User:Bgo eiu/Functional class notes, drafts

Primary candidates

Street	Ref	Notes
Pennsylvania Avenue	LM
Fulton Avenue
North Avenue
Fremont Avenue

Secondary candidates

Druid Park Lake Drive
Druid Hill Avenue
Auchentoroly Terrace
McCulloh Street
Eutaw Place / North Eutaw Street
Dolphin Street
Whitelock Street east of Druid Hill Avenue
Park Avenue

Baltimore City (Proposed)

The 2021 US Highway Classification guideline clarifies that source(s) should be referred to in order to justify a local classification system, but that functional classification maps should not be copied exactly when they are contradictory to OSM standards and reflect abortive national highway projects more than they do the roads' local significance (they even use "highways to nowhere" as an example of this phenomenon). It also states that roads of the same level should form a coherent network. The Baltimore DOT Functional Classification does in fact contradict the 2021 Classification guidelines, and leaves many "isolated" road segments while poorly reflecting how roads interconnect with each other or their role in a larger system (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=1758bc7d89c34f3bb46fb3c43e6a8d8c). It is also notable that the State Highway Administration does not maintain highways in Baltimore City, and that for the most part, streets that are technically part of a highway route are not signed or referred to as such.

A more informative reference point here are the "City Gateways" which are mostly signed major corridors the city identifies as providing significant connections in and out of the city (https://transportation.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/City%20Gateway%2011x17.pdf). At least all City Gateways are good candidates for Primary status. For example, this means Pennsylvania Avenue is no longer an "island" classified at a lower level than Druid Hill, McCulloh, Reisterstown, and Greene. This reflects its actual role in the transportation network better, and most Baltimoreans would describe it as a significant corridor before the other four which were already tagged primary because of their nominal inclusion in state or US highway routes. Further, this fixes the issue of the "Highway to Nowhere" that is the Franklin-Mulberry Expressway (Route 40) being an island motorway - in practice it is a primary road contiguous with Edmondson Avenue and Pulaski Highway.

The City Gateways are not sufficient on their own to use as a guideline in Baltimore, as they don't offer a distinction between secondary/tertiary, and they mostly describe routes as they relate to travel which crosses city limits. A large city like Baltimore should also have major intra-city routes tagged as primary - North Avenue and Baltimore Street are uncontroversial examples that have a primary role in the local transportation network. Further guidelines which make sense to consider are:

• The high frequency transit network (the high frequency bus routes, light rail, and metro subway corridors). A large proportion of the city does not drive but does use the roadways, and many of Baltimore's street features are reflective of the transit network. For example, you can generally expect the presence of benches to line up with major bus corridors, and bus lanes to be present on wide roads that are significant to other modes of transit. The presence of train tracks and crossings also significantly alters the streetscape - if we followed the DOT-provided Functional Classification scheme, Howard Street would be an isolated tertiary street than Eutaw, Park, and Paca. However, the fact that Howard Street has a train running on it and is much more linked to a larger system than most streets in the city means a primary classification would be the least surprising to see reflected on the map. Likewise, primary status is warranted for Wabash Avenue and Fayette Street due to their alignment with the Metro Subway.
  • Historically, Baltimore was a streetcar city, and as such both the transit network and the City Gateways very much resemble the historical streetcar routes that influenced the shapes and roles of the roadways today.
  • The caveat here is that all of the above generally follow a "spoke and wheel" model of transportation in the city. However, the major "nodes" of intra-city transportation are West and East Baltimore, and it is important to ensure that the significance of west-east roads to the local networks is also reflected. For example, Orleans Street is a major corridor through East Baltimore but does not have a transit route (in part because of pressure from a vocal minority of local opponents in 2017 when the system was redesigned).
  • The high frequency bus routes are the 12 "color" routes, and the numbered routes 22, 26, 29, 30, 54, and 80. Despite the distinction in naming scheme, the six numbered routes mentioned are some of the highest ridership and highest frequency routes in the system and should be treated as functionally equivalent. The 30 covers Northern Parkway, the 22 covers 33rd Street, and the 80 crosses Saratoga Street for example - all west-east roads which have an elevated significance compared to their parallel streets. There would be some discretion involved in distinguishing roads based on these criteria still, for example, Saratoga would make sense as secondary as it still plays less significant of a role than parallel Mulberry and Fayette, while Northern Parkway would be primary throughout due to its capacity (it's huge) and it's singular role in carrying people between the northern peripheries of the city.

• The presence of major street modifications and/or the inclusion of dedicated infrastructure for multiple modes of transportation. Maryland Avenue should be classified higher than most roads it is parallel to due to its separated bicycle track. Fallsway and 28th Street should be too, for similar reasons.

• The presence of major commercial activity and/or a general role as a "hub" for surrounding communities rather than a less significant local street. For example, although Reservoir Hill is currently mostly residential throughout, Whitelock Street was its historical commercial corridor and its presence as an "anchoring" road way in the area is still clear in the way that street is built and used in practice. (Good candidate for tertiary road.) Gwynns Falls Parkway could fit the description of a secondary road well, as it anchors a series of significant locations (Mondawmin, Coppin, etc.) and is a wide dual carriageway, but is not as major of a link to other parts of the city as Liberty Heights or Reistertown, which would fit primary better. Per the understanding that these classifications should form interconnected networks, we could build upon that to arrive at something like this:
  • Primary: Liberty Heights, Reisterstown, Pennsylvania, North
  • Secondary: Gwynns Falls, Auchentoroly, Hilton, Garrison, Bloomingdale
  • Tertiary: Whitelock, Madison, Gold, Park, Laurens, Calhoun
  • Residential: Koko, Windsor, Ashburton, Presbury
  • Unclassified: To be used sparingly and probably does not have a good chance of forming a network with other similar roads. East Wabash for example, is not a service road, not residential, and links areas too small to be considered significant on its own. Jenifer Avenue is clearly not an alley, does not have house frontages along it, does not have much if any commercial activity, and is not otherwise significant compared to any of its surrounding roads.

If you follow these networks you can see patterns even between roads that are quite far from each other. For example, Calhoun and Park are both hubs for commercial activity but are flanked by more major transportation routes. Here are some more examples following these criteria in some different parts of the city:

• • Primary: Harford, Northern Pkwy, Belair
  • Secondary: Frankford, Walther, Hamilton, Cedonia
  • Tertiary: Taylor, Old Harford, Glenmore, Moyer
  • Residential: Pinewood, Sefton, Burgess

• • Primary: Edison, Belair, Erdman
  • Secondary: Sinclair, Bowleys, Moravia
  • Tertiary: Brehms, Parkside, Mannasota
  • Residential: Juneway, Kenyon, Cliftmont

• • Primary: Annapolis, Patapsco, Washington Blvd, Caton
  • Secondary: Waterview, Hollins Ferry, Lansdowne (you have to leave city limits to get much further here)
  • Tertiary: Westport, Manokin, Maisel
  • Residential: Kermit, Annor, Wrigley

Links

Key destinations

• School tripper zones (MTA): https://www.mta.maryland.gov/schools
• Bus and rail connections map (feat. park and rides): https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/System%20Maps/Bus_Rail_Connections_Map_10_2021.pdf