I agree with Mr_Israel, becuase Israel looks now like a mess with different colors… 
I started some reverts (see http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=17758))
As we see, too much people likes to change highway definitions, so to prevent future “surprises” I have created rule to watch changes of 4 top level road types whithin Israel borders (including Yehuda & Shomron) using some test service (http://osm102.openstreetmap.fr/~zorglub/watch/#):
Here is an RSS link: http://osm102.openstreetmap.fr/~zorglub/watch/api/rss_feed?key=d0e80216468e47ad8783b63f09892922LAb4aHJKgwpRsF-VpsdLa5xaazn3bwlcIrh4Wg6mAC7qmZG3YdTCbQF1q_GaQ0NJGsm3E7ajCHbAMA
Feel free to subscribe and watch.
Dear friends, I am working on some application and ** I need a file with all the roads speed limits in Israel.** (Not only speed cameras but all the roads speed limits). Where can I find a file with all that information? I will much appreciate your reply here or by PM to me. All ideas/options/offers are welcome. Thank you and have a great day. 
The general rules are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_Israel
However, we don’t know exactly what “urban” means. Also, OSM does not always specify which roads have a built-up dividing area.
According to this site (and others I found by googling), there are also a number of exceptions, which may change with time.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140004#.ULd4ooajTj4
So you can’t rely on OSM for a definitive list. You could derive a mostly accurate list from OSM road information, but there would still be many errors. This link might help, but it might be inaccurate:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_tags_for_routing/Maxspeed
You could try asking the Ministry of Transport for a list of roads that are exceptions to the normal rules.
The information you’re looking for is: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:maxspeed
I don’t think it was set on any road. Is there a way to get a list of roads in Israel without this attribute set?
Easily!
And this going to be really looooong list!
Something that has been bothering me for a while: some freeways are classified as trunk (23, part of 2, etc.) because they might have bus stops, tolls or other small problems. This seems like trying to be holier than the pope—from what I can see, there is no problem classifying such roads as freeways in other countries, such as Italy and definitely the Middle East. The MoT classifies them as freeways. Are there any objections to changing these to freeways?
Ynhockey, if I’m not wrong, we do not use signs like bus stops and traffic lights to decide what is a road type. Because we are small country, standard checks doesn’t always apply. In most cases color of road signs with road number tells us exact road type.
yrtimiD, you are absolutely right, that “our” definition is not based on bus stops or traffic light.
We are using the road signs and their colors to define the road classification (you can see a overview here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roads_in_Israel#Numbering_of_the_roads))
What is very interesting, that almost nobody knows the difference of these road types or why the signs background color does change on the highway.
But the way we define the road types are very strict following the official definition of the road.
The only problem is, that sometimes you can find different types of signs for the same road because some of the signs are old and not updated yet.
If you see problem in our definition tell us. Lets find out together where and if there is a problem.
As I said, the first examples that come to mind is Highway 23:
https://maps.google.com/?ll=32.789133,35.008492&spn=0.00671,0.027874&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=32.789134,35.008483&panoid=KLdbYr0fgHgGbRX9g0E8DQ&cbp=11,63.57,0,-3.98
The road signs don’t seem to actually say 23 anywhere, but all the signs pointing to it are blue.
Hi All,
recently (5 months ago ) user WillRock41 changed part of Ayalon highway from motorway to trunk (changeset 36488477)
reason was: there are no motorway signs between Moshe Dayan interchange to Heil HaShiryon interchange
Invited him here to discuss.
What do you think?
I think that roads that are not built to be motorways should not be marked as motorways.
Few weeks ago, I spoke with Ayalon highways and they said that they would upgrade ayalon north between Moshe Dayan interchange to Heil HaShiryon interchange to motorway in the close future
I don’t see any difference between south and north parts of Ayalon, and I’m not a civil engineer. The only problem I see is the conflict between our internally agreed definition for main roads and your change. See He:Map Features for details.
You can ask Ayalon highways about the differences south and north parts of Ayalon North
“Ayalon highways” is welcome to join the community and explain how the highways are defined correctly and what mistake we did in mapping it. Currently we are very good with the definition in the road schema and most if not all mappers do know how to mark a way.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m really interested in a official statement!
Sorry if this was already discussed, but I just noticed that Highway 5 (in Gush Dan) was remapped as a trunk road (instead of motorway). I was under the impression that we were supposed to use the official classification, where 5 is clearly a motorway. Am I missing something?
EDITED FOR CLARITY (hopefully)
I find the recent reclassification as “trunk” of HWY 5
and parts of WHY 20 North (Ayalon),
as if they have red shields, very confusing. All road signs refer to them the same as other blue-shielded roads.
This reclassification is caused by interpretation of the “Maximum Speed limit” and “Description” columns as overriding the “Color” column.
Max-speed and access restrictions road signs are well represented by the corresponding OSM tags. Using speed or highway access road-signs for highway classification leads to such confusion.
###################
I propose that:
-
Shield color will be the only criteria for roads with shields: “motorway”, “trunk”, “primary”, “secondary”, and “tertiary”.
-
The “Maximum Speed limit” column be removed from the Wiki
-
The reference to the “highway” road-sign will be removed from the description of a Motorway.
-
The highway tag of shielded highways will be corrected accordingly.
That sounds good, but I don’t really understand the images: where are they from, and are they authoritative? This looks like Amudanan.co.il which is not official.
The official government maps still classify Highway 5 as a blue highway (freeway).
That’s exactly my point. The criteria for setting a road as a “blue highway” are set by the government, not OSM members.
The fact is that the government may assign a blue color to a road without a “Freeway” sign, or even to a road with a reduced speed.
The maps, by the way, were taken from IsraelHiking.osm.org.il. They represent the live status of the OSM tagging.
Following this discussion, I changed Highway 5 to a motorway, but was surprised to find out that the change was reverted. Unfortunately I am not proficient in finding changes, reverting, etc. It appears that the change was made here, but I don’t understand how to know for sure:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/46236272#map=13/32.1117/34.8878
Was the change made here? If so, how can I revert? Should I message the user and alert them of this discussion? How are such procedures generally handled on OSM?