[Talk-us] Motorway vs trunk

[Paul Johnson]

Dave Hansen wrote:

> On Fri, 2010-02-26 at 15:50 -0500, Richard Welty wrote:
>> On 2/26/10 3:14 PM, Nakor Osm wrote:
>> >
>> > What is the distinction made between trunk and motorways for tagging 
>> > in the US. As an example should this portion of US41 ( 
>> > http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=41.8967&lon=-87.6177&zoom=14 
>> > <http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=41.8967&lon=-87.6177&zoom=14> ) be 
>> > a motorway or a trunk?
>> for all practical purposes, a trunk is a motorway-wannabe, but with 
>> grade level crossings of
>> some sort, either with stop signs for the lesser roads, or traffic 
>> lights. you generally won't
>> see driveways or businesses directly on trunks, there will often be 
>> frontage roads for that.
>> 
>> the portion of US 41 you point out is a bit schzoid, mostly grade 
>> separated but with a scattering
>> of grade level crossings. the points with grade level crossings should 
>> certainly be trunk.
>
> Well, it's going to look goofy on the map to have dotted green and blue
> lines.
>
> I'd say that you also need to consider how long the segment is.  I have
> a divided road with fences on both sides and limited access near my
> house.  There's a 25ft stretch of it with limited access.  Is that a
> motorway for 25ft?  ;)

I'd call both situations a trunk for the entire length.  Expressways
(trunks) can have limited-access ramps, but not all intersections
are grade seperated.  Example:  Oregon's Milwaukie Expressway. 
http://osm.org/go/WIDjUIcuR-