Quinion wrote:
>> boundary=street_postal_code | district_postal_code | city_postal_code
>> street_postal_code = 425253
>
> I'm having difficulties in grasping this concept. In Germany we have 5-digit
> post codes, and the associated regions vary in size depending on how densely
> populated an area is. So a five-digit code might sometimes encompass a whole
> region, sometimes a town, sometimes just a quarter. That doesn't technically
> make them different kinds of post codes, and any labeling like
> "street/district/city" would be purely the mapper's guess.

I've not explained well.

My point is that different countries have postcodes that work at
different scales.  Some countries have multiple sets of postcodes for
different levels of detail.

When trying to process data on a world wide basis it would make life
easier for data processors if boundary=post_code did not to refer to a
completely different level of detail depending on the country.
Effectively at the moment the postal_code tag can mean something very
different in two different countries despite being the same tag.

--
 Brian