You might want to use the tag "alt_name" or "old_name" for the old railway line. These tags are in common use for alternative names or old names for things, so are more useful than "aka" (which hardly anyone is using).

Maybe you could use the OSM tiles from Mapquest: http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/open/map
See the terms of use section - you can use the tiles for free, and they don't seem to have any restrictions on heavy use.
Though they are a different style of map to the standard osm.org tiles, which you may not prefer.

I think shop=charity is included in places to give.
At least it was when I looked a few days ago. Though checking now for my town, it just says "Sorry, we could not find "Places to Give"", I don't know if they have changed something about this?

If this is just for a bunch of streets with the same name, then there's no need for a relation.
You could add a feature to the editor to select all connected ways with the same name, then change the name on all of them at once. Thats just simple geometry and tagging, so easy to understand and edit.

Yes, rendering addr:housename would be great.
I've been doing a bit of mapping houses from surveying addresses and Bing tracing in villages around here. And a lot of houses have names instead of numbers, so it would be nice to see those on the map.

Plus it would make it more obvious which have missing names/numbers. I've noticed quite a few houses that don't appear to have a name or number signed anywhere.

What Garmin device are you using? I think different types of Garmins will calculate routes differently.
And what routing settings are you using? eg is it set for shorter or faster routes, and what vehicle type?

For a software simulator, you could try Garmin Mapsource. Its possible to download it for free, and use OSM maps in it.
Then you can use it for calculating routes, and trying different settings. Though it probably uses a different routing algorithm from the Garmin devices.

Sanderd17:
Yes, you can do that by adding a parameter to the link in the iframe.
eg for Mapnik, you have to add "&mapType=mapnik" to the link, or "&mapType=cycle" for Opencyclemap.

Its explained on this page (in German): http://www.gpsies.com/page.do?page=linkus

There's a list here of websites to do this: osm.wiki/Track_drawing_websites

I usually use GPSies - it lets you draw a track on top of lots of different background maps, including OSM/OpenCycleMap, Google, and Bing maps/aerial imagery.

No its not. A number is not a name. A name is made up of words.

If its a number or code for the quay, it should be tagged with ref=, not name=.

I don't think the "addr:housename" tag (or the "name" tag) is correct for this. Those tags are for the name of the building, which is not necessarily the same as the name of the department based in that building.

I would suggest using a different tag, eg "department", or maybe "operator:department"
Though at the universities I'm familiar with, most buildings are used by several different departments anyway.

Also, if the building has a reference, eg a letter and number, I think that should be tagged as "ref", as its not really a name.

There was a Uservoice thing created a while back, which does a similar sort of thing: http://osm.uservoice.com/
Though I don't know if there's much happening with it now.
Something like Ideatorrent would probably be better, as it can be hosted on the OSM servers, and use the same login etc.

Though I'm not sure if there is really a need for yet another place to report/discuss things. There already is Trac, Help.osm.org, the Wiki, mailing lists, the forum etc.

There are awards that can be given to people who have made a particularly worthwhile contribution to OSM: osm.wiki/Awards
Though they're not used much.

Yes, I've noticed quite a few errors in the OS Locator names - mostly minor misspellings, different spacing/apostrophes or old names etc. So best to survey on the ground, and check what the streetsigns say.

Though the oscompare is still very useful for finding areas that are incomplete, or need surveying. There's also Musical Chairs, which is a similar tool for comparing with OS Locator: http://ris.dev.openstreetmap.org/oslmusicalchairs/map

You could just follow the code of conduct for large scale automated edits: osm.wiki/Automated_Edits/Code_of_Conduct
Specifically, discussing it before making changes.

And if you want to deprecate an existing tag and replace it with something else, you could follow the usual tag proposal process.

This is a fairly common problem in Mapnik, so I think its been reported a few times before. Mapnik always renders the symbol or name in the middle point of the area. But for complicated shapes, this sometimes means the symbol is outside the area.

See for example these reports on trac (not for parking, but its the same cause):
http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/2306
http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/2295

I don't know if these will actually be fixed any time soon.

The JOSM validator will highlight things tagged fixme.
Or this tool can show them as a overlay: http://beta.letuffe.org/

Though you should be able to download tracks and waypoints from the eTrex H, try using GPSBabel (assuming you have a suitable cable).

Worth checking your local area on keep right: http://keepright.ipax.at/
It warns of "intersections without junctions", ie places where ways cross without sharing nodes. So these should either have a junction, or a bridge/tunnel mapped.

I'd agree that is not helpful to do "connectivity fixes" in areas you are not familiar with, best to check on the ground if there's a bridge or not.

Or the fault of people assuming their map is correct, and not looking where they are going.
Was there not any warning signs, or barriers across the old road?

Check what projection you are using in JOSM - on Edit -> Preferences, then third icon down. It should be set to Mercator, then you'll get things the same shape as they are on the online maps.