[OSM-talk] road classes

[Lars Aronsson]

Richard Fairhurst wrote:

> 1:200k and 1:500k on Multimap are Collins Bartholomew raster products:
> http://www.bartholomewmaps.com/europe_scene_test.htm
> 
> Bartholomew's product page expressly states that these maps are 
> "created by cartographers".

It doesn't make sense that they (some cartographer in Scotland?) 
should look at something akin to Google Maps for Sweden and guess 
which roads to keep, and which to remove.

There is a detailed database of the Swedish road network from the 
national road administration, specifying attributes like road 
class, road width, speed limits, maximum tonnage, surface coating, 
etc.  I thought perhaps some combination of these variables can 
indicate that the western road to Klockrike is less important 
(less used?) than the other three.  It might make sense that 
people living in Klockrike use these three roads for their commute 
to Linköping, while fewer people travel between Klockrike and 
Fornåsa (for the commute to Motala).  Is there any way we could we 
get such data as the basis for road classification in OSM?

Or maybe they simply prioritize drawing connections towards the 
surrounding frame of primary roads (Rv36, Rv32, Lv206, E4), and 
ignore the internal road connections inside such frames.  This 
would aid tourists to quickly "escape" out to the bigger roads 
instead of getting lost in the maze of smaller ones.

Are Collins Bartholomew maps in these scales in general considered 
useful and accurate?  Or do they often make unexpected omissions?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se