2008/5/8 Richard Fairhurst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > yes, it is a strange choice. it leads to irrationalities like > > highway=footway and highway=cycleway > > why we're not using right_of_way=motorway|primary|cycleway|footway| > > and so on, i don't know > > Generally "right of way" is a legal term. It defines a way by the class > of user who has legal permission to use it.
ok, fair point. highway=footway|cycleway are still unintuitive though > By and large, when we map roads, we're making observations as to what's > on the ground. We're not trawling through statutory instruments to find > the legal status of a particular road or footpath. So whatever the > failings of 'highway', 'right of way' would imply a legal status that > we simply don't know. possibly; although i would argue that a combination of the access restrictions listed in your local equivalent of the road code/highway code, and a council-maintained signpost (otherwise we can't find out the name....) will give exactly that: who and what are allowed to access a given road/highway, in a very simple and unambiguous way. any way that doesn't have signs telling us what it is, can then be tagged in a way to imply it is ambiguous (access=unknown) i.e. you want to use it, you take the chance that you're trespassing > (Incidentally, the term 'highway' isn't really UK-centric - it's very agreed, but i don't think i said it was. i argued that it was ambiguous in the context we use it and thus possibly confusing for new users > rarely used over here except in road-technical circles, e.g. Highways > Agency, highway engineer. Everyone else calls it a 'road' - e.g. > railway enthusiasts dismissively refer to the Department for Transport > as the Department for Roads. The generic 'highway' is much more US > usage.) i understand where they're coming from... _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
