Overpass API: get adjacent nodes beyond bounding box?

Question

I'm using Overpass QL to retrieve data for a bounding box (about 2 km square). I'd like to get:

all the nodes, ways, and rels within the box
all the ways and rels that reference these items
nearby nodes on included ways, for rendering

Currently, my request looks like this:

  [bbox:...];
  ( node; way; rel; );
  ( ._; <<; ); out;

This mostly works, but it doesn't give me nearby nodes on included ways, if the nodes are outside the box. So, for example, I can't draw the path the freeway takes heading out of the box. I'm afraid to use the >> operator, however, lest I get inundated by data (eg, every node on Interstate 10 :-). I could make my bounding box larger and clip the results, but that seems wasteful.

Comments, clues, suggestions?

-r

Answer 1

As a workaround, I'm currently using a pair of bounding boxes, as follows:

Use the "real" bounding box (b1) to get nodes, rels, and ways.
Recurse upward to get referencing rels and ways.
Fold in nodes from a slightly larger bounding box (b2).

Making b2 20% wider and taller than b1 produces clean results, at the cost of downloading about 30% more data. Currently, my request looks something like this:

( node(b1); way(b1); rel(b1); );
( ._; <<; node(b2); ); out;

Still hoping for a cleaner solution...

-r

Overpass API: get adjacent nodes beyond bounding box?

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