E1 near Thai border

Road E1 is tagged as a motorway. But I have doubts if that is correct for the region near the Thai border.
When you enter Malaysia from Thailand at Bukit Kayu Hitam, there is only that road to travel on. I travelled on bicycle (not a motor bike), even beyond the junction with road 194 into Changlun village. Many mopeds can be found on that road, and there are bridges for getting to the other side of the road which can be used by pedestrians, bicycles, and mopeds. Hence it looks more like a “trunk” to me than a “motorway”. There are also no toll booths. But I am not sure - perhaps such small motorbikes hardly doing 50 km/h are legal on Malaysian motorways, or simply nobody cares (and my use of the road on bicycle was against the law).
Also not sure with E17’s bridge over Perai river in Butterworth which I used in Dec 13…

I agree. It does not even have hard shoulders as well, and then, junctions at the same level with traffic lights! That, is way more south than the mentioned interchange - Exit 183.

Actually there is a user, s/he reclassified it - making it as general as possible to the whole North-South Highway. I reckon the user had intended to include everything in this bloated relation. It slowed down my browser actually, luckily it didn’t crash. Only view this through capable devices, I mean, less than 2-year-old desktops.

The user is still in continuous progress. I have advised him to use JOSM last time, as s/he mistakenly removed a turn restriction relation that I have created, also that user merged highway segments meant to contain different data.

On the other hand, I have been making this proposal as well: Malaysian OSM classification. Feel free to give comments. Oh, obviously copying Thailand’s style.

By the way, the reference number: is it really “E1”? In Google Earth, it is “1” only, on MalFreeMaps it is “E1”.
I guess we could use “trunk” for the section North of the junction of 1 and E1. What do you think?

Hi. I’m the user AkuAnakTimur had mentioned. That section from Bukit Kayu Hitam to Jitra is actually an overlap/concurrency between E1 and 1 (I put two values into the ref key for that segment). That segment was originally only part of route 1, but when it was assigned the E1 number in the 1980s, the section wasn’t upgraded and that’s why it looks like a trunk now. I tagged it as motorway only because its classified as an expressway (E1), but honestly it looks more like a trunk, even by definition. (You can check Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North–South_Expressway_Northern_Route )

And yes, that relation also almost crashed my browser :stuck_out_tongue:

Just a quick reply at the moment.

It is really E1. I went there just a few days ago. Near the 0 kilometer mark (i.e. Malaysian - Thai border), there is a sign clearly indicating E1 being the reference number.

I believe that, when that stretch of road is transferred under the management of the North South Expressway Project, its reference number will no longer be “1” - instead it will be referred as part of the E1. This might be a speculation.

According to the official Public Works Department (JKR) road list, Federal Route 1, is however referred as the road connecting Bukit Kayu Hitam and Johor Bahru via west coast cities. But if it is the case, then, expect there would be some sort of a stretch of road with dual reference (like U.S.-style roads). No “1” signs however.

By the way, Pizza1016, continue adding things into that relation at the moment. I will tidy them up later. I am not in the spirit of creating (complex) relations. But I enjoy to help improve them :smiley:

Possibly, but then again seeing that the section hasn’t been upgraded to “controlled-access” standards, one might say that it still sort of is an overlap.
I noticed two other probable overlaps in the Klang Valley area when I was doing mapping stuff: 20/E30 & E18/B13. I marked both of the segments with two ref values. For the latter one, the alignment of E18 (Kajang Dispersal Link/SILK) was given on the expressway’s official website http://www.silk.my/map/images/SilkHighwayRoadMap2.jpg, but the last section between Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Universiti Putra Malaysia (which honestly is a weird alignment when you see it for yourself) was once part of B13. When this section became an expressway B13 got split into two sections: one from UPM northwards and another from UNITEN southwards. To “close the gap”, I decided to just mark that as an overlap with two ref values although I doubt that it is even signposted anymore. There’s another one I know of but I haven’t yet touched on OSM: it’s between 1 and E7 (Cheras-Kajang Expy). E7 pretty much split 1 into two sections like the case I just spoke of.

Apparently an editor on Wikipedia who has edited Malaysian road articles claim of several more overlaps elsewhere in Malaysia, all without a source however. Those articles are kind of in a mess right now, with lots of policy issues and whatnot.

Also I’ve finished adding the routes into that relation already (including the disputed section between Senai and either one of the two causeways that Malaysia and Singapore can’t seem to agree on). Currently I’m taking a break from OSM and getting back on Wikipedia to work on this lovely list (sarcasm): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pizza1016/List_of_roads_in_Malaysia.

So should it be tagged as both E1 and 1 for the particular stretch?

Also E7/1 overlap is confusing as well. I have been there in 2008-2010, I think after this bridge, southwards, there was a signpost indicating the limit of maintenance (i.e. “official-ish” zero kilometer) for the E7. Not sure if that signpost is still there.

At the very least that’s how I’ve been doing it (and the renderer displays both of them correctly too). What do the more senior mappers think?

Most likely that sign is still there. I don’t see why it should be removed anyway.

I think I would keep it that way then for the time being. Clearly it is

ref=E1

but referring to JKR’s official list (PDF) it appears they have it their own way. Quite vague, I reckon.

You could also write to JKR to seek clarification over this matter, if you have the time.

Resurrecting this topic…

This is coming from an enthusiast blogger whom keeps the tab with the Malaysian road system ( can someone invite him over to OpenStreetMap? :smiley: :wink: he did reviews on many kind of roads - if only he is active mapping in OSM ). His blog is called The Malaysian Highway Blog. However, his blog is mainly in Malay only.

So, from his recent entry regarding the history of the Federal Route 1:

Roughly translated:

Though it is not an official statement, but seeing by myself the E1 highway shield being put along the stretch itself, I think this matter should be clear.

I also believe that bicycles are allowed on this particular stretch as well (until few kilometers near Exit 182 - the first exit southbounds). No alternative routes nearby I guess…