In the US I have been a proponent of using the Highway Functional Classification as a guide when determining road classifications. I have used it extensively in Georgia to help with road classification.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/processes/statewide/related/highway_functional_classifications/section03.cfm It is a national system, with each state having a say in how their roads are classed. Take a look, I think it's a good way to a solution for the perennial roadway class issue in the US. Kevin On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 12:21 PM Kevin Kenny <kevin.b.ke...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 7:35 AM Paul Allen <pla16...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hard agree. Even though it's starting to look like I live in the only > country > > in the world with a national classification system that is logical and > > internally consistent (and even we have a few rare exceptional cases). :) > > The US certainly doesn't, because of the way we practice federalism. > All fifty states have their own classification systems, and the > classifications have more to do with how funding is doled out than the > actual importance or traffic volume of the road. It is more political > than technical. (Thanks to Martijn van Exel for pointing that out in > last night's Zoom call!) > > Back in the days when you would grab a road map at a gas station in > the US, the map-makers used their own hierarchy which was usually > based on the attributes, "toll charged", "grade separated", "number of > lands" and "surface". They typically aggregated these into about half > a dozen different renderings, and had a legend on the map explaining > the symbology used. > > I suspect that as routers get more sophisticated, the classification > will become progressively less important, because attributes such as > these will be taken into account more. > > Until then, we'll we'll always have some arguments, at every level of > the hierarchy. Recent arguments: "Is a six-lane dual-carriageway with > a 120 km/h speed limit a motorway if it's hgv-no?" "Is a road built to > full motorway standards actually a motorway if its service is suburban > rather than interurban?" "Can a surface street that parallels a > motorway ever be a trunk, or even primary?" "Can there be tertiary > roads in a state that doesn't have county highways?" "Is there > actually a difference between 'residential' and 'unclassified' in > rural areas?" "Is the last segment of a motorway actually a motorway > when it ends at a grade crossing? (What if the grade crossing is tens > of km from the last elevated crossing?)" > > Of such questions are edit wars made, and edit wars make the > classification even less useful. Out in the boonies, I've encountered > roads where other mappers have argued to me that the classification > ought to be "tertiary", "unclassified", "residential", "service" or > "track" - because different attributes of the (admittedly poor) road > were important to different mappers. (Numbered county highway; the > principal route, at least in summer, between two villages; > non-hard-surfaced; a low-clearance automobile would have a bad day in > inclement weather and a road bike would have a bad time any time; > there are at least a few homesteads along it; and the primary reason > for travelling in that particular area at all is forestry.) > > Alas, we can't do what Google Maps does, and aggregate the private > information of everyone carrying a cell phone to measure current > traffic speeds. That appears to be how Google's router makes its > decisions. > > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging >
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