On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Guillaume Mauger <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello all, > > I have a follow-up question to my earlier newbie question regarding getting > the shapefiles. I now have them (thanks!) and am working on interpreting the > "highway" (contains all roads) shapefile. > > Below is the list of road-types contained in the shapefiles (18 different > categories in all). > > Where can I find information that defines what all of these terms mean? > Specifically, I just need to know which roads can be driven on, and which > cannot.
Here are my ideas about what the various roads mean. Specific tags about car accessibility (access = ..., motorcar = ...) always trump the highway tag. I'll change the order some to get the major groups together and in order 'Normal' roads, from highest to lowest grade: > 'motorway' Minimum two lanes per direction, separate lanes for the directions, all crossings uneven, highest maximum speed, part of a national numbering scheme. > 'trunk' Connections with other roads are usually uneven; slow traffic (bicycles, tractors) are not allowed; often but not always separated lanes; part of a national numbering scheme > 'primary' Major connecting road between towns or between a city and the rest of the world. Minor roads and single houses usually don't connect to it. > 'secondary' Connecting road between towns or between a city and the rest of the world. When connected to other roads it has priority. > 'tertiary' Any road that is not 'big' enough to be secondary, but is still used for interlocal or (in cities) interquarter traffic. > 'residential' A road inside a village, town or city, the primary purpose of which is to connect houses to the road net. > 'unclassified' The equivalent of a residential road outside urban areas (although here in the Netherlands because of the way the AND-data were imported, most residential roads are actually specified as unclassified as well) > 'service' Anything that looks like a road, but that one would not necessarily expect to have its own road name. Usually can be driven on. I myself mostly use it for entrances to parking lots and similar. > 'track' An unsurfaced road, usually broad enough to drive a car (otherwise I would classify it a path), but whether it can actually be driven depends on the road surface and the type of car. Links: > 'motorway_link' A piece of road connecting a motorway to another road > 'trunk_link' Connection between a trunk road and another road, the other road not being a highway > 'primary_link' Connection between a primary road and another road, the other road not being a highway or trunk road. > 'secondary_link' Connection between a secondary road and another road, the other road not being a highway, trunk or primary road. Pedestrian roads: > 'pedestrian' A road inside a city, closed off for most traffic to allow use by pedestrians. Driving on it would be possible if somehow you got on, but it is not allowed. > 'footway' A road or surfaced path specifically designed to walk on. Driving on it is not allowed, and usually not possible. > 'path' Anything used to walk or drive on that is not built or maintained as a road. In most cases an unsurfaced walking path. Not suitable to car traffic. Others: > 'Driveway' I don't think this one is standard > 'road' The type of road is unknown to the person who entered it into OSM -- André Engels, [email protected] _______________________________________________ newbies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/newbies
