[OSM-talk] highway=unsurfaced

[David Murn]

On Tue, 2011-01-11 at 10:13 -0500, Anthony wrote:
> > Sure, but if you read you will notice that I was specifically answering
> > a question about what that would be called in the UK, not what it would
> > be called in Australia.
> 
> The more important question is what the tag means.  Or is highway=road
> a tag which has a different definition in every state?

Well, I dunno/care about what the definition is in every state, but the
definition of highway=road in the OSM wiki (since I believe we're all
talking about OSM here, and not some other localised schema):

>From highway=road:
> A road of unknown classification. This is intended as a temporary tag
> to mark a road until it has been properly surveyed. Once it has been
> surveyed, the classification should be updated to the appropriate
> value.

So, while 'road' may mean a tarred bit of bitumen in the UK, and it
means something passable by a vehicle in Australia, in the OSM context
it means an unknown classification, temporarily tagged until the
required re-survey is complete.  Now, maybe Im off the mark here, but it
sounds like that is *EXACTLY* the outcome we want when mass changing
tags, to use a temporary tag which by definition means more information
is needed.

So, while its all well and good that different countries have different
meanings of the word 'road', in OSM there is only one meaning, and it
seems to be exactly what we're trying to achieve in this situation.

David