[Talk-it] Classification of important bypass roads

[Martin Raifer]

Ciao lista!

I'm writing to you in English because my Italian is - let's say - a bit rusty. But feel free to answer in Italian: I'll understand it.

Now on topic: In the city where I live (Bolzano/Bozen in Alto Adige/Südtirol) there is a bypass road (circonvallazione) wich is a little bit tricky to classify. Me and another mapper were very uncertain how to classify this street. I'll try explain you why:

This is the area where the road is located: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=46.47727&lon=11.32995&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
The bypass is constructed a little bit complicatedly and is more a complex of different streets:
It beginns right after the motorway exit "Bolzano Sud" and immediately splits up into two oneway tracks which take different routes through the industrial zone of Bolzano. The trackes have two or three lanes per direction. Just before the "Virgl Tunnel" the two tracks re-unite and continue as the "Stadale dell'Abetone e del Brennero SS12" to the north.

The street-complex is used by people for several things: Its main purpose is to bypass the city when someone comes from South (on the A22 or SS12) or West (on the trunk road "MeBo") and you have to reach the region in the north of Bolzano or vice versa. It is also a "part" (or connecting piece) of the SS12 (although it is officially a communal road - I think). But the bypass is also used to reach the industrial zone and the center of Bolzano when comming from every direction. 

The following classifications are possible:

1) Construction-wise the street should be considered to be a trunk-road (as it has exits and driveways, no at-grade intersections with other roads, etc.). IMHO primary seems to be ok, too.
2) Importance level: The road has - of course - local importance (classification: tertiary). The regional importance is also huge (classification: secondary). But the bypass is also connecting the SS12 which ends in the southern part of the city and re-beginns in the north (classification: primary).
3) The "rule" on the Italian version of the "Map Features" in the OSM-wiki would classify a "strada a scorrimento veloce" as tertiary. (That "rule" is in my opinion rubbish, but I don't want to start a discussion on this - for now)


I found some more or less similar situations in the map. (Its difficult to find very good examples because the rest of the world does the classification quite differently than we do and larger cities tend to have only motorways as real bypasses). 
*) Verona in general, for example the "Viale delle Nazioni" from "Verona Sud" ( http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=45.40053&lon=10.97451&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF )
*) The "Südring" of Klagenfurt ( http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=46.6358&lon=14.309&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF )
*) Rimini ( http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=44.0521&lon=12.574&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF )


I would classify the whole complex of streets as primary. So everyone can see the importance of that bypass on the map, and routing programms are able to prefer that route, etc.



What do you say to this situation? And more importantly: How should similar bypass roads be classified in general?