[Talk-GB] Unclassified Country Road (UCR)

[Peter Rounce]

Rob Nickerson wrote:

> Now that the Public Right of Way documentation [1] has settled down a bit,
> I have had a chance to pick up some of the other comments received in the
> last few weeks. One of which was on Unclassified Country Roads (UCR).



Here is some more opinion and information on UCRs (aka. ORPAs, White Roads
(both OS terms).
Note that UCR stands for Unclassified *County* Road.


*highway tag*
from [4] OSM Map Features tags wiki page
"
highway=unclassified
To be used for minor roads in the public road network which are not
residential and of a lower classification than tertiary. Please do not use
this as a marker for roads where the classification is unknown, for
which highway=road should be used. Use highway=residential for minor roads
lined with housing. See highway=service for access roads

highway=track
Rough roads, often with unpaved/unsealed surfaces and normally used for
agricultural or forestry uses etc. Use tracktype=* for tagging to describe
the surface.
"
seems to me that these should be highway=unclassified as these are minor
roads in the public road network
if they should not be routed down for the ford mondeo, then this vehicle
suitability can be covered with a specific tag like [4wd_only] or [surface]
or a new one

*designation tag*
The designation tag should be the main indicator of legal status so a
consistent tagging of designation=unclassified_highway sounds best.

*surface tag*
Ideally this would be set to indicate if the road is metalled, concrete,
stoney, grassy, ...

*4wd_only tag* [1]
This appears to be the best way to indicate that a road is only suitable
for vehicles capable of on-road and off-road.

*access tags*
Great for indicating that a road may be used by motorbikes but not cars,
for example.

*restriction tag *
Could be used where there is a TTRO (Temporary Traffic Regulation Order) or
PTRO (Permenant Traffic Regulation Order) modifying road use which does not
justify changing the access tag.


>From [2]:

"An unclassified road is simply a public road which does not have an A, B
or C road classification. The majority of unclassified roads are normal
tarmac motor roads but there are also a small number which are un-surfaced
Green Lanes. These are often referred to as UCR (unclassified county road -
an obsolete term) or UUCR (unsealed, unclassified county road).

All unclassified roads (tarmac or otherwise) are recorded on a document
known as the List of Streets.This is the official record of
all highways that are maintained at public expense and every highway
authority should have one.

It is important to realise that the inclusion of a route on the List of
Streets is not conclusive evidence that vehicular rights exist!

This is because all pubic rights of way are technically highways so in
theory the List of Streets could include footpaths and bridleways. In
practice though this is rarely the case but it has led some authorities to
question the exact status of their unclassified roads.

It is possible for a route to appear on both the List of Streets and
the Definitive Map (so called Dual Status routes). Where this occurs there
is a presumption that any motoring rights which may have existed in the
past would have been extinguished by recent legislative
changes. However, where an unclassified road appears on the List of
Street but not on the Definitive Map, it is reasonable to assume that it is
a vehicular highway.
There is no offence of using a motor vehicle on an Unclassified Road and
the presence or absence of a tarmac is no indication of status."


Cheers
Peter


[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:4wd_only%3Dyes
[2] http://www.trf.org.uk/rights-of-way/public-information.html
[3]
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_tags_for_routing/Access-Restrictions
[4] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features


On 31 May 2012 19:13, Robert Whittaker (OSM) <robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> On 31 May 2012 17:10, Rob Nickerson <rob.j.nickerson at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Now that the Public Right of Way documentation [1] has settled down a
bit, I
> > have had a chance to pick up some of the other comments received in the
last
> > few weeks. One of which was on Unclassified Country Roads (UCR).
>
> Whether the term is obsolete or not, there are certainly roads that
> appear on a Council's "List of Streets Maintainable at the Public
> Expense" which are not classified as primary, secondary or tertiary.
> It would seem natural to term these "Unclassified". We already have
> the OSM tagging highway=unclassified which will work for most of
> these.
>
> However, I think highway=unclassified brings with it the implicit
> assumption that the route will be suitable for motor traffic, and (in
> the UK at least) will have a metalled surface. This is not true of all
> these Unclassified Highways in the UK, some of which will have the
> appearance of dirt farm tracks. In the spirit of duck tagging, I would
> suggest that even if these roads are technically Unclassified
> Highways, we tag them with highway=track if that's what they most
> resemble. This should also help routing software avoid using such ways
> for motor traffic, even if it's technically legal.
>
> Nevertheless, such routes will generally include a public right of way
> (probably full vehicular rights) and I believe it's important to tag
> this fact. Given that we use the designation tag to classify other
> rights of way, I would suggest continuing to do so here. My preference
> would be for designation=unclassified_highway as it seems to be the
> simplest statement of the status. Whatever we decide on, I'd strongly
> suggest and that for consistency we use a single tag value on all such
> ways regardless of what the individual council happens to call them.
> (Of course, I would only suggest using this designation tag at all on
> ways that aren't already tagged with highway=unclassified.)
>
> As with any public right of way, I'd also suggest adding appropriate
> access=* tags to help data users make the right decisions in routing
> algorithms. (Sometimes these access tags will be crucial since Traffic
> Regulation Orders can restrict some classes of traffic that would
> normally be permitted on a particular public right of way.)
>
> Robert.
>
> --
> Robert Whittaker
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Talk-GB at openstreetmap.org
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