Specificity vs Readability
Posted by 3ngineer on 29 April 2017 in English. Last updated on 22 May 2017.Sometimes I wonder if the ability to define such specific details actually makes the map more confusing and inconsistent rather than informative. By no means am I an expert, but I have a feeling that there’s a lot of info that’s practically not needed. The ability to add it just makes people fight and unhappy with others’ judgement. Also, the map can become confusing when very similar types of things are drawn different ways; I think that contributes to OSM’s messiness. Nevertheless, if we take out too much info, we would just become Google maps XD so perhaps just ensuring similar things have similar styles is the best approach.
Discussion
Comment from Warin61 on 29 April 2017 at 22:29
Some seek dirt roads, others avoid them. Same thing with toll roads. I have detailed some inclines too .. under 15% is my cut off point.
Those might be some of the ‘details’ you regard as ‘practically not needed’?
Comment from Alan Trick on 30 April 2017 at 18:44
This really depends on what you’re up to, but on things like back-country trails I often find it very helpful to know things like trail_visibility & sac_scale.
There are certainly a lot of ways that have superfluous tags as a consequence of import scripts though.
Comment from Carnildo on 1 May 2017 at 21:24
Speed limits are pretty useful when finding the fastest route.
Comment from Piskvor on 2 May 2017 at 15:41
Different people care about different details. Lane attributes? Destination signs? Maxspeed? Lit? Wheelchair access? Stairs with stroller ramps?
“I don’t need this” != “this is useless”.