[OSM-talk] open question about boundaries sharing nodes with ways or nodes

[Andrew Guertin]

On 10/14/2015 03:49 AM, Badita Florin wrote:
> This way is a highway and at the same time is part of the relation of a
> boundary. This seems invalid since it merges two types of features on the
> same way instead of keeping a logical separation between two different
> things. Is this a valid way? What if the highway is modified ? since the
> highway is not a legal boundary and just happens to overlap the real
> boundary, so if the highway  is changed for any reason, it will modify the
> boundary along with it. So what's the valid thing to do here? Duplicate the
> way to save the highway way and keep a way for the boundary separated?,

I won't get in to the best way to accomplish this technically, but I 
suggest you remove the existing boundary information in whatever way 
works for you while leaving non-boundary information intact, and then 
upload your new information keeping it separate from any other 
(non-boundary) objects.

As other people have discussed, it can be very hard (requiring legal 
research or even court decisions) to know whether a boundary IS a 
certain feature and will change if the feature changes or merely 
currently follows a feature and will stay put if the feature changes. 
Uploading the boundaries as separate objects is not wrong and provides 
the vast majority of the value. If anyone is motivated to do the legal 
research and connect things when appropriate, they can do that later.

--Andrew