[Talk-GB] Inconsistency in the classification of roads on OSM across the UK

[yasslay]

No - I didn't see that talk. I think I should just drop it as most of the
points are mute and I'm not entirely sure why I got so worked up about it
in the first place. Apologies

On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 7:31 PM Michael Booth <boothym at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, - not sure what you mean by "noticed an inconsistency", unless you are
> referring to my email from last month which mentioned the Transport
> Scotland trunk roads list?
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2023-January/029919.html
>
> If so, I should probably clarify what I meant in that message. I've not
> checked but nowadays I think the OSM and TS trunk roads basically match
> each other. This is due to deferring to the TS trunk roads list where there
> is inconsistent green/white signage on the ground. So the green sign rule
> still applies, but on the A697 for example, there's both green and (newer)
> white signs so this is highway=primary in OSM as it's not on the TS trunk
> roads list.
>
> As for your second paragraph, sorry I don't really understand what you
> mean (and there's no question) so you might want to explain further or
> provide some examples?
>
> On 26/02/2023 19:34, yasslay wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> As the title says, I've noticed an inconsistency of how roads are
> classified on OSM across the UK. For example, the criteria for the
> highway=trunk tag is different for roads in England and Wales (primary A
> roads) than Scotland (actual trunk roads). I also find this to be quite an
> issue as the OSM Wiki page (
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Roads_in_the_United_Kingdom) for the
> topic says that "A-roads with primary status (signed yellow on green)"
> should be tagged such highway=trunk, and I couldn't find any relevant
> documentation which excludes Scotland from this rule. I'm not sure if this
> was discussed previously either, however I think this should be discussed.
>
> Another issue I have with this is that the highway tags we use in OSM for
> roads conflict with the official definitions of roads in the UK, i.e.
> primary A/B roads are mapped as trunk roads on OSM and secondary A/B roads
> are mapped as primary/secondary respectively. While I imagine that this is
> to represent the higher importance that secondary A roads have, it just
> feels weird to tag roads like this. *This isn't as pressing as an issue
> and is more of a question if anything, but something which I think could be
> discussed.*
>
> Finally, another small issue I have is the lack of distinction on what the
> road hierarchy is like when a non-motorway road, i.e. a primary A road
> becomes a secondary A road after a junction, i.e. this road by Hull (
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/78374769) and this junction near
> Liverpool (https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/878439064). While I think
> that these transitions should be mapped like the former, this is again not
> as important an issue as many other things, but something I feel could be
> discussed.
>
> Kind regards
> yasslay
>
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