<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Classifying roads in central asia, it is easier, and makes more sense in my opinion to use the highway ref in the administrative sense. Some countries or regions have 5 or 6 main roads with are the national trunk system. In places they are almost reduced to tracks through the mountains, through which all traffic flows - it makes little sense to mark then as a track though- physical attribute tags can do this, and using dual carriage way technique when relevant. Many central asian roads have fallen into disrepair in the last 20 years, but nonetheless remain trunk roads. These roads are generally the object of investment to improvement, so so will remain the principal highways, but improved over time. </div><div>For example, the Chinese and Pakistani government are upgrading the Karakorum highway from 10m to 30m, it's physical characteristics will change, but the administrative classification and relative importance is likely to remain the same. Anyone driving through Tajikistan will not be expecting a German trunk highway service anyway!</div><div>James</div><div><br></div><br><blockquote type="cite">Message: 5<br>Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:06:54 +0100<br>From: Richard Mann <<a href="mailto:richard.mann.westoxford@googlemail.com">richard.mann.westoxford@googlemail.com</a>><br>Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] definition of the main highway-tag<br>To: <a href="mailto:mk@koppenhoefer.com">mk@koppenhoefer.com</a><br>Cc: osm <<a href="mailto:talk@openstreetmap.org">talk@openstreetmap.org</a>><br>Message-ID:<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><<a href="mailto:a088870d0907311006q2e74e2aak6962b469c999910b@mail.gmail.com">a088870d0907311006q2e74e2aak6962b469c999910b@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"<br><br>Sometimes it's physical, sometimes administrative. Generally it's<br>administrative where that is clearly defined (ie the higher road classes in<br>developed countries), and more physical when it isn't.<br><br>So saying either is correct wouldn't be entirely true.<br><br>Richard<blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite">Hi,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">reading the English page for tag highway<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway</a> and comparing it to the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">German version, I found some inconsistencies. Whilst I generally would<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">have tried to transfer the English content to the German page, in this<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">particular case I think that the German version is better.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The main definition in English is:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The '''highway tag''' is the primary tag used for highways. It is<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">often the only tag. It is a very general and sometimes vague<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">''description of the physical structure of the highway''.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">This goes back to an edit from 27th Oct. 2007 (Etric Celine). Until<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">then (from March 06) there was just this: "Applying to feature type:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Physical ".<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The German version defines:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">"Das highway Tag ist das Haupt-tag f?r Stra?en. Oftmals ist es auch<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">das einzige Tag. Es ist recht allgemein und bestimmt in etwa die<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Verkehrsbedeutung der Stra?e. "<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">(translates ~ "The tag highway is the primary tag for highways. Often<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">it is the only one. It is quite general and defines ~ the importance<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">of the road for the traffic"<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">There are then 2 examples to show the advantage of a physical<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">classification in respect to an administrative one (on the English<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">page, dating back to the same edit):<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">"Here are two examples where the highway tag differs from the legal status:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> Some roads in the UK that were legally classified as trunk roads<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">have been "detrunked" and are no longer designated by the government<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">as trunk roads. These roads should still have the tag highway=trunk.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">/* This first example is valid for a classification according to the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">importance as well, while the 2nd would result in different tagging:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">*/<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> A road which is legally designated as trunk road has a section<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">where the road is not built to trunk standards, e.g. a single lane<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">with passing areas. The section that is not built to trunk standards<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">should be given a different value for highway other than trunk.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_____<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">If the highway-tag was the only tag on a road, I would agree with this<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">approach, but as we are meanwhile tagging physical attributes as<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">supplementory tags (e.g. lanes, surface, traffic-lights), as we do for<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">administrative classification (ref), </blockquote><div><div>On 31 Jul 2009, at 18:25, <a href="mailto:talk-request@openstreetmap.org">talk-request@openstreetmap.org</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><blockquote type="cite">wrote:<br></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite">Hi,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">reading the English page for tag highway<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and comparing it to the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">German version, I found some inconsistencies. Whilst I generally would<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">have tried to transfer the English content to the German page, in this<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">particular case I think that the German version is better.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The main definition in English is:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The '''highway tag''' is the primary tag used for highways. It is<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">often the only tag. It is a very general and sometimes vague<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">''description of the physical structure of the highway''.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">This goes back to an edit from 27th Oct. 2007 (Etric Celine). Until<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">then (from March 06) there was just this: "Applying to feature type:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Physical ".<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The German version defines:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">"Das highway Tag ist das Haupt-tag f?r Stra?en. Oftmals ist es auch<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">das einzige Tag. Es ist recht allgemein und bestimmt in etwa die<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Verkehrsbedeutung der Stra?e. "<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">(translates ~ "The tag highway is the primary tag for highways. Often<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">it is the only one. It is quite general and defines ~ the importance<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">of the road for the traffic"<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">There are then 2 examples to show the advantage of a physical<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">classification in respect to an administrative one (on the English<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">page, dating back to the same edit):<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">"Here are two examples where the highway tag differs from the legal status:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> Some roads in the UK that were legally classified as trunk roads<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">have been "detrunked" and are no longer designated by the government<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">as trunk roads. These roads should still have the tag highway=trunk.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">/* This first example is valid for a classification according to the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">importance as well, while the 2nd would result in different tagging:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">*/<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> A road which is legally designated as trunk road has a section<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">where the road is not built to trunk standards, e.g. a single lane<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">with passing areas. The section that is not built to trunk standards<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">should be given a different value for highway other than trunk.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_____<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">If the highway-tag was the only tag on a road, I would agree with this<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">approach, but as we are meanwhile tagging physical attributes as<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">supplementory tags (e.g. lanes, surface, traffic-lights), as we do for<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">administrative classification (ref),<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></blockquote></span></blockquote></div><br></blockquote></body></html>