Sorry for not making my point clear. Caffeine fix is not kicking yet Get ready - I am talking about pedantry.
I did not intend to abandon highway=trunk at all. There are some routes that’s really perfect for the tag. Most of them probably can be found in the Greater Klang Valley, perhaps Johor Bahru or some that are/were built by federal or state JKR. However, we must consider those who are potentially international road users that are using the OSM database in satellite navigation systems.
In neighbouring Thailand, from my experience:
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a trunk road is specified much like the Federal Highway (federal route 2), except there are road intersections with traffic lights (i.e. instead of interchanges with the overpasses) and without toll charges
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for example, this route (no idea what they are called really) and this one, they are fully divided highways, end-to-end
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no expressway within sight, and one can find them only near Bangkok
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major crossroads (three or four way junctions), however, are really few and may not causing a gridlock.
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no four way junctions with really minor roads (highway=tertiary and lower, perhaps even highway=secondary), there’s only slip roads going into and out of it… I mean much like slip roads along the Malaysian Federal Highway. Let me know if this sounds really vague. This is to control the flow of traffic.
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controlled access with U-turns are allowed at some certain place
Perhaps I will add more, later, in a new post.
I will include more details later. Stay tuned.
Back to Malaysia.
Federal Highway fits best the highway=trunk tag. From my (limited) observation and experience, these routes simply goes in as well:
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Federal Route 276: from the NSE to UUM
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Federal Route 194: from the NSE to Arau, then stopped short before Kuala Perlis
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Federal Route 176: Jitra to Arau, maybe to Kangar if I am not mistaken
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Some parts of Federal Route 5 - they will be upgraded soon as the West Coast Expressway
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Without doubt, whole Middle Ring Road 2, Federal Route 28
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I have seen some part of the Central Spine Road. That easily goes in unless it is really a short stretch
There are a number of highways in the Klang Valley that I believe deserved the honourable mention to be tagged as highway=trunk… Blame my sketchy memory. Can anyone from Johor confirm the Skudai Highway as well?
Now let’s focus on both the E1 (North South Exwy) and Federal Route 1. E1 is fine at the moment, it stays as it is - no further amendments. Somehow, I believe E1 influenced how we are going to tag Federal Route 1 end-to-end.
E1 lies close with federal route 1. The trouble lies within the federal route 1. From my experience, most of it stays as a two lane undivided road especially in kampung areas. Only in Jitra to Alor Setar, it exists as a divided highway. The short bit northwards from Jitra, exists as an undivided road and simply merged with E1 through sliproads on the west side only. In fact, a really short stretch (<1km-ish) of federal route 1 in front of Masjid Zahir is indeed an undivided road with paving stones!
Leaving Alor Setar, then it becomes an undivided road as it passed through the villages. Then you will cross into school areas with a 30km/h speed limit. Some zebra crossings intended for the students are indeed in a form of a wide bump - to slow down the traffic. Then you get direct access to homes and buildings next to the road. In short, so many things that can affect the flow of traffic in a supposed trunk highway. Things can be very different in Federal Highway, isn’t it?
As you reach Sungai Petani, the road is split into divided highways again… and similar things follow as you leave Sungai Petani, en route to Butterworth. This goes on and on and on until someone reaches Ipoh, the Greater Kuala Lumpur, etc.
I believe tagging some short part of the federal route 1 as highway=trunk and the rest as highway=primary is unnecessary… unless, there’s a considerable long stretch (like Jalan Cheras in KL) where traffic flow is regulated. It is better to be uniformed in my opinion. Consider the routing machines as well, some may stick to some kind of a road with higher classification in order to cut short the time of a journey.