An issue that keeps coming up is that there are two large organisations that manage most of the highways in Thailand, but we’re treating them as identical.
DOH: Department of Highways.
DORR: Department of Rural Roads.
The current wiki advice is written for the DOH roads. These are the ones that start with 1, 2, 3 or 4. DORR has roads that start with different numbers, and as noted in another topic on this forum, the roads generally seem to be of a lower grade.
Problems:
we’re probably grading Rural Roads too high.
we’re calling Rural Roads “Highway” which may not be correct.
Suggestion:
A. Call rural roads “Rural Road xxxx” and make the primary street.
B. Update the wiki to at least mention the existence of Rural Roads and their deviating numbering.
New problem:
We have a pretty bad lack of map sources, so it’s hard to figure out what the rural roads are.
I have no problem with naming them Rural Road, as that more closely matches how the official name translates. The biggest issues is determining how to name and rank them. There are many RR’s that should be highways, and many that should probably be street or primary street. It is going to need to be a judgement call based on the quality of the road and where it goes. In general, I’d say it should match the normal rule for differentiating between Street and Primary Street (in rural areas).
But do the rural roads not serve the same purpose as the ‘regular’ 4digit highways? They serve to connect regions. Unless there would be a better/higher quality of road available to connect the same regions, why downgrade them to Main Streets? IMO if it has 4 digits we should classify it as mHW (but probably call it RR XXXX). If no signage present, make them Main street. We should not get too hung up on appearance, after all: TIT
A Malaysian editor has been using that notation near the border. I changed some of that to the “Hwy” notation, but I think it’s better to pull him/her into the discussion.
The problem with including the letters (they’re the abbreviation for the changwat the road is located in) is that they are in Thai and may cause confusion as there isn’t always going to be an agreed upon way of romanizing those letters. We also need to be on top of where the changwat name changes, as any rural road crossing the border will change that abbreviation. I think there may also be TTS issues with some of those abbreviations such as NW being pronounced North West.
Personally, I’d prefer to drop the changwat abbreviation and use something like “Rural Road <#>” or “Rural Rd #”.
Hi… when naming the rural roads (DORR) i have named then XX.1234 based on the road marker found. The XX is based on the romanized provincial code that i found…I’ll post it here after this. I named it this way to distinguished it from the minor highways that are under DOH. Also, another province could have the same numbering, hence it is better to put in the provincial code.
Thanks, that’s a helpful list and can be helpful in the future.
However for now, please leave the abbreviation off. Some of those abbreviations may match existing TTS abbreviations leading to misguided voice directions, and it is unlikely drivers will make the connection between the latin characters and the Thai characters. I don’t believe there are any places where you are going to have two different roads close together with the same number, but a different province initial at the beginning so they really aren’t necessary for navigation.
Per my wife people just use the number with no prefix. But “Rural Road” is the most common translation for these (Per my wife and friend in Bangkok), Highway or Route for the federally managed numbered roads. You don’t normally mention the province.
I vote option 2. It identifies the difference in type of road (federal vs rural). If only the number it could be mistaken as a Hwy where an editor ‘forgot’ to place that before the number.
