[OSM-newbies] Problems with highway=(primary|secondary|tertiary) tags

[Dave F.]

Paul Johnson wrote:

First off I think this would have been better off being posted in Tagging.

> The highway=* key seems to have some seriously inconsistent usage right 
> now.
>
> highway=trunk, cycleway, footway, track, and motorway all speak to 
> physical characteristics of the way itself.
No it doesn't. Physical characteristics are things that are dealt with 
by tags such as surface, width, incline etc.


>   But primary/secondary/tertiary seem to speak more to administrative features of routes that run 
> over the way.
>   

Can you explain what you mean by 'administrative features' please.

> Perhaps it's time to deprecate primary/secondary/tertiary on the way and 
> make these three highway= tags part of route relations, similar to how 
> cycleways have NCN/RCN/LCN respectively.
>   

You seem to be confusing a highway with a route. A route can run on 
numerous different types of highway.

NCN etc. is the descriptive name of a route not the highway designation. 
I think your comparing oranges with apples.


Cheers
Dave  F.