[Talk-us] United States Roadway Classification Guidelines

[Dale Puch]

On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 11:01 AM, McGuire, Matthew <
Matt.McGuire at metc.state.mn.us> wrote:

> > There's no observation that will tell you whether a road is primary or
> > secondary.
>
> Agreed. There is no observation that will tell you whether a road is more
> important than another road that is not where you are. But you can identify
> physical characteristics. A lot of these observations will lead to a
> coherent whole.
>
>
Yep that is the problem.  And all the discussion and many wiki pages are
about trying to come up with a consistent guideline for turning those
observations into consistant and useful OSM tags.
There are two extremes of OSM that are fighting each other because lack of
consensus and organization.  We say both tag as you want, and follow what
has been agreed on in the wiki (which is constantly changing).

Existing DOT data is also an observation to add to the mix in deciding how
to tag something.  Don't dismiss it just because there are exceptions to the
way someone else tags.

Ramblings and grandiose goals:
The goal of describing what is on the ground is great, but to what end.  The
tags will be plentiful but perhaps useless if not designed for specific
uses!  The primary use will be visual maps.  Any secondary usage would also
need to be considered.  Layout a tagging plan for these uses and tag for
that, but make sure it is still flexible for future changes.

Don't force using a tag because it displays nicely on a map that way, but do
use a tag because it is the common (thought out and planned) tagging scheme
that the render's happen to implement.  Render's should be the visual
representation of what the wiki describes.

-- 
Dale Puch
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