On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 20:13, Martin Koppenhoefer<dieterdre...@gmail.com> wrote: > 2009/8/5 David Lynch <djly...@gmail.com>: > >> That indicates that it's part of the Interstate system. Every highway >> on the Interstate system is a motorway-class (high-speed and >> grade-separated) road, but not every motorway-class road in the United >> States is an Interstate. There is no equivalent to >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zeichen_330.svg to draw a clear line >> between highway=motorway and highway=something else. > > As far as I have understood by reading English Wikipedia you have > different classes (Freeway, Interstate, Numbered Highways) where at > least Freeway and Interstate are motorways. Those seem to have > unambiguous signs. May I suppose that I would not be allowed to ride > my bike on any of these, even if the average speed on all lanes of the > 405 in LA is 5 mph at rush hour?
"Freeway" is the general term in American English for what OSM would tag highway=motorway (some people would also include toll=no; that was one of the senses of the "free" part of the name when they first opened.) Interstates are a subset of freeways. The majority of centrally-maintained roads are numbered, and the majority of unnumbered roads are locally maintained*. Interstates and U. S. Highways have numbers and routes set by the federal government; other centrally-maintained roads are numbered on a state-by-state basis and states may even have more than one numbering system (Texas has about four state-specific ones that I can think of off of the top of my head, and 360 is a major urban road in three of them.) It's pretty much anarchy, compared to Europe. Generally, I would say that bicycles aren't a good idea, even when they are allowed. The legal definition of a freeway varies from state to state as do the restrictions that are in place. * - Some rural counties use numbers instead of names, but a lot dropped the practice in the last 15 years or so when a new law came into effect about identifying locations for fire/medical/police response. -- David J. Lynch djly...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk