Thank for your participation Ken,
Your proposal on trunk looks good but I could you distinguish between trunk and 
primary roads?

I would find difficult to make the difference between a trunk and a primary 
road (even some secondary) since most of them are linking two or more cities, 
ports, … be the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic.

Furthermore, as far as I remember, there used to be an agreement on this list 
about primary roads tagging. The result is still available under Canada/primary 
roads on http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway:International_equivalence.
At least one of your examples contradicts the above.

This thread started last summer when I saw most of the primary roads converted 
to trunk in my neighbourhood. The concerned contributor and I do not interpret 
the trunk and primary roads definitions the same. Do you have in mind some 
“easily identifiable criteria” that would make him and I tag a primary or trunk 
road the same? My initial proposal was not about the best definition, but about 
a definition that would make most of us using the same tag while mapping.

But maybe it does not matter…
Daniel

From: Ken Wuschke [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: January-27-16 12:44
To: Begin Daniel
Cc: talk-ca
Subject: Re: [Talk-ca] Highway recoding

I still lean towards function over design as how to define a trunk road.

The present Tag: highway=trunk for high performance roads that don't meet the 
requirement for motorway actually is inclusive of the function of the highway.  
All that is required is further the definition to clarify this point.

For a moment I stepped out of OSM's definitions and took at look to Wikipedia 
which says:

"A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road, usually 
connecting two or more cities, ports, airports and other places, which is the 
recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic. Many trunk roads have 
segregated lanes in a dual 
carriageway<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_carriageway>, or are of motorway 
standard." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunk_road

I note that this description is more about the purpose of the highway than if 
it is 2-lanes or 4-lanes, has a dividing barrier, limited access interchanges, 
etc.

While focusing on the design of a highway to determine if it should be a trunk, 
primary, secondary, tertiary, or residential is far easier to define over the 
function/purpose of highway it, IMO, misses the point of what a map should be 
providing. Information to the user as how to travel efficiency from point A to 
point B.

Turning to existing examples of provincial and state maps for guidance I find 
these examples:


  *   Alberta - http://bit.ly/1ZT3Sz0 - It shows the following three levels. 
(1) Freeways. (2) Paved provincial highways regardless as to the number of 
lanes. (3) Gravel surfaced highways.
  *   Saskatchewan - http://bit.ly/1OPB7Ag - (1) Divided highways. (2) Paved 
provincial highways regardless as to the number of lanes. (3) Thin membrane 
surfaces - important for heavily load trucks. (4) Gravel surfaces.
  *   Washington state - http://1.usa.gov/1KFy1uI - (1) Interstate. (2) Dual 
carriageway design state highways. (3) Undivided state highways. (4) 
County/local roads.
When I look at these I find them easy to understand the network between 
destinations versus having design being the primary focus.

Therefore I'd like to suggest the follow definition for Tag: highway=trunk:

high performance roads that don't meet the requirement for motorway design 
standards and linking two or more cities, ports, airports and other places, 
which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic.

There can be a further definition for clarity. For example, I would classify 
Quebec Highway 133 - http://bit.ly/1RNQooL - which links Autoroute 35 to the 
United States and Interstate 89. However, Quebec Highway 133 does not have any 
major destination along its route itself.

Looking forward to further discussion,
Ken



On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 8:31 AM, Begin Daniel 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Well, I am not sure about the conclusion at this point but in order to move 
forward, here are some definitions I would propose using wiki’s definitions and 
current tread discussions:

Tag: highway=motorway to identify the highest-performance roads within a 
territory. Typically, these controlled-access highways have a minimum of two 
lanes in each direction that are separated by a barrier…

Tag: highway=trunk for high performance roads that don't meet the requirement 
for motorway. In Canada, these roads must have some of the controlled-access 
features found on a motorway.

Tag: highway=primary for major highway linking large towns … The traffic for 
both directions is usually not separated by a central barrier. In Canada, these 
roads usually have none of the controlled-access features found on trunk and 
motorway.

Most of the confusion comes from the governmental pdf document, cited in the 
Canadian tagging guidelines (wiki), which uses definitions that do not 
correspond to those of OSM. Once most of us agree on a set of definitions, 
starting using the above, we should provide adjusted definitions in the wiki 
and remove the pdf document.

Hope it will help
Daniel

From: Chandler Vancouver 
[mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>]
Sent: January-26-16 16:49
To: Stewart Russell
Cc: talk-ca
Subject: Re: [Talk-ca] Highway recoding

Completely agree, Stewart.

Similarly I live just off a road I would consider to be a tertiary level road. 
It runs for only 4 km and links up residential side streets, a high school, an 
elementary school and a small scale commercial zone. It is only two lanes wide 
but for over 50% of its length has a centre boulevard or a centre dual left 
turn lane. As well, less than 25% of its length has residences that off it and 
none where you can park on the road itself.

Where it meets four main crossroads the intersections are as follows:

Intersection A: full signal with priority given to the crossroad.

Intersection B: a four-way stop.

Intersection C: full signal with priority given to the road in question.

Intersection D: a stop sign with the crossroad given full priority over the 
road in question.

In addition there is a walking trail that crosses with a pedestrian activated 
signal but with an advanced warning signal as described at 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canada:British_Columbia#Highways_and_provincial_roads
 under "trunk".

Driving the full length you would know it is a tertiary level route, yet I can 
take photographs of the route that could lead you to believe it is a trunk road.

---

Another example is SW Marine Drive between Camosun Street and the University of 
British Columbia - 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/255865854#map=15/49.2428/-123.2196 . It is 
designed at the level described for trunk road at 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canada:British_Columbia#Highways_and_provincial_roads,
 yet the OSM contributors have designated it as secondary highway.

I don't find this a "maddening" as you say, but then I feel we could adopt a 
more UK approach to the definition then a infrastructure/design POV.



On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 1:27 PM, Stewart Russell 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

A trunk road is not necessarily divided. The limited access part means that 
it's not residential. It has to go from a town or city to another town or city. 
It predates or has lesser capacity than a motorway.

It's one of these maddening "know one when I see one" definitions that makes 
perfect sense in the UK but is difficult elsewhere.

Much of the Trans-Canada, f'rinstance, would be considered a trunk road.

Cheers
Stewart

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