Talk:Tag:highway=trunk

Oneway implied

If most trunk roads are dual-carriageway, then oneway=yes should be implicit. Is that not the case? --Hawke 00:33, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that most trunk roads are dualled. In the UK we tag the "primary route network" as trunk. The majority of that are single carriageway. Oneway is therefore not implied, and must be added as a separate tag. Richard B 01:37, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Wouldn't the "primary route network" be highway=primary? As used in the USA, "trunk" should all be dual-carriageway, non-grade-separated roads. That's a fair amount of road needing to be tagged as oneway=yes. Anyway, I don't have strong feelings either way, and a routing system could certainly use different rules for trunk roads in the USA vs. the UK. --Hawke 18:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

No, the "primary route network" is tagged as highway=trunk. These are all A-roads which have green backed road signs and are a mix of dual carriageways and higher-quality single carriageways - or just simply roads connecting important destinations. Non-primary A-roads are tagged highway=primary. These all have white-backed signs, and are usually single carriageways connecting less important destinations - although you can get dual carriageway non-primary A-roads. In sparsely populated areas like the Highlands of Scotland, some primary A-roads are little more than single track roads - but they represent the best route in that area between locally important destinations. The default colours used in the rendered maps on OSM are the same as those shown by the Ordnance Survey maps of the UK. Richard B 20:19, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

The British tagging of "trunk roads" is different from the rest of the world and this is confusing. In Germany (and the US) one cannot walk on a trunk road. Sometimes - like in Stoke-on-Trent - A-roads even aren't the best way to drive. So I think it would be better to tag A-roads in Britain only as a trunk, when they are like motorroads and in all other cases as primary. --Q un go 12:13, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Foot=no implied...

Should trunk imply no foot access? In most European countries a trunk is only used for roads which have no pedestrian access (and no bicycle and moped access) (but I'm sure the UK will be different again... :-) ) --Eimai 22:04, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I can't speak for the UK, but in the US the only roads where pedestrians are forbidden is on the Interstate highways, which should be tagged as highway=motorway. --Hawke 06:06, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

In the UK only motorways are off-access for peds, cyclists and learners. You can quite legally walk/cycle down a trunk road in the UK, even the 3 lane dual carriageways - though you might want to get your sanity checked :-), cycling in a rather thin 1m hard strip with HGVs and coaches going past at 60mph doesn't sound fun to me. Jamesb 23:33, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

surface=paved implied?

There might be countries where it doesn't hold true, but I'll soon add that trunk implies surface=paved, unless someone starts a discussion. Please do mention if you know trunk roads that aren't paved. Alv 09:46, 16 July 2009 (UTC)