[OSM-talk] Trunk and primary routes in the UK

[Mike Harris]

No you must have misunderstood me - ... Glad we agree that "secondary" is a term best kept to refer to B roads, not A roads. For the rest I have conceded that my original proposal is outwith the consensus and withdrawn it. The confusion that has arisen over what I thought was an innocent suggestion does, however, still suggest to me that the map features wiki page could be clearer. I suspect it is a case that the long-established team knows what they mean by the words chosen but a relative newcomer to the wording finds it less clear, not knowing the history. As I am - hopefully - not the only newcomer to OSM perhaps a change to the wiki could still be considered - without attempting to change the working practice.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Hughes [mailto:tom at compton.nu] 
Sent: 01 January 2009 16:03
To: Mike Harris
Cc: talk at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Trunk and primary routes in the UK

Mike Harris wrote:

> I thought that I had backed off and cleared things up - sorry! Unfortunately your message - for me at least - adds further to the confusion. Surely in the UK "primary" roads (and trunk roads of course) are A roads and A roads are primary roads - whether or not they are part of the "primary route network" (as indicated by street sign colour). OSM has chosen to define its tagging and rendering according to the "primary route network" (and street sign colour) and I am no longer questioning this and have already apologised and corrected back the few changes I had made. BUT ... A roads with white signs are surely still primary roads (and should be tagged as such)? To call an A road a "secondary" road adds enormously to the potential confusion as the term "secondary" is surely reserved in legal, common and OSM parlance for B roads?

I don't know whether "secondary A road" is an official term or not, so don't treat that as having any significance.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I read your message as saying that some roads which were not part of the primary route network have green signs, and as far as I know that is not true. That is basically what I was trying to say was wrong.

Tom

--
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/