Validation error is incorrect and not understandable

[carciofo]

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Select a way with highway=residential and area=yes tags
2. Click on the Validation button (in the Validation Results)
3. An error appears with the following text: "suspicious tag combination - Area with highway=* above highway=service is invalid, use area:highway=* instead"

What is the expected result?

An error message that correlates with the tags of the selected object (i.e. highway=residential)

What happens instead?

An error message is generated that makes reference to "highway=service", which is not a tag that is present in the selected object.

Additionally, the message is not understandable (to me). What does "above" mean in this context? There are no objects "above" any others; it is just one object. The message should read either "Area with highway=* is invalid" or "Area with highway=residential is invalid" (with "residential" being dependent on the actual highway=* on the way).

Furthermore, the recommendation to use area:highway=* instead is not in line with the guidance currently in ​https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:area:highway#Differentiation_area:highway_vs._area=yes_on_a_highway, which states that area=yes + highway=* is semantically different from area:highway, so the blanket statement to use area:highway seems misplaced (especially when it is categorized as an error as opposed to a warning). Additionally, the next section in the wiki "Inconsistencies" leads the reader to believe that the use of area:highway=* has some issues, which seems counter to the blanket recommendation of the OSM validator.

Please provide any additional information below. Attach a screenshot if possible.

Relative:URL: ^/trunk
Repository:UUID: 0c6e7542-c601-0410-84e7-c038aed88b3b
Last:Changed Date: 2026-08-11 15:36:21 +0200 (Tue, 11 Aug 2026)
Revision:19613
Build-Date:2026-08-12 01:30:51
URL:https://josm.openstreetmap.de/svn/trunk

Identification: JOSM/1.5 (19613 en) Windows 11 64-Bit
OS Build number: Windows 10 Pro 25H2 (26200)
Memory Usage: 1210 MB / 4096 MB (223 MB allocated, but free)
Java version: 21.0.5+11-LTS, Eclipse Adoptium, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM
Look and Feel: com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel
Screen: \Display0 3200x2000x32bpp@60Hz (scaling 2.50×2.50)
Maximum Screen Size: 3200×2000
Best cursor sizes: 16×16→64×64, 32×32→64×64
System property file.encoding: UTF-8
System property sun.jnu.encoding: Cp1252
Locale info: en_US
Numbers with default locale: 1234567890 -> 1234567890
Dataset consistency test: No problems found

Plugins:
+ apache-commons (36483)
+ ejml (36483)
+ geotools (36483)
+ jackson (36502)
+ jaxb (36483)
+ jts (36483)
+ opendata (36503)
+ reverter (36503)
+ tageditor (36503)
+ turnlanes (36503)
+ turnlanes-tagging (1786514827)
+ undelete (36503)
+ utilsplugin2 (36503)

Map paint styles:
+ https://josm.openstreetmap.de/josmfile?page=Styles/Lane_and_Road_Attributes&zip=1

Last errors/warnings:
- 00000.315 W: extended font config - overriding 'filename.Malgun_Gothic=malgun.ttf' with 'MALGUN.TTF'
- 00000.317 W: extended font config - overriding 'filename.Myanmar_Text=mmrtext.ttf' with 'MMRTEXT.TTF'
- 00000.317 W: extended font config - overriding 'filename.Mongolian_Baiti=monbaiti.ttf' with 'MONBAITI.TTF'