[HOT] Trunks in Highway Tag Africa

[Fernando Trebien]

Hi!

The current definition of highway=trunk for Africa [1] and East Africa
[2] appears to reflect mapping practices in some highly developed
countries that are not common in most developing countries. The two
points that I find very restrictive:

1. Restricted to motorised vehicles: not mandatory even in many
developed countries [3]
2. Motorway-like layout with multiple lanes: does this include single
carriageways with 2 lanes, 1 lane per direction?

In the English wiki, the definition of highway=trunk is less
restrictive, and so are many of its translations. In addition, many
highways mapped as highway=trunk in Africa (and East Africa) do not
meet these requirements and apparently did not at the time [4] of the
edit.

Sometimes trunk roads may not even be paved. Examples include the
A-360 [5] and P-504 [6] routes in the Russian Far East and the
Trans-Amazonian Highway (BR-230) [7] in the North Region of Brazil.
Iceland's Ring Road [8] was also unpaved until recently in some parts.

So, I would like to propose changing the definition in [1] to
something like what the English wiki says: "The most important roads
in a country's system that are not motorways." Possibly adding that
these are generally the main routes between very large cities. What do
you think?

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_Tag_Africa
[2] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines
[3] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_tags_for_routing/Access_restrictions
[4] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Highway_Tag_Africa&type=revision&diff=1337238&oldid=1337236
[5] https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=58.53671&mlon=125.38264
[6] https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=64.57219&mlon=142.27424
[7] https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=-3.68545&mlon=-53.56702
[8] https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=64.78732&mlon=-14.44138

-- 
Fernando Trebien