[OSM-talk-be] using Michelin's road classification

[Ben Laenen]

On Saturday 17 September 2016 00:21:13 Eebie wrote:
> (...)
> For Vlaanderen the general concept of the classification is in
> Ruimtelijk Structuurplan Vlaanderen 2011 (2) with Hoofdweg, Primaire Weg
> Cat. I & Cat. II, Secundaire Weg and Lokale Weg.
> And there is the Brussels region.
> 
> The question should be how we can translate those official
> classifications to the limited categories of classification we have in
> OSM. And that should come in the Wiki. For the moment the
> Conventions/Highways in the Wiki is still based on the situation before
> 1989, when the Belgian roads became a matter of the Regions.

Another question is *where* we can get this data if we want to translate from 
the official categories to OSM road classification. (at least for Flanders, I 
don't know if it became available somewhere now)

In the early days of OSM in Belgium that official classification was discussed 
when we were talking about what to map primary, secondary, etc. but since we 
don't have a good source for them we can't use it. We were stuck using the 
only option that was not subjective and wouldn't result in edit wars between 
different classifications for the same road according to different mappers: using 
the road numbers, slightly adjusted to match reality for e.g. ring roads or 
just to make something more logical.

It's not the best option, but gives acceptable result, and maps like those 
from NGI/IGN also still use it (although they have a second option to vary the 
width as well on the map instead of just the colour, to highlight physically 
bigger roads). It's also similar to many other countries where the road 
numbers decides the classification in OSM. Our road planners just have been 
messing up a lot more than in other countries :-)

Other methods to decide the classification are possible, but we need a good 
proposal that makes it easy to discuss which is which so we don't have to have 
a discussion for every road whether something should be in for example primary 
or secondary. Arguably we also right now have no real distinction between 
tertiary and unclassified/residential other than a vague description, and we 
don't end up with edit wars for those, but since main roads are way more 
visible and have much more impact we have to be careful about those.

Greetings
Ben