[Talk-GB] Classification of roads

[Mark Goodge]

On 19/08/2021 19:20, Steven Hirschorn wrote:
>     These are only OS's opinion, not a legal status, so there's no need to
>     follow them slavishly if our own on-the-ground observation clearly
>     points to something different. But they are open data, so we can use
>     them, and they do form a useful guide when local observation is
>     potentially inconclusive or ambiguous.
> 
> 
> Thanks - what about the thorny issue of what residents *want* their road 
> to be, rather than how drivers choose to use it? Does a regular rat 
> running problem change the status of a road?

I think a road should be mapped according to what it is, rather than 
what people want it to be. But the design is a part of what it is, so 
heavy traffic along a road designed as a residential road does not, in 
itself, necessarily make it a tertiary road.

I think this has to be something that's mapped according to local 
circumstances. Bear in mind that "rat run" is contextual anyway. Even an 
A-road in open countryside can be a rat run if it acts as a shortcut 
between two motorways, or an unofficial diversion when a motorway is 
congested, but anything classified at all in an urban area is almost 
always going to be intended for the level of traffic it carries.

Mark