[Talk-us] proposed first principles for United States road tagging

[Paul Johnson]

Anthony wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 3:28 AM, Paul Johnson <baloo at ursamundi.org> wrote:
>> > I think it would be better if greater weight were given to what
>> > network a particular road belongs to.
>> >
>> > Freeway expressway = motorway or trunk, otherwise...
>> > US highway = primary
>> > State highway = secondary
>> > City/county/Forest route = tertiary
>>
>> Whoa!  There are too many places, in my experience, where those
>> network memberships do not line up with expectation of physical
>> characteristics.
>>
>
> Yeah.  Motorway is simple.  A road designated exclusively for motor
> vehicles.  The rest should probably be handled on a state by state basis.
> Europe doesn't have a single tagging scheme for all of its states.  Why
> should the US?

Perhaps we should be working more towards worldwide consistency.  I
don't know about you, but I don't expect the same map to work
differently in the UK than it does in Canada, or in Canada
differently from the US.  So why should the same map work
differently in Oregon than it does New York or Washington?