[Talk-GB] Shoulders

[Mark Goodge]

On 15/04/2022 08:16, Philip Barnes wrote:
> On Wed, 2022-04-13 at 19:37 +0100, Tom Crocker wrote:
>> It asks:
>> Does this road have a shoulder?
>> A shoulder is a clearly demarcated emergency stopping lane that
>> allows vehicles to stop safely completely beside the traffic lane,
>> although not always (fully) on paved surface.
> 
> In UK terms I would disagree with the final part, about not always a
> paved surface.
> 
> An important part of the function of a hard shoulder is that vehicles
> can slow dow outside the running lanes and when leaving can accellerate
> to a safe speed to safely rejoin the live lanes. Here you will be
> joining the live lanes at little over walking pace.

Surely that's the point, though? There's a difference between a shoulder 
and a hard shoulder. Or, to be more precise, a hard shoulder is a subset 
of shoulder. So the question is, are we mapping all shoulders, or only 
hard shoulders?

Having said that, I don't think the example you gave in your original 
post is a shoulder, hard or otherwise. A shoulder isn't just a slightly 
wider carriageway than is necessary for the marked lanes. A verge isn't 
a shoulder, particularly when, as in this case, it's interrupted by 
marker posts and separated from the carriageway by drainage gravel.

https://goo.gl/maps/s9grKsPQm8rRPWiy7

In the UK, though, we generally don't have non-hard shoulders. So, for 
the most part, I think it's fair to say that they should only be mapped 
in the UK when fully paved, unless it's obvious that an unpaved 
off-carriageway lane is intended for use as a shoulder.

Mark