[OSM-talk] routing across open spaces

[David Murn]

On Wed, 2010-12-01 at 00:00 -0500, Anthony wrote:

> Alternatively, I guess it wouldn't be horrible to add something like a
> highway=shortcut tag, so mappers could be explicit about it.  If we've
> gotta add foot=permissive by hand anyway, it's not that much more work
> to add a few extra ways.

I think you may be onto something there.  If you added a highway or
footway tag to the area, to explicitly show routability, then routers
may be more able to use it reliably.

Another thought that comes to mind is that routing normally occurs from
node to node, so if a triangle area was formed with 3 nodes, a routing
engine couldnt generate a route that crosses through the middle, as a
routing engine will only route from one node to another on the same way,
or that shares a junction.  You could get around this by adding footways
into the park area, and then convince the routing engine authors to
recognize a highway (or footway) tag on an area.

David