[Talk-us] Recent Trunk road edits

[Matthew Woehlke]

On 28/09/2020 12.27, Paul Johnson wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 11:07 AM Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> On 28/09/2020 11.42, Jack Burke wrote:
>>> I'm willing to bet that most OSM editors who drive on either of those two
>>> will think "this is a great freeway, just with occasional traffic
>> signals."
>>
>> That's an oxymoron. Freeways are, by definition, limited access (no
>> crossing intersections, period) and do not have (permanent¹) signs or
>> signals to halt traffic. IMNSHO, if it has traffic lights, stop signs,
>> or the possibility of vehicles suddenly driving *across* the way, it
>> isn't a freeway.
> 
> True, but highway=trunk can mean either expressways (think like freeways
> that have some or all at-grade intersections; note that having
> freeway-style ramps in between junctions doesn't make it a
> highway=motorway), or single-carriageway freeways.  In both cases, they
> tend to get built as an incremental case to building a full motorway, but
> are not yet motorways.

We're getting dangerously into the territory of words with ambiguous 
meanings. Note https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/freeway, especially the 
first definition. Note also my point was about "freeways", not 
highway=trunk. Many in the US would consider "freeway" and 
highway=motorway to be nearly synonymous. (The "nearly" is when we start 
talking about non-interstate limited access.)

I did later state that limited access is *not* a requirement for 
highway=trunk.

Also, Jack has clarified his usage as "artistic"...

> That's not to say there aren't non-interstate highways that meet these
>> definitions.
>>
>> But... is it a highway=trunk? *I* don't see where the wiki excludes the
>> possibility. (It does, however, seem to me that only *actual* interstate
>> freeways should be highway=motorway in the US.)
> 
> That's not true at all...

Citation needed. I don't think that's been established (although we're 
getting pretty off-topic...). The *converse*, sure (interstate =/> 
motorway), I'll concede that.

> [...] the transitions to where an interstate ends and it continues as
> another kind of highway past the last exit before a junction,
I would question whether those should be highway=motorway. (Yes, I'm 
looking at https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/98245488 and surrounding, 
possibly as far north as https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/41485037.)

-- 
Matthew