As someone who has driven on these routes quite a number of times, I can say that PA roads are not up to the same standards as roads pretty much anywhere else in the country. When roads come into the state from NJ, they all go from 3-4 lanes down to two. Which is fine for a rural highway, but not I-76 going through Philadelphia. I think that as far as people living in those areas, they would believe their road to be a primary road, even if it is only a two lane road with a lot of stoplights. The terms "primary" and "secondary" are relative terms and they should be labeled as relative. It would be interesting to add the traffic count data to the ways and possibly use that to display the width of the road.
As for the two Pennsylvania roads mentioned, there are my local perceptions on them: I-99 is a special case where a congressman wanted a road to go from the PA turnpike to I-80, he threw a bunch of money at it, and made up a new number to assign to it. The road never really was meant to be an interstate, and I think the state reluctantly accepted it being called an interstate only after the I-99 signs were put up. It doesn't follow interstate conventions or anything. It is a limited access highway though, and the speed limit is 65 the whole way. As a driver on the road, I wouldn't notice a difference between it and I-80. As far as Bethlehem Pike, the road was largely replace by Route 309 and 378. It is a very old road and follows Native American trails. In some areas, it still exists as an arterial road. The road is not used for any long distance travel, because people traveling further would be using route 309. Route 309 and Bethlehem Pike are concurrent for much of the way through Montgomeryville, and further north at the bypass, there's a Bethlehem Pike and an Old Bethlehem Pike, showing the evolution of the roadway. In any case, Bethlehem Pike near the southernmost bypass of route 309 would be a secondary road in my opinion, as anyone looking to travel for more than a few miles would travel on 309. In contrast to that, there is a road called "Easton Road" which is labeled as route 611. It probably matches Bethlehem Pike in robustness, but for travelers, there is no better alternate road to much of northern Bucks county, and it could be listed as a primary road through that region. On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 9:40 AM, McGuire, Matthew < matt.mcgu...@metc.state.mn.us> wrote: > > Can you show me an area of the US that's tagged completely objectively? > > For example: Interstate 99 near Altoona, PA is coded (AFAIK appropriately) > a motorway. Over the entire length of the Interstate, it looks like it > serves a max average daily traffic of 37,000 vehicles per day ( > http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-099.html), which is equivalent to many > "primary" roads. > > Given this volume, it is reasonable to imagine Interstate 99 was never > built. Instead there is a four lane, at-grade highway. The road would still > serve the same interregional travel purpose in the area network. It could > have the same traffic volume. But it wouldn't be a motorway. > > Interstate 99 doesn't share other qualities of Interstates (traffic volume, > Interstate Travel, connecting large cities) Therefore, the current > classification of motorway is based on the physical quality of the road. > > I've also been on ridiculously under-designed two lane roads in the > Philadelphia and other Northeastern suburbs that carry large loads of > commuter traffic. They function as primary or secondary roads, but they > aren't built like the ones in my area and should not be classified the same > way. If they code it as such, it will only serve to alienate visitors. > > This is the North Bethlehem Pike north of Philadelphia. > http://www.openstreetmap.org/?way=12336821 It is coded as a primary road. > > This is Bass Lake Road west of Minneapolis. > http://www.openstreetmap.org/?way=41442915 It is coded as secondary. > > I'll let you dig up what the roads look like with whatever tools you're > comfortable with. But the way it looks to me is that functionally, they are > probably both accurate. Physically, the secondary road is a much more robust > road. > > These differences are reflective of regional differences, and I did not > need to spend much time looking for them. If they are all coded by relative > local function, we whitewash regional differences - the interesting (useful, > if that's a requirement) bits to me. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-us mailing list > Talk-us@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us >
_______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
