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In Lima, Peru ( http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/-12.12754/-77.02875 ) I have seen that some streets have "calle" (Spanish for street) in their name and some do not. E.g.: Calle Schell, Calle Bolívar, Calle San Martín.

In many Latin American countries the street name omits "calle". Only for larger streets e.g. "Avenida" is added to distinguish such main urban streets.

So, is it ok if one just removes "calle" from "normal" streets? Apparently, in Lima this is not handled uniformly.

asked 03 Nov '14, 14:19

ALE's gravatar image

ALE
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accept rate: 14%


This is really something for the community in Peru to determine definitely.

In general however OSM prefers to record in the name tag what is actually on the sign (there are other versions of *_name type that are there for recording other variants), with the exception of abbreviations. But as said above, we have regional communities that do it differently (see for example Spain).

My argument for this is: imagine that you are in a country that doesn't use latin script (say China). What would you prefer to have on your map? The name as on the sign, or an "official" variant that is different.

Note that recording other variants as far as they cannot be algorithmically determined is just as important because you might be entering the name from an official guide or similar that uses something different from the actual sign posted name.

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answered 03 Nov '14, 16:52

SimonPoole's gravatar image

SimonPoole ♦
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accept rate: 18%

edited 03 Nov '14, 17:22

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question asked: 03 Nov '14, 14:19

question was seen: 2,835 times

last updated: 03 Nov '14, 17:22

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum