Looking around my local area and trying to fix issues flagged by the iD editor, 
I came across a number of road sections on the approach to roundabouts, tagged 
as “junction=approach”.  I can find no documentation in the Wiki to support 
this usage and it seems illogical to me, as “junction=*” should specify the 
type of junction.  The iD editor also objects, stating that 
“junction-=approach” should be a closed way (i.e. an area object).
An instance of this is https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/205996585.  This was 
created in 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/15069009#map=14/52.0589/-0.7514, so I 
consulted the original mapper via Changeset comments, saying, 
“....if I have consulted the history and changeset correctly, [this changeset] 
includes a number of instances (e.g. 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/205996585) where you have tagged a road flare 
approaching a roundabout with "junction=approach". I can find no documentation 
in the wiki for this tagging and iD raises it as an issue, saying that 
"Junction=approach" should be a closed way (i.e.a 2-D object, or area). Could 
you explain why you tagged it this way? What did you mean by the tag? Is it 
still relevant?”
Mapper @c2r has responded, ---------------------------“I've always tagged 
roundabout approaches as junction=approach - I must have picked it up from 
somewhere. Looking at taginfo, there's about 1760 ways tagged as such all over 
Europe: 
https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/junction=approach#map although I 
appreciate that it doesn't appear to be documented - although very little was 
at the beginning when stuff just sort of evolved.
“The approaches themselves are pretty standard approaches to roundabouts in 
England, i.e. there is typically a raised centre triangular island, for a few 
meters in length where the carriageway flares and separates from the centre. It 
is not an area. I'd always assumed junction=approach was used as a shorthand to 
prevent navigation software deciding that a U turn at the gore was acceptable, 
without needing to actually specify it as such.
“I'm not really bothered one way or another as to whether it remains as being a 
tag or not; whether it is relevant depends on whether it is useful to renderers 
or to navigation software. However, with the advent of mass aerial imagery and 
critical mass, I'm not as involved in OSM mapping as I was years ago when GPS 
traces were needed, although still add the occasional POI/correction so am 
active in that regard.
“I'd suggest asking for a ruling from the powers that be. It'd presumably be 
easy to strip the lot from the database programatically if they weren't 
required/of use.”-----------------
Advice please.
1. How do I obtain a "ruling" on this, or at least a consensus? Is this the 
correct forum?2.     Is “junction=approach” a useful tag?3. If not, should it 
be deleted?4. Could this be done automatically, or should it be by hand?5. 
Should I amend the Wiki entry for “Key:junction” to deprecate, or warn against 
this usage?
Regards,
Peter

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