Highway Tag Myanmar
Typology of Road Network in Myanmar
Most work in Afghanistan involves the classification system developed by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) with the Ministry of Public Works
Goal
The road conditions in Afghanistan's Provinces often do not correspond to their economic and social role. A road typology should be based on the road usage and not on the surface or the visual appearance of a road. In some areas, major roads are unpaved and heavily damaged during the rainy season. It is important for remote mappers from other countries to adapt to this reality. In some areas, such near urban centers, it is also important to consider the density of the road network.
This highway typology is used for Afghanistan, but follows similar typologies from around the world. It is based on mapping experience in various countries, observations and discussions with NGO's and OSM communities in various countries. In some areas, there is a very dense network of roads with many tracks going in all directions. In such a context, it is important to have a hierarchy of roads that highlights the more important ones for economic activities. highway=tertiary is used to highlight roads interconnecting villages, or linking villages to district centers. Also, highway=unclassified corresponds to minor roads. It is important to distinguish these rural roads interconnecting villages from tracks going to the outskirts of villages or service roads (ie. private roads) going for a short distance to houses. Please note that a highway=track is not a more primitive construction class of a residential road, but used only for sole access to agricultural fields, if unclear use highway=unclassified, keeping in mind that many highways are formed by repeated foot and animal traffic.
The individual mappers should classify a particular road when adding it to the OSM database. Once the network of road is completed, we have an overview of the road network, and experienced mappers can then revise this network and ensure that the hierarchy of major roads is clearly established.
Values based on economic and social dimension of the road
The Highway tag reflects the economic and social dimension of the road. See below for details of commonly used values.
| Tag-Value | Name | Description | Rendering | Photo | |
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| Roads | |||||
| highway=motorway | Motorway | No at-grade intersections or driveways. Access only at interchanges. Pedestrians, motorcycles and bicycles prohibited. Mostly tolled.
Currently the only such motorway in Myanmar is the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway. |
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| highway=trunk | Trunk Road | In Myanmar, those trunk roads are highways forming part of the ASEAN highway network and are designated as "AH" e.g. AH1, AH14, AH112, ...) | 
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| highway=primary | Primary Road | Major transportation routes between and into major cities within a country. Those "primary highways" are connecting State and Region captials and may connect to district captials. They are usually designated as "National Roads", identified by a leading "NR" e.g. (NR8) on the road ref/number. | 
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| highway=secondary | Secondary Road | Important transportation routes connecting all cities and towns. In urban areas they usually form major arterials. | 
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| highway=tertiary | Tertiary Road | Main roads connecting towns to villages and between larger villages. In urban areas they usually form minor arterials.
Roads are often paved or enforced. Indicative info only - can vary. Width: 3 to 7 meters; may be paved, but usually unpaved. |
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| highway=unclassified | Minor/Unclassified Road | Non-residential or mixed-use minor roads providing access to small villages, hamlets and public roads providing access to significant comercial, economic, religious or recreational facilities.
In urban areas they usually form streets in a commercial area or central business district (CBD) and form public roads in industrial areas. - Less traveled roads between villages. - Roads connecting small villages, hamlets and clusters of houses. - Public roads connecting to religious sites, industrial areas, areas of recreational use. - Public roads in industrial areas. |
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| highway=residential | Residential Road | Roads navigable by motorized traffic whose primary purpose is access to houses and residential lots without function of connecting settlements.
Located usually inside settlement and built-up areas. Where regular motorized traffic is impossible, limited, or disallowed see highway=path |
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| highway=service | Service Road | Roads providing access to a facility with specific function, usually partly or fully managed by the facility. Often featuring a gate or having restricted access (temporaily or permanently).
Usually for a few hundred meters maximum. - Utility service alleys - Cemetery roads - Parking lot roads - Driveways - Some irrigation canal access roads - Military compound roads - Permanent, well-maintained plantation and mining compound roads - Roads inside monasteries and religious facilities |
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| highway=track | Unmaintained Track Road | Permanent agricultural or forestry tracks wide enough for cars. Unpaved roads, often only passable by 4x4. Tends to turn muddy during rainy season
- Permanent access route from dwellings to agricultural, plantation and forestry areas. - Permanent tracks inside plantation and mining sites. Consider adding tracktype=* seasonal= */yes/no to specify track condition and seasonal usage impediments. Temporary tracks (logging tracks, makeshift field tracks only used during dry/harvest season, short-lived plantation and mining tracks, short lived construcction site access tracks, ...) should not be mapped at all. Should not be used for unpaved minor roads that connect to important facilities or have connection function between settlements. See highway=unclassified or highway=service Should not be used for tracks only passable by motorbikes. See highway=path. |
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| Paths | |||||
| highway=path | Path | Travel route between dwellings, settlements, facilities not wide enough for cars.
May be used by motorbikes, bicycles and on foot. Connection way by foot or motorbike within an urban area. May be the primary access route for isolated settlements. May feature steep grades, narrow width, irregular alignment, obstacles, boulders, stream crossings, and seasonal use. |
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Road surface status
One can indicate the physical surface of the road with the surface tag:
Generically, a hard surface (asphalt, cobblestone, concrete...) is indicated with surface=paved and a soft one (ground, sand...) with surface=unpaved.
Description can be more precise:
surface=asphalt
surface=cobblestone
surface=concrete
surface=ground
surface=sand
surface=gravel
By default, primary/secondary/tertiary/unclassified/residential and service highway=* are supposed to be paved. If it is not the case, one must mention it, especially if the surface is soft. When potholes represent more than 50% of the surface, the way may be considered as unpaved.
In opposite, highway=track are supposed to be unpaved by default.
In addition to surface material, on can indicate "viability" or "roughness" of the road with smoothness=*. This should help determining which kind of vehicle may use the road or the track.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| excellent | billiards |
| good | Usable with racing bike |
| intermediate | Usable with city bike, sports cars, scooter... |
| bad | Usable with trekking bike, "normal" cars. One can not exclude potholes. |
| very_bad | Usable with car with high clearance. Typically with 404 bachée. "Normal" cars can't go through. |
| horrible | 4Wheel drive only. |
| very_horrible | 4Wheel drive cars can't go through or it is very difficult, with help of winch. Usable with tractor, ATV, motorcycle, zebu carts. |
| impassable | No wheeled vehicle. Road damaged for instance. |
A suggestion would be to smoothness only when it is equal or lower than bad.
Seasonal roads
Seasonal roads are indicated by seasonal=yes. In opposite, one can indicate that a road is usable year around with seasonal=no.
An approximate closing period can be provided with a conditional restriction [1]:
access:conditional=no @ Dec-Apr: this track is usually closed from December to April (or open from May to November).
For the more complicated case where a track may be usable by 4Wheel drive car during dry season but only with zebu carts in rainy season, the following scheme is suitable:
River crossing
When a road is crossing a river, whatever it is with a bridge, an organized ford ("radier", "baden") or natural ford, it should be tagged on the portion of the road affected. If the crossing section is too small (or difficult to separate the two ends), we put the information only on one point.
Bridges
Bridges are tagged by default with bridge=yes and they should always also have a layer=1 tag. Practically the only case where another bridge=* value is used is when the bridge is very low (ie. has a low profile) and is regularly submerged under water during floods or rains. In such cases it should be tagged with bridge=low_water_crossing.
The bridge surface, especially if different from the main road, can be indicated with surface=*. For instance, surface=metal, surface=concrete, surface=asphalt or surface=wood.
In addition to the surfaces described above some bridges have (wood) beams oriented in the drive direction so that there is only two narrow ways for the wheels. It is a problem for bicycles and motorcycles that can not cross such bridges:
bridge=yes
layer=1
bicycle=no
motorcycle=no
surface=wood:lanes if beams are made of wood
Finally, for some bridges, you should carry your own beams, one may use surface=no.
If the bridge is prone to flooding, i.e. water may run over it during floods or heavy rains, a flood_prone=yes tag should be added.
As noted above some lower profile bridges are built intentionally so that they are submerged during floods or rains and are tagged with bridge=low_water_crossing. This tag alone implies that the bridge may be submerged at times but the flood_prone=yes tag is good to add also on these for clarity.
In some cases there is an alternative way for the crossing near the bridge. Such crossings (whether they be for trucks, bicycles or motorcycles -- or even regular cars) should be mapped. They involve a ford (ford=yes) in almost all cases. A number of these crossings are built intentionally -- even if the ford itself would be a natural one -- not only for trucks (when the bridge is too light-structured for them) or two-wheelers but also simply as an backup passage for all vehicles in case the bridge might be washed away in more severe floods. This is why such alternative crossings are important to map!
Other crossings
Fords: River or water crossings without a bridge are fords and should be tagged with ford=yes. This applies to both natural and constructed ("organized") crossings. depth=* allows to indicate the usual (dry season, out of flood or hurricane) depth of the water. depth=0 will be used for crossing usually dry but that may be used upon water. In opposite, a crossing usually dry that become dangerous to use once water is flooding should be tagged as flood_prone=yes. surface=* can be used as usual. A constructed/"organized" ford is often made of concrete and should be tagged surface=concrete, accordingly.
Note that if any structure exists that allows normal level water of any waterway (river, stream or drain) to pass under the road it is not a ford! It might well be a bridge=low_water_crossing as explained above -- or possibly a culvert if there is a single tube under the road under 3 meters in diameter. Culverts are tagged on the waterway which is split as bridges for only the part that crosses the road and tagged with tunnel=culvert and a layer=-1 tag.
For river crossing with boats, use: route=ferry
Multiple Paths
In some areas, there are no formal paths, but several unpaved paths example very close to each other (within 100m) that all lead to the same destination or town. As of now, practice has been to add a way to the centermost or average of these paths. previous discussion]