Layers - Infrastructure, Multi-Story Structures

[rjhintz]

Presuming that marking infrastructure features was appropriate (see
other discussion) such as power generating stations, substations,
transmission lines, distribution, and similar features for water
supply and "internet supply," would a more useful organization and
presentation of these features be in layers?

For my own work, I'd like to see a power generating/distribution layer
including boundaries of power grids to understand, for example,
cascading power grid failures. Similarly I'd like to see transmission
and distribution of recycled water lines. Last, in this high level
categorization, I'd like to see mapping of inter city and metro fiber
optic cable paths that's now largely proprietary.

Yes, this is all quite different than marking Mom's Guesthouse or
South Pasadena Yoga Center, but it's key to economic development.
Even today, though, the crowding of the map with features precludes
display of all identified features.

I haven't heard of proposals for better display, but layers are used
in many visualization tools now, so I thought I'd bring up the point
to see what others may think. (Apologies if this has been proposed in
the past.)

Obviously this is a strategic point for where the map is going, not
exactly where it is today. I'm not in love with Google owning all
this information, but I'll leave the policy bit to the side for the
moment.
--
Rich