[Talk-us] [Talk-us-newyork] Highway classification guidelines for New York State

[Martijn van Exel]

Hi,

On 9/15/2021 2:36, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Generally the NY State guidelines you're proposing wouldn't conflict 
> with this. I am a bit uneasy about applying highway=tertiary to 
> unpaved roads. This is occasionally justifiable in Wyoming or on 
> reservations etc., but would be anomalous for an east coast state. At 
> the very least, the guidelines should have a strict injunction that if 
> you do tag an unpaved road as tertiary, it needs a surface tag (and 
> potentially tracktype/smoothness etc.).

You are right, unpaved tertiaries are likely confined to rural areas in 
sparsely populated states. I was surprised to see them at first, but 
gotten used to them and I think now that they make sense. From my 
experience, unpaved tertiary roads almost always serve a connecting 
function in the network, like https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/10085159.

Historically, their existence may be explained by how TIGER A31 road 
classes were mapped? A31 is " A31 Secondary and connecting road, state 
highways, unseparated" but they are sprinkled throughout Utah 
(https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1bck) and include many unpaved roads.

Martijn