Exactly, that’s where I see currently big issues: “trunk” which are actually primary (or even less). It’s not only #1 (which is a trunk for some sections, e.g. near Taiping), but also many other roads. What about #4, #5, #67, #76, just to name a few in the North-West.
Oh, #67 near Baling seems to overlap a different road at the same place (already sent a message to the mapper)…
And then downwards, “primary” which ought to be secondary etc.
@AkuAnakTimur: I recommend you replace the current wiki page with your work. We’ll then see how things develop.
After that, I will replace the current wiki page.Please let me know if I misunderstood you. From your provided link,
From post #11,
I am not able to confirm that all highways in Thailand being tagged in OSM as highway=trunk will feature stricter access control.
From my experience, the road (number 4) is divided (double carriageway) even it crosses towns, villages, (schools, etc.) from Sadao up to Hat Yai. But the way Thailand OSMers map a trunk road in such convention may relate to the degree of access control. I can confirm the case (so far) with road number 43 (tagged as a trunk).
[Interesting side note: In fact there is a cattle crossing sign that can be found in the North South Expressway, where the Federal Route 1 begin to branch off (or merge into) the expressway, somewhere near Changlun, Kedah]
Road number 42 is quite interesting - there is a mix between highway=primary and highway=trunk. Went there this January, and where and why it should be tagged that way kind of makes sense. The parts being tagged as highway=primary is so because even though it featured 4 way lanes, there is no central reservation (simply put it is an undivided highway) - therefore lack of access control (a driver can merge with the traffic anywhere s/he likes). The rest is tagged with highway=trunk because it is a divided highway plus more access control. Which means only traffic from major roads meets at certain key junctions. Traffic from minor roads strictly follows one direction only - if one intended to go to the other way around, then s/he is stuck with the specified way before making a U-turn, etc.
Now, coming back to our Federal Route 1, as it comes close to the Greater Kuala Lumpur area, I have no problems if we agreed to tag it as highway=trunk. For example, look at Jalan Ipoh (near Rawang), Jalan Kuching (there used to be a toll there isn’t it?), and Jalan Cheras. Surely they are divided highways, and as a Cheras resident between 2008-2010, there is quite a degree of access control (for the case of Jalan Cheras itself - the parts not being upgraded into E7 Cheras-Kajang Highway).
On top of that, I would like to take the chance to blame DBKL for not putting up highway shields in their area of responsibility. Federal Route 1 “disappears” in the middle of KL!
Butterworth can be tricky as well. According to Wikipedia, there is quite a big chunk of the former Federal Route 1 is being upgraded into an expressway. Beyond that, I would be very happy to tag the rest of Federal Route 1 if there is lack of access control, etc.
From the outskirts of Sungai Petani to Kepala Batas, Federal Route 1 is simply an undivided highway. Quite really windy as well, unlike E1 North South Expressway just a stone’s throw from the road.
Ipoh is a bit of mishmash, but easily Federal Route 1 can be beaten by these highways sitting next to the PLUS Highway. The road appears to be under JKR maintenance - with blue road signs.
I haven’t set foot near Johor Bahru yet, but I will let (the most part of) Skudai Highway as it is. I might be tempted to change its tag at the point where the road starts to lose its access control.
Why so? The peninsular has a quite extensive expressway network (highway=motorway). It overshadows the road network built by JKR (or Ministry of Works) by a large margin. I mean, why bother travelling on a single carriageway with up to 90 km/h speed limit when the expressway offers at least two-lane double carriageways, fewer sharp bends, 110 km/h speed limit (etc)? (Tolls aside - hopefully by 2040-ish there will be no toll charges)
IMHO, letting a certain stretch of Federal Route 1 as highway=trunk is OK because, reasons (mentioned above). The rest of Federal Route 1, again, may not offer a strong reason to keep it as a highway=trunk (according to me).
Tagging consistency is important (coming back to your point). However, comparing how the highway=trunk tag is being used at a larger (global) scale, somehow, we (as Malaysian mappers) could… er, “follow the standards”.
To summarise, beyond Bangkok, there’s hardly highway=motorway; but highways with highway=trunk are of a certain access control. The rest of the highways are not so - they lack access control.
Also consider Singapore as well. There are only 3-4 highways being tagged with highway=trunk for the whole island. In their Wiki, it is explicitly mentioned that highway=trunk is for semi-highways.
Brunei has only one highway with highway=trunk.
But then again, I am not a tagging police.
Revised guide is now up. We can still continue discussing to sort out issues about it here. I will move to another tagging aspect.