[Talk-us] Update on potential highway classification reform

[Martijn van Exel]

Hey Adam & all,

On 5/20/2021 4:12 PM, Adam Franco wrote:
> Thanks, Martijn.
>
>     What do you expect to happen next? Do you plan to have a wiki vote
>     like people do on tagging? When is the discussion "concluded"? And
>     after that, what do you want to happen with the existing
>     classifications? Will you be proposing some sort of organized
>     editing to update important roads throughout the country?
>
> While I'm open to a wiki vote I don't know that it is necessary for 
> this update to the US-specific and state-specific roadway 
> classification wiki pages and starting some sort of organized update. 
> That said, if US mappers reading this mailing list would like to see a 
> vote to confirm consensus, then I won't stand in the way of it.
>
> Whatever the trigger is for a "conclusion of discussion" I think the 
> next step would be to update the US wiki pages with the new 
> classification guidance, copy in the existing State drafts to their 
> respective pages, and begin working on guidance for other states. In 
> parallel with that last step would be to begin updating the 
> classification in the states where guidance has been prepared.

The main thing to consider is the large group of silent mappers who 
contribute but don't read this mailing list, and may or may not look at 
the wiki occasionally. How will this guidance reach everyone? 
Appropriate linkage from the main highway wiki pages would be essential, 
as would cleaning up of existing confusing / conflicting guidance on 
scattered wiki pages. A template to adopt for state pages. Just some ideas.

>     Another thing that I am missing is attention to the lower road
>     classes. I have an accepted lightning talk at State of the Map
>     this summer that is entitled "Bye Bye Unclassified"[0]. From that
>     title, you should be able to discern what that will be about :) I
>     am on the fence about including lower road classes in this
>     discussion, because the topic is already so broad and
>     controversial. On the other hand, now that we have everyone's eyes
>     and ears on this topic, it seems like a missed opportunity to not
>     also give some thought to those lower road classes. Right now,
>     there is just a short paragraph about "Secondary and lower". I
>     have some specific ideas about simplifying that aspect of road
>     classification, and I can extend that section, if you want.
>
> Secondary and lower classes (including unclassified) have come up a 
> lot in our discussions. I'm personally pretty attached to using 
> unclassified as "class-6 of 7 in importance". ;-) I live in an area 
> with many small and tiny roads that provide [sometimes poor] 
> interconnections between larger roads but which are not part of any 
> residential area and may not have any abutters. I have lots of 
> thoughts on how to disambiguate between the lowest classes and have 
> been experimenting with the idea of evaluating the ratio of traffic 
> destined to a road's abutting properties versus through traffic from 
> elsewhere as a distinguishing metric: For example (with a wild guess 
> at ratios):
>
>   * Less than 33% of traffic is to abutters (more than 67% through
>     traffic) ==> tertiary
>   * 33% to 67% of traffic is to abutters (close to equal destination
>     and through traffic) ==> unclassified
>   * More than 67% of traffic is to abutters (less than 33% through
>     traffic) ==> residential
>
> All that said, while I'd love to dig into those lower classifications 
> more and have those discussions in full, they don't have the same 
> national and regional impact as the classification of larger roads and 
> I'd hate to get sidetracked in a way that prevents consensus on the 
> motorway/trunk/primary levels. I feel that if we can get those top 
> levels sorted out then the lower levels will begin to make a lot more 
> sense.

I see your point and this confirms my gut feeling that we should take 
this one step at a time. Perhaps a good way to start with the lower road 
classes is to approach it bottom-up, like the way this proposal came to 
life starting in the northeastern US. I'll reach out to my fellow Utah 
mappers to test the waters.

>
> Cheers,
> Adam

Thanks

Martijn

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