It's time to retire ref=* on highway=* ways to describe attributes of the overlying route instead of the physical attributes of the way itself. Using the ref= tag on ways to describe routes simply creates more problems than it solves for many reasons.
* The ref=* tag on a way is describing properties of a route that is using the way, not a property of the way itself. * Many bridges and tunnels have signed references that would actually be physical attributes of a way, but with the ref= tag on ways describing the overlying route instead of the way itself, makes it impossible to properly describe these attributes if ref= on a way is describing the route above the way, not the way itself. * The ref= tag as defined for ways now includes more than the ref, but also the network. ncn_ref, int_ref, etc were created as an attempt to describe network references uniquely, but there aren't *_ref keys for every possible network already in play. * The US has two federal highway networks, each state has it's own highway network, and counties and cities have the option for their own local networks. That's at minimum 52+ *_ref keys that would be needed to describe each network uniquely...for the US alone! And we're not even into transit or other routes that might use the way! * Munging the modifier=, network= and ref= tags provided by relations into a single do-all ref= tag creates more problems than it solves, particularly for formatting. It also creates hard-to-answer questions for renderers and parsers. * Multiple routes, particularly when they are involved in multiple networks, creates unmanageable way ref= tags. It also makes it more difficult to describe attributes that belong to the route, not the way itself (such as which direction it's going, whether it's a bypass, business, toll or other sort of route, etc). Given that we have route relations, and have had them for some time now, perhaps now is the time to: * put ref= information pertaining to the route that travels on the way to a relation for that route. Provide facilities to search by network and ref on relations. * Actively remove ref= tags describing routes from ways that have route relations already: Let's kill this dinosaur. Thoughts? _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
