[OSM-talk] [Talk-us] Finding untagged dead-ends

[John F. Eldredge]

phil at trigpoint.me.uk wrote:

> I am struggling to understand why this is seen as an error that needs
> fixing.
> 
> I can think of plenty of roads that end in eithsr a dead end or become
> a footpath, bridleway. Many are single track where the only way out is
> a very long reverse. These are a feature of the landscape, and often a
> result of the enclosure acts. They should be left well alone.
> 
> Phil
> 
> 
> On 15/02/2012 11:14 Josh Doe wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 12:41 AM, Nathan Edgars II
> <neroute2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Is there a way (in JOSM or otherwise) to find all dead-ends (nodes
> contained
> > in only one highway way) without highway=turning_circle or
> noexit=yes in an
> > area?
> 
> There's a ticket that would help accomplish this [0]. You could then
> do a search like "-(highway=mini_roundabout OR highway=turning_circle
> OR noexit=yes) child:0,-1 highway=* type:way". At the moment I can't
> think of a way to select nodes with only one parent way. If I'm not
> missing something and this functionality isn't implemented yet, it
> wouldn't be hard, just need to create a ticket and choose an
> appopriate keyword: "nparents" "nchildren"?
> 
> -Josh
> 
> [0]: http://josm.openstreetmap.de/ticket/7262
> 

Dead-end streets are common in residential neighborhoods here in Nashville, TN, USA.  Older parts of the city, pre-World-War-II, are mostly laid out in grid patterns, but the majority of post-World-War-II Nashville (which is to say about 80% of the city) was built one subdivision at a time.  Each subdivision is laid out in a tree pattern, with many dead-end streets off of a few major roads.  The radial roads generally date back to when this was farmland.  As a result, you sometimes have to drive a couple of miles in order to reach a destination only a few hundred feet from your starting point.  Some of these dead-end roads have turning circles at their end, some don't.  As far as I know, most don't have a noexit=yes tag.

-- 
John F. Eldredge --  john at jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria