[OSM-talk] When is a road a secondary road and when is it not?

[Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists)]

Peter Miller wrote:
>Sent: 02 June 2009 5:31 PM
>To: Talk Openstreetmap
>Subject: [OSM-talk] When is a road a secondary road and when is it not?
>
>
>I have used primary, secondary and tertiary to indicate relative
>traffic levels on roads in Ipswich rather than any strict
>classification. For example Landseer Road in Ipswich which is heavily
>with lorries, buses and commuters, so bad that the council have
>proposed building  a new road to 'relieve' it. I have now been asked
>to justify my tagging by another mapper who has refered to the Map
>Features page which states that secondary is only for "Administrative
>classification "secondary" in the UK, generally linking smaller towns
>and villages".
>http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features#Highway
>
>Ipswich on OSM
>http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.0538&lon=1.1763&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF
>
>My approach seems to be an approach taken elsewhere, for example in
>Bedford, where every secondary road does not have a B number?
>http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.1344&lon=-
>0.4517&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF
>
>Should we update the Map Features page or should we follow it more
>carefully?
>
>
>
>Any thoughts?
>

Using the "what does it say on the ground rule" I tend to stick with the
classification as posted, because then it is easy for anyone else to verify.
Residential is generally easy enough, that just leaves unclassified and
tertiary. These are the only two I use my opinion on but have over time come
to use tertiary as sparingly as possible because of issues where a road
traverses from the urban conurbation to the rural setting and the volume of
traffic doesn't really warrant tertiary once it leaves the urban sprawl.

Cheers

Andy