How to tag Streets with forks and/or

General talk
1

Hallo to everyone,

i have a question regarding the “Beginners Guide 1.3.1.1 / Things To Remember When Editing” in the wiki:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide_1.3.1.1

The wiki page #3 says “Ways should not fork”. So in some situations even small streets become many “ways” while creating them. What is the reason for this instruction (“Ways should not fork”)? It seems like needless work (and data) to me, bacause you have to tag the same streets several times.

2

I don’t know the exact reason why, but it has something to do with modeling geographic data. Anyway, the choice has been made to not use forked ways so it is better not to make them :slight_smile:

Now, about the actual mapping, there are two things you can do:

  1. You can create the ways with forks at first, add the tags and then split the way before uploading.
  2. Another option is to create the correct ways immediately, select all the ways who need the same tag afterwards (with shift-left click or the ‘select area’/‘straight line’ menu options) and add the tags to the selection. Then upload.

Both methods allow you to add the tags in one go.

3

Thanks Lambertus.
I will try to give my best in “not forking” :slight_smile: