I copied this into my userdairy to make it easier for people with questions about my use of traffic signs on island on areaised highways to find my reasoning. It was writen in responce to someone stuggling and deleting and modifing them stating as part of the conversation:-

I’ve corrected two of them, the last one is here: http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/36931147 Please read again http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:traffic_sign regarding the use of highway=traffic_sign on a way / node and see this changeset http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/36875633 =================== I think they had some fixed rules based on pre areaised uses that needed to be adapted to make sence of areaised highways https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/area:highway https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/area_highway/mapping_guidelines <–This is a new page I just found and am yet to study (ie not read before below was written…) https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Street_area <—This to also has new parts I’m yet to study too (for the same reason)

Comment from Govanus less than a minute ago

this sign was a very large direction sign. Somehow this needs to be a relation and not a phiscial way according to:- http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:destination_sign which is confusing to do to a real object rather than a virtual sat-nav indicator. there seems a lot of confusion possible till you realise that there are two functions of defining and indicating traffic signs in OSM Function 1: Alert the navigation system that a traffic rule is in action in a place or part of the road. Function 2: To indicate the location of street furniture used to make a physical sign displaying infomation to road users.

In simply mapped areas using a single way for everything then tags fit to way sections for function 1, and a point, with point specific tagging, carries function 2. Its been debated wether the point goes on and into the way (as all is 1-dimensional) or by the side like a more 2-dimensional form. The obvious over sign has hight seperating layering style tags to avoid confusion.

Now in more complex and more detailed mapping used for small area rendering like doorway approches etc meny line features gain full areas and it is logical to make point features of flat objects into lines carring the same tagging to give the same meaning especialy when signs become 10 meters tall and twice the width of the sidewalk like on the southen bypass. there are also box bolard signs used along this road when the flat ones where crashed into that was a cheap replacement. they may apper as tiny squares after being areaised the four faces can carry different signs when needed too (though I don’t think the replacement one here dose and carries a non-sign on one side a black rimed white circle).

The function1 role for the traffic_sign UK:610 is given by forceing a split of the routing line at the correct spot to obay it, in an areaised highway. Remeber that the road now has lots of width as well as length and the routing line needs to follow the middle of the carrage way and not run over the sidewalk lamps and poles just drwan in the middle of the road, and this is the natural way to guide cars and busses past the features too (when some one measures the lane width changes and gives it in lane features it will make more sence too that lorries can take a staighter course but the routing line needs to fllow the middle for the logic of so meny other tags that get dumped on it. so that’s why I drew them as I did. reading the wiki still dosn’t seem to put this into question (especialy if you take the licence to convert points to ways when converting ways to areas when this make most sence when scaled to the phisical feature (ie the same size as real life)

The problem with this direction sign (in http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/36931147) is that direction signs don’t commonly carry a common referance standard-drawing number in the pointed too offical traffic_sign manual because the signs a composed on a custom to site basis following some layout rules on stuff like spaceings and line widths and angles etc. So the function 2 tagging so far seems absent as only the function 1 seems covered so this sign needs to be here to be added to a form of more virtual sign defined here:- http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:destination_sign possibly as a new role type of physical sign board or something…

The sign contains sub signs too as well a very long winded textual execption list that will probably need a lot of special use of clausual tags (more common to parking) on top of this there is question make about the intergation this with lane tagging and/or diffend marking as although these are ghost lanes only the tagging for laneing carries a lot of this infomation on lane use and possible extions of the inclusion of detination tagging to complement this signs intentions, this is fitting more of the function 1 role. Finally the question of how to intergrate possible lane features that may be drawn in future into any relation for http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:destination_sign Is another question that will probably be answered as a yes included.

As I had run out of time for this doing the other 100 features needing offset correction I drew a simple sign board so it could at least be used for function 2 pedestrian navigation uses on the sidewalk (like “oh yes I’m here; because overthere’s that huge sign shown on my map”). Also others might feel like finishing the puzzel for me as it wasn’t finished.