[OSM-newbies] highway shapefiles - how to translate road types?

[Guillaume Mauger]

Hello all, 

I have a follow-up question to my earlier newbie question regarding getting the shapefiles. I now have them (thanks!) and am working on interpreting the "highway" (contains all roads) shapefile. 

Below is the list of road-types contained in the shapefiles (18 different categories in all). 

Where can I find information that defines what all of these terms mean? Specifically, I just need to know which roads can be driven on, and which cannot. 

Thanks again, 
Guillaume 

"highway" types = 
'residential' 
'track' 
'trunk' 
'secondary' 
'motorway_link' 
'primary' 
'service' 
'motorway' 
'tertiary' 
'footway' 
'unclassified' 
'primary_link' 
'trunk_link' 
'secondary_link' 
'path' 
'Driveway' 
'pedestrian' 
'road' 

--- 
http://www.mauger.org/guillaume 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Weait" <richard at weait.com> 
To: newbies at openstreetmap.org 
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 11:47:00 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [OSM-newbies] Welcome to the "newbies" mailing list 

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 2:31 PM, Guillaume Mauger <gmauger at comcast.net> wrote: 
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> I've just learned about OpenStreetMap -- it was recommended to me as a 
> resource for finding road data for the Pacific Northwest US. I am interested 
> in downloading information on all of the roads in the states of Washington, 
> Oregon, and Idaho, but the "Extract" tab doesn't give me GML files as an 
> option. 
> 
> Any text-based listing of road locations will do for me. Can someone point 
> me to the right strategy for getting this data? 

Hi Guillaume, and welcome. 

You are looking for a fair-sized collection of information. The 
"Extract" tab on the web site is unlikely to work for an area that 
large. Selecting .osm file format would deliver an XML document with 
the information. You might try that with a small area, just to get a 
feel for it. 

There are other options for getting large sub-sets of the 
OpenStreetMap data. You might start with a country or state osm 
extract then trim or combine for your area of interest. 

Please be aware of the license obligations with OpenStreetMap. You'll 
find some guidance here http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/License and 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/FAQ#Using_OSM_maps_and_data 

And as Chris said, you are likely to be the local expert in your area. 
Your contributions to improving the map in your area are appreciated. 
And a whole lot of fun. 

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