Meaning of way as a key?

Help and support
1

While browsing a changeset I came by the word “way” used as a key. For the object the value was identical to the way (element) id. But this is not true for all uses, other values do occur.

As way, as a key, has no wiki page I looked a bit further (overpass and taginfo) but I am unable to get a clear meaning. Curiously enough it does exist as a wiki item (Q4636) but that has no description so is of not much help either

Some appear to be tagging mistakes, some random samples:

Can anybody shed some light on it?

2

These are simply typos, fix them as appropriate.

3

Sadly none are near my mapping area and I am not confident enough to change them purely based on imagery.

4

I think there are different cases here

This looks pretty nonsensical and the way tag can just be deleted without any issues.

Definitely a typo for highway=service as you mentioned. (Although it should maybe be highway=footway unless you can drive a car in that cemetery?)

Pretty sure this should be highway=* + bridge=yes if it exists, but it’s not possible to tell from aerial imagery.

1 Like