[OSM-talk] Use of official names Re: shortened names

Nathan Edgars II neroute2 at gmail.com
Thu Jul 28 15:32:04 BST 2011


Colin Smale wrote:
> 
> It's still the same road, even in the face of variations in the 
> spelling. I can't for the life of me think of a reason for worrying 
> about whether it's Pkwy or Parkway, as both are easily understood to be 
> equivalent. There will only be one official spelling (cf. your plat 
> example) which, if it differs from the evidence on the ground, should go 
> in "official_name". The key criterion (IMHO) is whether the name shown 
> on renderings based on OSM data is useful. Anyone following a satnav's 
> directions onto "Orlando Parkway" is not going to decide to ignore a 
> sign saying "Orlando Pkwy" on the grounds that it is probably a 
> different street and carry on scouring the area for a sign that says 
> "Orlando Parkway".
> 
My point is that following what's on signs for the sake of deciding whether
to abbreviate is not a good idea. Because signs are so inconsistent, we need
a more general policy of what to abbreviate. Our current policy is to expand
all prefixes and suffixes, and maybe to expand all abbreviations within the
base name; the latter is what's mostly being discussed here.


Colin Smale wrote:
> 
> In the case where a street has different spellings on the sign at the 
> two ends, where's the boundary? You can't tell, because there isn't one. 
> It's the same street. Pick a spelling, and stick to it. Many renderers 
> (e.g. mkgmap+Garmin nav) will be relying on the spelling being 
> consistent from end to end. If the street name changes in the course of 
> the street, even by one letter, it can be considered a "different 
> street" leading to extraneous directions. To me, consistency is more 
> important than 100% accuracy as judged against soft criteria.
> 
Don't tag for the satnav :)
But seriously, this is a problem with the software, since it will do the
same thing where e.g. West Colonial Drive becomes East Colonial Drive, or
where Kaley Avenue becomes Kaley Street (real example; it was originally
Avenue all the way, but when Orlando annexed part of the road they changed
it to Street because they have a strict policy of Avenues being north-south
and Streets east-west:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=28.51859&lon=-81.38232&zoom=16&layers=M).

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