[OSM-talk-be] Highway classification in Brussels region

[Wouter Hamelinck]

Hi all,

- The rules of thumb on the wiki are fine in most cases. They suppose
the N-classification represents the hierarchy which holds most of the
time.
- If you think that the hierarchy from the N-classification makes no
sense then use common sense. That means some roads without
N-classification could be tagged as primary, while some Nx roads could
be tagged as unclassified. If it looks like a duck and it quacks like
a duck, just tag it as a duck. If a road is the biggest road around it
should look like that on the map, independent of its N-reference.
- The map of Brussels Mobility might be a good inspiration, but do not
derive strict rules from it. Just use common sense. The power of OSM
is the flexibility. There is no need to invent strict rules for
everything. Especially not for the difference
tertiary-secondary-primary which is just a question of
big-bigger-biggest. Map what it looks like on the ground, not what it
looks like on another map or what it should look like based on some
administration.

wouter

On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 5:49 PM, Benoit Leseul <benoit.leseul at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> A few weeks ago, I was showing Brussels map to someone (OSM with
> Mapquest Open style), and they made the observation that it was absurd
> that Chaussée de Waterloo (N5) stood out as a major road while Avenue
> Brugmann/Rue de Stalle (N261) looked like a minor artery.
>
> I understand this comes from
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Belgium/Conventions/Highways
> which talks about historical Nx and Nxx classification. But it
> certainly doesn't match reality if you are driving in the city. Inside
> Brussels, Chaussée de Waterloo is a narrow and overcrowded street
> while Avenue Brugmann is a wide road with two reverse lanes and a
> tramway reservation in the middle. It is actually a major axis to
> enter and exit the city, connecting with R0 in Drogenbos.
>
> What I dit then is to upgrade Brugmann/Stalle to "major road"
> (highway=primary) as well as a few other similar connecting roads in
> the vicinity (namely Churchill and Albert). I think it looks better,
> but still doesn't reflect the reality of N5 being smaller.
>
> Now someone pointed me today to the Brussels region "Iris 2" plan,
> which has a nice map on p88 ("La spécialisation des voiries") showing
> a completely different road classification :
> http://www.bruxellesmobilite.irisnet.be/articles/la-mobilite-de-demain/en-quelques-mots
> It may look like wishful thinking in some places and I can see a few
> glitches here and there, but it is certainly more useful for someone
> actually trying to find his way in the city. The only real problem I
> have with it is that it has four levels of hierarchy when OSM only
> provides three (primary, secondary, tertiary).
>
> So, I have two questions:
> - (a) do you think it is a good idea to take this map as a source (can
> we?) or "inspiration" to requalify most main roads in the Brussels
> region?
> - (b) if yes, how do we match the different road levels? My impression
> is that we should merge "voie métropolitaine" (red) and "voie
> principale" (orange) and use highway=primary for both, while keeping
> highway=secondary for "voie inter-quartiers" (blue) and
> highway=tertiary for "collecteurs principaux" (green).
>
> What do you think?
>
> --
> Benoit
>
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