[Tagging] Trunk VS primary

ET Commands etcommands at gmail.com
Fri Dec 27 22:16:08 UTC 2019


> Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2019 19:39:19 +0100
> From: yo paseopor <yopaseopor at gmail.com>
> To: "Tag discussion, strategy and related tools"
> 	<tagging at openstreetmap.org>
> Subject: Re: [Tagging] [Talk-us] Trunk VS primary,
>
>
> First problem for classifications is the reason of the classification. What
> is this reason: administrative laws (with their political facts to keep in
> mind) or physical conditions (the best for the performance of the vehicles
> you would have in this road)?
>
> Second problem is the reality of the country: If you are in the country
> with the biggest budget in motorways you will be sure some secondary will
> have two lane roads and bridges without crossings. If you are in a country
> major part of your population will not have assured every day's meal main
> road would be an asphalted road or sand track.
>
> But the number of grade classifications are the same wherever you go: four
> to six grades
> (1-trunk,2-primary,3-secondary,4-tertiary,5-unclassified,6-track) .
> My option would be a physical classification based on the state of the
> country. Only motorway would be apart of this classification because a
> motorway is the same here than in other countries.
>
> Here in Europe you can find the administrative grades at the reference of
> the road (N- ,Regional- , Province- in Spain; N-, D- in France; B , L in
> Austria; ...).
>
> In a country like Spain trunk would be a road with 100 km/h medium speed
> and no crossings at the same level with restriction for cycles .
> In a country like Zambia or Congo trunk would be the best conditions road
> you can find in that country , so only local community people (or people
> who live in that country) would know what are the best conditions you can
> find in their country.
> In a country like Spain unclassified would be the municipality asphalted
> tracks, with no more than 3 meters width (for one car).
> In a country like Zambia or Congo unclassified would be the worst condition
> road you can find in that country (but not track), so only local community
> people (or people who live in that country) would know what are the worst
> conditions you can find in their country.
>
> I know Spain because I am Spaniard and I travel through Europe , so I think
> in the European Union things would be similar. Local communitters can
> explain in this list what are the best and the worst conditions for the
> roads in their countries and their opinion about the other grades. I don't
> have any knowledge about Zambia or Congo so I think other people would have
> more knowledge than I can have about their countries.
>
> What are your opinions? What do you think?
> Salut i mapes (Health and Maps)
> yopaseopor
>

There is at least one more type of road classification to consider:  
functional classification.

This idea of there being several ways of classifying roads was discussed 
over ten years ago in the discussion areas of different wiki topics 
dealing with this issue.  Has anyone involved in this discussion ever 
looked at them?  The topic has already been debated ad infinitum.  There 
was no consensus then and there won't be one now.  There can never be a 
consensus unless we agree on the basis for classifying roads, because 
these different methods are orthogonal.  Since OSM has no top authority, 
and everyone has a different opinion on what basis they would like to 
see roads classified on, this debate has no solution.

This is one of several topics that keeps popping up on the list from 
time to time.  After many words are exchanged, people get frustrated and 
the topic eventually dies down and goes away, only to be resurrected at 
a later date by someone who is not familiar with the history of what has 
gone on before.  Then the cycle starts all over again.

Sorry to be so negative, but this is what I've observed in the years 
I've been involved with OSM.

Mark





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