[Talk-us] US highway classification

[Nathan Mills]

 On Sat, 28 May 2011 21:30:50 -0400, Anthony wrote:

> Say, Dothan, Alabama to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, avoid motorways.
> What should the router take?

 In that particular case, it should in fact take US-84. (US-231 to I-10 
 to US-98 would in fact be faster; I know this having taken both routes, 
 but you said avoid motorways) But US-84 ought to be tagged primary for 
 the reasons I previously stated. Trunk is useless if it describes the 
 same thing that primary does. Primary means (at least according to most 
 of the wiki pages) the primary non-motorway route between two cities. It 
 does not imply any particular quality of road. That seems perfectly 
 applicable to US-84 in most of central and western Alabama.

 Another example is US-71 between Fort Smith and Texarkana. It is in 
 fact the fastest route between Fort Smith and Texarkana, but it is 
 terribly slow going. The fact that it is the fastest route between those 
 two regionally important cities is adequately described by primary. Why, 
 then, are we wasting trunk on something like that? Trunk seems more 
 appropriate for OK-51 between I-35 and Stillwater or the non-turnpike 
 (and non-city) sections of US-412 between Tulsa, OK and Springdale, AR 
 where it has a meaning above and beyond what primary means.