[OSM-talk] "Motorway Like" Roads eg A1(M)

[guy at graviles-reynolds.org]

Quoting Calum Polwart <gps at wittongilbert.free-online.co.uk>:

> This is bound to be a very UK orientated question.  Only in the UK would
> we have Motorways which aren't motorways!
> 
> How should we be tagging roads like the A1(M)?  I've assumed as a
> motorway - partly because I don't actually understand why they aren't
> motorways, and partly because I assume that its easier for a navigation
> programme to understand that this is a motorway (nav programmes base
> times etc on road type?)
> 
> I had a quick look at some paper maps and they MOSTLY seem to render the
> A1(M) as a blue motorway.
> 

The (M) designation indicates that this is a section of road that meets the 
requirements to be a motorway, and has all the legal restrictions that motorway 
status implies applied to it, ie hard shoulder, emergency phones, no bicycles 
etc. Hence yes it is correct for it to be tagged as motorway and rendered as 
such. The designation does not come from navigation software but from 
government, but yes navigation software does then use this designtion to assess 
whether the user can use the road, and then to calculated the journey time.

Guy