IIRC with real people we use character tag type, but it isn't clear what the case should be for real locations. A brief survey shows:

Many are general: easter_island, eiffel_tower, leaning_tower_of_pisa, mont_st-michel, new_york_city, tokyo_(city), tokyo_tower.

A couple are characters: empire_state_building, chrysler_building.

Strangely, tokyo_big_sight is a copyright.

(This list is by no means comprehensive.)

General or character both seem to make sense.
Thoughts?

I think they should be general tags. If I search chartags:>=1 I expect to find people, not landmarks.

I've also seen character tags used for vehicles, such as tanks and planes. IMO these should be general tags.

We agreed that mecha are characters, non-mecha vehicles are a bit more of a grey area though.

I'd think general for locations and non-mecha vehicles.

Alright, fixed erroneous cases to general.

I'm not sure who has been making vehicles characters again, but it seems pretty widespread. Things like kawasaki_t-4, grumman_f4f, f-16, mig-29, and dodai_ys aren't even mechas!

Speculation here, but perhaps people are changing the tags for personified versions of inanimate objects (e.g. mecha musume). Perhaps a blurb could be added to the wiki there to tell people not to do that. I doubt most general users would see it though.