I raised this because it seems there has been no consensus in the other threads.

I see two options here go the UK route and have road types as per government designation regardless of road conditions

or as Tristan and others have suggested: (my preference)

Freeway:
Only roads officially classified as freeway, only accessible by a designated ramp. Dual carriageway and combined carriageway are acceptable. The split will be dependant on the actual conditions.

Usually freeways will be designated N routes, M routes, or R routes and should be labelled by their route designation rather than road name, as the signage will identify the freeway by route designation. i.e. "R21 South" vs "Albertina Sisulu Highway"

Major highway:
N routes which are not freeways, and all R## routes.

Minor highway:
All surfaced R### routes, and S routes / M routes which are significant connecting routes.

Primary street:
S routes / M routes which are not significant connecting routes, and any other locally important route within an area.

Naturally it would be worded to avoid any confusion

I feel it is fair to leave this open to debate until the end of this month (May 2014) so everyone can have their say before anything is ultimately decided.

LeighGr wrote:What exactly is "All surfaced R### routes"? Gravel is still a surface.

Forgive my construction background here - by surfaced I mean "tarred" be it asphalt, concrete or composite surface.

LeighGr wrote:I don't feel it's correct to labeling all Rxxx routes as Minor highways, as the wiki currently suggests, when a vast number them are tarred for the first few kilometers leaving/entering a town, and then become gravel roads, sometimes for 100's of kilometers.

Agree with you there - hence the addition of the "surfaced" to the definition. I feel if it's a gravel road it should be marked as such regardless of whether it is Rxxx or not. Naturally this means the editor would have to check the entire section and verify it though that should be done anyway.

mithrandi wrote:Note that if you mark them as primary routes instead of minor highways, Waze will have a much harder time using them for long distance routes.

This is true. Should this not be used for other primary interconnecting routes that are not designated as Rxxx or Mx? I'm thinking D-roads (or similar) that are surfaced.

elphix wrote: Minor highway:
All surfaced R### routes, and S routes / M routes which are significant connecting routes.

What exactly is "All surfaced R### routes"? Gravel is still a surface. I don't feel it's correct to labeling all Rxxx routes as Minor highways, as the wiki currently suggests, when a vast number them are tarred for the first few kilometers leaving/entering a town, and then become gravel roads, sometimes for 100's of kilometers.

Given the choice of a 100km tarred route or an 80km gravel route, I'm inclined to take the tarred option, unless I actually know the condition of the gravel road. I've had the idea of appending 'has gravel sections' to the road name along the whole length, so that the driver is aware that the road contains gravel part.

My 2 cents, for now.

I think we should designate freeways based on them being marked by the single/dual-carriageway freeway signage, as described in viewtopic.php?f=141&t=32646&start=20#p354155

Note that if you mark them as primary routes instead of minor highways, Waze will have a much harder time using them for long distance routes.

I didn't know that the wiki still had those recommendations.

I definitely do not agree that all Nx routes should be freeways. If I see a freeway on waze I expect to drive on a freeway.

My thoughts on what constitutes a freeway:

1. No intersections, access to and from the freeway is by on- and off-ramps only.
2. At least 2 lanes in each direction. This means that a slow truck won't slow me down till the next safe place to pass.
3. Separate carriageways. However, a single surface road that meets the criteria of points 1 and 2 could still pass as a freeway in my books. In other words, 2 lanes each way with painted lines separating the two directions.

I'm still thinking about reduced speed limits as possibly disqualifying a freeway. For example, the N2 into Cape Town. About 1km after you've passed the Athlone power station towards Cape Town, the speed limit is 80km/h. Should we still call it a freeway? It still matches points 1,2 and 3. I have left it as freeway for now as I think the other criteria are more important, but I welcome comments on this, and in fact on my definition of freeway.

Cheers
Rod