Proposal:Worldwide road classification (logical)

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Worldwide road classification(logical)
Proposal status: Rejected (inactive)
Proposed by: *
Tagging: wayclass=1-79
Statistics:

Rendered as: color and border style of road defined by highway altered
Draft started: 2009-08-01
Vote start: 2009-08-28
Vote end: 2009-09-10


An international system to classify roads is needed, as each country uses a different system. Different approaches to achieve that can be discussed here.

Speed limits and road usage permissions can be derived using the country's two letter code.

A universal numbering scheme

wayclass=uk:1

wayclass=fr:1

wayclass=it:2

wayclass=de:2

For each country a list of all classifications is made and simply numbered from most important to least important. This list is published somewhere (wiki) for reference.

Reserving 1-9 for dual carriage-ways (motorway,semi-motorway,trunk,primary if dual-carriageway), 10-19 for primary roads (and equivalents in other countries), 20-29 for secondary (and equivalents), 30-39 for tertiary(and equivalents), 40-59 for urban avenues, 70-79 for residential roads makes map rendering easy regardless of the country and classification scheme. A renderer does not need to know how the names are.

Users from countries without classification schemes can simply put up a guideline for tagging roads; The data still makes sense. While traveling, everything you want to know from a map is which road to take to be fast.

Separating country information from road information is also possible, using two tags: wayclass=1-n country=uk


Pros:

  • Universal
  • Everybody can see what the biggest roads are, even computers.
  • A route planning software is able to differentiate roads suited for travel (smallest numbers) and local roads ( higher numbers ) in every country. The software can also derive speed limits automatically using a predefined list for the country tag.

Cons:

  • not very readable and intuitive to use.

Each country gets its own scheme, local names

Could be achieved using each country's two letter code and local names.

wayclass=uk:motorway

wayclass=uk:primary

wayclass=de:autobahn

wayclass=it:autostrada

Pros:

  • readability
  • each country's scheme implemented without any assumptions

Cons:

  • readability. Not every user can tag roads in every country.
  • hard to analyze and use for computers.

Each country gets its own scheme, translated names

See above.

Pros:

  • each country's scheme implemented
  • editable by everyone

Cons:

  • translators are traitors. Misunderstandings might happen.
  • hard to analyze and use for computers.

Voting

Each proposal will seperately be voted.

  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal, no need to redefine the entire road network of OSM, rather enhance the national definitions of tags already in use. --Skippern 22:14, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal, we're already able to classify the road network. Redefining doesn't seem to be feasible and the mentioned con's are really showstoppers.. --HeikoE 07:08, 9 September 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal. --Lulu-Ann 08:55, 10 September 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal. Socks 15:17, 16 September 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal. --It would be the best way to tag, because it doesn't define implications that maybe don't fit in other parts of the world. But it would mean to much work. Snoopy88 10:38, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal. --User:Mnalis 17:25, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal. --turbodog 22:51, 10 December 2009 (UTC)
  • I oppose this proposal I oppose this proposal. --Kslotte 23:37, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

The result is rejected.