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<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Advice please for a
relative newbie.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Until the mid-1990s,
trunk roads in Britain were managed by a central government agency (in England,
the Highways Agency) and other roads, including other primary roads, were
managed by local authorities. All primary roads were numbered "Annnn" (n - up to
4 digits) - many maps (including the Ordnance Survey) further distinguished
trunk roads by adding a descriptor thus "Annnn (T)". OSM largely, but not
entirely, reflects this historical situation with the separate tags
highway:trunk and highway:primary being differently rendered (e.g. green for
trunk and red for primary in Osmarender).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>The comment for
trunk roads on the map features main page of the OSM Wiki
reads:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008>"Important roads that aren't motorways.
Typically maintained by central, not local government. Need not necessarily be a
divided highway. In the UK, all green signed A roads are, in OSM, classed as
'trunk'."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>and for primary
roads:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008>"Administrative classification in the UK,
generally linking larger towns."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Unfortunately, in
the mid-1990s nearly all trunk roads in Britain were "de-trunked" and their
maintenance transferred from central to local government (in England, for
example, the Highways Agency). There are now very few trunk roads in the country
- see map at <A
href="http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/6151.htm">http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/6151.htm</A> .
This change is reflected in most recent mapping (including the OS - note how the
"(T)" suffix has disappeared from almost all A roads that formerly had it) -
except OSM!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>If we take the
current legal situation at face value, we should logically change in OSM most of
the roads tagged as "trunk" to "primary" - and this would best be done wholesale
rather than piecemeal (if this is possible).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>The current comments
on the map features page are now at best confusing and perhaps incorrect. All A
roads are green signed (or will be as older white signs are replaced) but almost
all are maintained by local government - so the comment on trunk roads is now
self-contradictory. AFAIK there is no administrative classification for primary
roads other than as "A" roads - so the comment on primary road also contradicts
the comment on trunk roads.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Being a logical sort
of person and wanting OSM to be up-to-date, I am tempted to change the advice in
the Wiki and to change "trunk" to "primary" as I come across them via my GPX
traces - but I don't want to act unilaterally.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=375585108-30122008><FONT face=Arial size=2>May I recommend
strongly that we bring OSM up-to-date with the current administrative situation
in Great Britain and reclassify trunk roads as primary wherever they have been
detrunked? Is there a generic way of doing this centrally? (I am nowadays "only"
a mapper and no longer a coder).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=375585108-30122008>mikh43</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>