[Talk-us] Road classification

[Russ Nelson]

mapboy at att.net writes:
 > A motorway is a four+ lane, limited access, grade separated
 > freeway.

Like an Interstate.

 > A trunk is what a motorway becomes when it loses one of it's criteria.

Like NY-17 used to be (haven't driven on it in twenty years, so maybe
the grade crossings have been eliminated), or like the Taconic State
Parkway.

 > A primary road 

As is US-11, particularly relative to Interstate I-81.

 > A secondary road moves traffic within a city. It would service only
 > a certain area within a city.

Mmmmmm, this is somewhat ambiguous.  You could have a limited-access
highway which only moves traffic within a city; example I-2XX
highways.  What are the criteria for secondary roads outside of
cities?  For example, what is US-11B, or US-11C ?  They are roads
equivalent in quality to US-11, however they are bypasses; are they
primary or secondary?

 > I hope this clarifys things for some users. I know it's not going to please those who have already used other classification schemes.

IMHO (I may be wrong), but the solution to these quandries is: Use
More Tags.  The more tags you use to accurately describe a road, the
less important becomes the "highway" tag.

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