[Talk-us] Trunk versus motorway

[richiekennedy56 at gmail.com]

[forwarding this to talk-us, sent privately in error]

-----Original Message-----
From: Richie Kennedy <richiekennedy56 at gmail.com> 
Sent: Saturday, December 1, 2018 1:19 PM
To: Paul Johnson <baloo at ursamundi.org>
Subject: Re: [Talk-us] Trunk versus motorway


> On Nov 29, 2018, at 8:34 PM, Paul Johnson <baloo at ursamundi.org> wrote:
> 
> Single carriageway grade separated?  Trunk. 

Disagree vehemently. I do not believe that a Super-Two should be classified differently than its four-lane counterparts

> Dual carriageway, at-grade intersections but otherwise freeway like?  Trunk. 

It seems the question in this thread is “Where does a Motorway end and a Trunk begin” where there is a stretch containing at-grade intersections between two segments that could otherwise qualify as motorway.

In my neck of the woods, we have Watkins Drive, where by a consent decree, there are intersections and traffic lights. There is a clear demarcation between Motorway and Trunk - the speed limit drops to 45 MPH before the non-Motorway stretch, then goes back to 55 MPH when controlled access continues. Therefore, I would transition from motorway to trunk at the speed limit transition 

Then I also have K-7 between Olathe and Bonner Springs, where KDOT has incrementally upgraded the road. From Olathe heading north, there are four interchanges (119th, College, K-10, Prairie Star Parkway) an driveway intersection, an interchange at 83rd, an intersection at 75th, interchanges for Shawnee Mission Parkway and Johnson Drive, intersectons at 47th and 43rd, and Interchanges at K-32 and Nettleton. I would mark off as Motorway from the PSP interchange south and from 43rd north to Nettleton, and in the middle section including the Johnson and SMP interchanges. As 83rd is a single interchange between two intersections, it would not be given a Motorway designation. 

First, I would look for any field-verifiable transition (e.g. pavement or speed limit changesj between an interchange and intersection. If there isn’t one, I’d be inclined to either make the transition at the start of a turn lane or at the end of an acceleration lane.