[Tagging] Clarification unclassified vs residential

[Jan S]

Am 22. Februar 2019 16:20:23 MEZ schrieb Florian Lohoff <f at zz.de>:
>On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 04:54:09AM -0700, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
>> Florian Lohoff wrote:
>> > From the original meaning unclassified was the lowest class road 
>> > in rural or off city limits. residential was the lowest class road 
>> > within city limits. (Assuming that city limits mean residential 
>> > usage)
>> 
>> That's reasonable but not _quite_ true. highway=unclassified is often
>used
>> in urban areas to denote a minor distributor road. 
>
>But the above is the documentation we had for like 10 Years - This is 
>why i asked for clarification. It seems everybody has different
>assumptions about usage and priority of unclassified vs residential
>and those are not reflected in the unclassified tag page. The German
>page has much more stuff but IMHO wrongfully added by a small group.

I understand the documentation of the highway tag as indicating that "unclassified" indeed designates a more important road than "residential". Under "usage" it reads: "See the table below for an ordered list from most important (motorway) to least important (service)." And as "unclassified" is above "residential", I would consider it as being more important (although this may not be respected by routing engines).

Also, there is nothing to support that residential roads were to be used within city limits only. Residential roads are described as an "access to housing" or "accessing or around residential areas". Residential areas may also well be unincorporated groups of houses (thinking e.g. of task description for HOT OSM tasks in Africa).

Best, Jan
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