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In Italy, in the Alps, we have a few classified roads which are unpaved.

For instance, the Strada dell'Assietta is classified as a provincial road, where provincial means smaller than regional: Link (sorry for google translator)

Althought it is unpaved, I wouldnt tag it with highway=track, since it's not used for agriculture or forestry. At the same time, highway=secondary (usually used for provincial roads) would be confusing, as it is clearly a very minor road!

Would highway=minor be better than track?

asked 25 Jan '12, 21:34

solitone's gravatar image

solitone
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accept rate: 0%


The quality of a road does not have to be proporsional to the importance of a road. There are economical, enviromental and safety issues that might cause tracks to be paved and motorways to be unpaved.

Look at the table of highway values in different countries at the wiki. You will see that a strade provinciali is supposed to be tagged with highway=secondary. If you don't see why this is then take it up with the italian gouverments as they have given this road the same priority as the other secondary highways in Italy.

permanent link

answered 25 Jan '12, 22:43

Gnonthgol's gravatar image

Gnonthgol ♦
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accept rate: 16%

1

Yes, italian "provincial roads" should be tagged as secondary. The contradiction here is that this road is officially classified as provincial/secondary, while in fact it is more than minor. Almost no car uses it, only during the summers some tourists drive on it. Moreover, for environmental reasons motorized traffic is allowed only during specific days of the year and of the week.

I also believe it should be tagged as secondary. My only doubt though is that tagging it as secondary would confuse users. It would be appear as a much more important road than actually is. Ok, I shouldn't care about rendering, but still it'd be confusing.

Currently it is tagged as track (which I think is wrong, because it is defenitely not an agricultural or forestry road), probably because the original mapper had similar doubts...

(26 Jan '12, 08:37) solitone
3

If you want discussion you can take it to the italian mailing list https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mailing_list

I have seen primary roads that can not hold a bus and secondary roads that are little more then tracks. However the theese roads are important for the infrastructure even if there are normaly only a few cars on them.

(26 Jan '12, 16:57) Gnonthgol ♦
1

Additionally you should use more describing tags at the highway like
tracktype=
surface=

smoothness=*
4wd_only=yes

I faced this issue in Albania, for example here

(28 Jan '12, 12:23) malenki
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question asked: 25 Jan '12, 21:34

question was seen: 4,404 times

last updated: 28 Jan '12, 12:23

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