In our opinion, after consulting with vmarc and with Sarah from waymarkedtrails, only the subrelations between nodes need the tag network_type=node_network. However, it does not hurt to add it to the nodes and the superrelation.
The nodes are identified as network nodes because of the xxn_ref says it all. Waymarkedtrails then just renders the nodes on the right map, it does not use the overall network relation at all. For network analysis, vmarc also does not need an extra tag for the nodes. Same thing: the xxn_ref is enough, and they are also part of the overall network relation.
I don’t know enough about other renderers, checkers and datausers to tell. But we in NL will not need to add the node_network tag to the nodes.
The node network relation, we think it has to have the network_type=node_network tag.
[(Sidestepping: At the same time, we are considering not to use a node network superrelation any more! It groups nodes and node2node routes into networks, mainly for consistency checking. In reality, all of Nederland is becoming one big node network, resulting in an unmanageable superrelation without structure or order.
For administration, checking and maintenance, it would be simpler to use e.g. municipal boundaries to group nodes and node-routes into manageable divisions. No mapping necessary, and we wouldn’t need special rules and roles for connection routes. Network names found in the field could still be recorded and could be rendered, but nothing would depend on that.)
