OpenStreetMap
Why no default frequency for powerlines?
Pubblicatu di Obelixx lu 1 February 2012 n German (Deutsch)Why is the frequency value for a new powerline not set by default 50 Hertz for lines in Europe and 60 Hertz for lines in North America? As nearly all lines have this value, it would make sense and the exceptions could be set manually.
Discussion
Cummentu di Etherg8 lu 1 February 2012 ê 15:53
Things aren't that simple everywhere. Electricity transmission in Japan is divided for historical reasons into two regions each running at a different frequency. Eastern Japan runs at 50 Hz, while Western Japan runs at 60 Hz.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_in_Japan#Transmission
Cummentu di Sanderd17 lu 1 February 2012 ê 16:20
As app, you can implement it that way when it's not tagged.
I don't see the problem here.
Cummentu di Obelixx lu 1 February 2012 ê 17:22
Japan is one of the few countries for which this tool is not applicable, but for most countries, it would work well.
Cummentu di Andy Allan lu 2 February 2012 ê 09:05
OpenStreetMap generally has the concept of "default" values, to save everyone time and effort. One example would be that if there's no oneway tag on a road, it's assumed to be two-way.
You can take the same approach to frequencies on powerlines. Perhaps life is too short to worry about tagging every powerline in Europe with the frequency - simply tag the (presumably very few) examples where this is not the case. As Sanderd17 said, when people use the data they can set sensible interpretations for when the frequency tag is missing.