Thanks -- the rationale embodied in the sentence quoted from Toby Murray below was what drove me to use a relation:
"It allows one real world object to be represented by one object in OSM and reduces duplication of tags on component ways." --ceyockey -----Original Message----- >From: Toby Murray <toby.mur...@gmail.com> >Sent: Jan 5, 2013 1:17 PM >To: "Tag discussion, strategy and related tools" <tagging@openstreetmap.org> >Subject: Re: [Tagging] Names on relations and not component ways > > >Large river tagging is kind of a mess so I'm not quite sure where I >stand on this. But we also use relations to map lakes that are too big >to be mapped with a single way because of the 2,000 node limit. It >seems like rivers are in a similar situation and the use of a relation >does not seem completely out of place. It allows one real world object >to be represented by one object in OSM and reduces duplication of tags >on component ways. > >Toby > _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging