[Tagging] Basic question about functional classification of highways

[Fernando Trebien]

Hello everyone,

Time and again I get myself thinking why is that we use a single
classification system for rural and urban ways. To me, an urban
tertiary is usually very different from a rural tertiary, both
physically and functionally.

For several applications, such as navigation software, a distinction
would be very interesting, allowing the display of rural primaries and
secondaries when zooming out, a more accurate speed guess when the
maxspeed tag is missing (based on these tables, which seem to assume
that the urban/rural boundary is mapped using a place=* tag, perhaps
an old idea: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_tags_for_routing/Maxspeed).
The only benefit I can see of mixing the two classification systems
into a single system is not being required to duplicate a rendering
rule.

-- 
Fernando Trebien
+55 (51) 9962-5409

"Nullius in verba."