Still on this parenthesis, our authorities simply "administer", they do not publish any official recognition of "importance" (other than "I administer this road"). Using this as criterion, classification becomes highly subjective guesswork in Brazil and doesn't work well as Gerald pointed out. It is how our authorities' priorities are set (which roads are paved first, which get proper shoulder and road signs) that tells us something meaningful about their sense of "importance". We all agreed that there are federal highways in Brazil which are much less important than certain state highways, sometimes lying just next to a federal highway. The same could be said about some state ways and certain local/intercity ways that are administrated by prefectures. So route numbers don't mean much per se here. We also somewhat agreed that traffic intensity says something about "importance", and that traffic intensity correlates with road structure. This has somewhat been discussed (in English) at the German forum, here: http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=21413
Of course, all this applies only to Brazil, one should always learn about and stick to local practice when mapping abroad. On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 10:44 AM, Gerald Weber <gwebe...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > Based on the agreed practice in Brazil, I would tag this one either as >> > highway=unclassified or highway=track, depending on how much this is >> > in use and what it connects (I cannot determine this from pictures >> > alone) with surface=dirt or surface=ground. >> >> One other point I want to make. I read this sentence several times in the >> above discussion and want to comment on it. Whether a highway is tagged as >> unclassified has nothing to do with its surface or its usability but depends >> on whether it has received a certain kind of recognition of importance by >> the people who administer the roads in your area. Does it have a route >> number or other designated reference number? If so it is a classified >> highway and has the further characteristic of tertiary, primary, or what >> have you. Here in Thailand there are many roads that are paved, smooth, but >> have no designated route numbers. We tag those roads as unclassified. So >> let's not confuse the issue of usability with classified or unclassified. >> From the Wiki Project Thailand: >> > > OK, let me clarify what I wrote. The "agreed practice in Brazil" was reached > after intense discussion of the mappers in the Talk-BR mailing list. The > motivation was that the current scheme of OSM highway classification, based > on UK highways, was nearly impossible to apply consistently here in Brazil > and the situation was getting a bit chaotic. > > So we agreed on a two-step classification process, first taking into account > the format of the road, and afterwards and if necessary its perceived > importance. In this scheme we tend to classify unpaved roads either as > tertiary or as unclassified, but rarely as secondary or primary. Of course, > all subject to discussion when necessary (which is the second step of > classification). I am happy to say that this scheme now works quite well as > usually the state of the road matches its regional importance. > > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging > -- Fernando Trebien +55 (51) 9962-5409 "The speed of computer chips doubles every 18 months." (Moore's law) "The speed of software halves every 18 months." (Gates' law) _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
