ROAD CLASSIFICATION DECISION MATRIX

Default Starting Ranks: [UK] [IRL] [DE] [FR] [IT]

INTERSTATE/MOTORWAY motorway [US:I] [UK:M] [IE:M] [DE:A] [FR:A] [IT:A]

NHS (DIV) trunk [UK:A(T)] [IE:N] [DE:B] [FR:N] [IT:SS]

US (ALL) / NHS (UNDIV) primary [UK:A] [IE:N] [DE:L] [FR:D] [IT:SS]

STATE PRIMARY secondary [UK:B] [IE:R] [DE:K] [IT:SP]

STATE SEC/COUNTY tertiary [UK:C]

TOWNSHIP residential

other things to think about for status changes: for Primary to Trunk: NHS mainline/some Strahnet (exc intermodal connnectors) +1 controlled access (limited intersections) +1 divided highway +1 interchanges at intervals +1 super-2 in places +1 or upgrade to motorway super-2 with widened centerline, rumble strips, mandatory headlight usage. Trunk means “watch out”; dangerous roads serving the role of a motorway one with design/safety compromises.

Secondary to Primary: high relative traffic +1 wide shoulders +1 Interstate Business Route +1 (not automatically in NHS!)

Tertiary to Secondary: 4 or 6-lane divided +1 through route +1 retail strip +1 interchanges with an Interstate (case-by-case)

Residential to Tertiary Divided, serving major retail centers and industrial parks +1 MD: Has yellow center line and is through/collector route VA: Numbered Secondary 600-999, selected routes above 1000 (VA numbers almost every road, but these lower numbers are usually important) PA: Numbered SR 1xxx-4xxx WV: County Routes (whole & fractionals)

for drops in status: numerous traffic signals in quick succession (drop from trunk) -1 retail strip (usually cause for above): drop from trunk to primary, but up from tertiary to secondary if divided. -1/+1 low speed limit -1 city environment -1 narrow shoulders -1 twists/turns/grades -1 (in relation to nearby straighter roads serving the same general direction)

… See full entry

Spent the last few days after vacation going over my OSM notes from the roads of the Midwest and Plains (trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota).

I noted some of the differences in naming and signage conventions between counties, especially secondary level numbered roads (ref=) and street names (name=) in counties with mile after mile of PLSS grids. Many of these differ from TIGER, and will have been renamed, especially for E911 purposes. On the way back I even saw two separate name signages, one the old street names in town, and the other a new grid naming system.

Pennington County, SD

## Blade signage:
White on green, standard pentagons on end of sign. No county numbers given, only blank pentagons with county outline on blade signage, and also logos for USFS or city maintained roads. ## Route markers: County roads are marked with (unnumbered) pentagons reading “Begin Pennington County Road” ## Street grid: Number grid system in the flat parts of the eastern county. Was driving, so no further details.

Deadwood, SD

Had brown street name signs for walkways within Mt. Moriah Cemetery. Standard green in the rest of town.

Custer County, SD

## Blade signage: White on green, standard pentagons on blade signage for county, also logos for USFS or city maintained roads. ## Route markers: Small vertical markers, white on green, “CUSTER CO ### CS”, also some National Forest markers. ## Street grid: No system to speak of, too mountainous to have an obvious grid system, except in the towns.

Crook County, WY

## Blade signage: standard with road names only ## Route markers: Standard pentagons. ## Street grid: None observed, no numbered names. US/State Highways had no other names.

Rest of South Dakota in grid areas

## Street grid: Streets EW, Avenues NS, numbers increasing eastward and southward.

Kansas overview

… See full entry

landuse=residential classifications: There are several different that could fall under this... single-family, townhomes, apartments, high-rise apts/condos, mobile homes, etc.

A clearer definition of the difference between landuse=commercial, =retail and =industrial. Lots of offices are considered in zoning as 'light industrial' and called 'industrial parks', as opposed to 'heavy industrial', traditional industry with smokestacks and factories.

Fraternal lodges/meeting halls: Still lots of these around, though many of them are quite old, not just the buildings, but the average age of the members.

Noticed (after working in the area over 8 years) just how anarchic the planning is in Towson, MD. It's the unincorporated county seat of Baltimore County, and has old original houses next to multi-story office buildings. Most of the original housing survives west of Bosley Avenue, and many original structures are to be found as businesses/bars/stores on York Road. Out east of town on Joppa Road, the houses are zoned commercial for miles out. East Joppa is a major route out on the east, but West Joppa, though more important a few blocks west, sneaks through that first western block as a back alley service road for businesses on Allegany Avenue.

The town's WWI monument was dwarfed by what's now the Towson Circle retail complex, to the immediate southeast of the traffic circle. Towson Commons to the south has become a retail white elephant, to the extent their full potential was never reached. Towson Circle features a Barnes & Noble and a few other stores, and Towson Commons is mostly offices and a multi-screen cinema after the Borders bookstore left. Only one or two stores survive along ground level on Pennsylvania Avenue (AKA Sushi Alley).

All said, the landuse=tag makes an interesting hodgepodge in these places. Several of the adjacent tall buildings are landuse=commercial next to =residential. Lots of parking to be accounted for, all of it guarded jealously. I'd like to find elevation data for the taller buildings, to make 3D analysis possible.

Like the other counties mentioned earlier, Alleghany County, PA (containing Pittsburgh) is another poor TIGER specimen. To complicate things is the hilly environment which narrows streets and also streets in TIGER which are actually pedestrian walkways or, more often, staircases.

I began my Pittsburgh TIGER cleanup on the south slope near Mount Washington, and now on the north slope (Spring Hill, East Allegheny, Millvale). In the interval were edits on the Hill District from the Civic Arena east to Herron Hill, and the Allegheny waterfront between 16th and 40th Streets.

The TIGER data in York County, PA was horrific. York City and Lebanon were completed some time ago. Just completed Red Lion, Dallastown and Yoe (that's a real place). Back in Maryland, bad early TIGER data is found in Anne Arundel, Garrett and Queen Anne's Counties.