Road Tagging in Georgia

Disclaimer

Please use discussion site for remarks. Feel free to translate this page into georgian.

General Guidelines

Road Categories: See Key:highway for general guidelines on road tagging

In general, so use common sense for classification. Please use the keys smoothness=*, surface=*, smoothness=*, or tracktype=* to describe the condition and usability of roads, especially the bad ones.

Route numbers: Use Georgian Letter - space - number as ref, e.g.

ref=ს 1 ref=შ 32

Issues to discuss: Route Numbers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia?

Road Tagging (Rural)

International Road Network

• E-Roads (European roads): As of 25th August, 2011, all E-roads through Georgia are completely tagged according to the WikiProject Europe/E-road network. Maybe someone wants to check this?
• AH-Roads (Asian Highways): These are not signposted, but several routes throughout Georgia are defined. As of October, 2011, all AH-routes are included as relations according to the Asia/Asian Highway Network.

All E- and AH-routes also have a national number ს.

• ს[number]-Roads

Georgian letter San (S): Stands for a long-distance-route, some are marked as Euro-Route. This is not necessary a dual-carriageway-route but there are Sx-Ways that fit into a highway/motorway.

• შ[number]-Roads

Georgian letter Shin (Sh): Secondary highways, maintained by the state. Most of these roads belong to the regional network, only a few stretches are part of the international network (source [1] p. 3:

• • Satrichala-Telavi (Sh 38) over the Gombori Pass
  • Koda-Ninotsminda (Sh 34 Koda-Partskhisi, Sh 36 Partskhisi-Algeti, Sh 31 Algeti-Ninotsminda)

highway=primary for roads, that are classified as Main Road Network or International Road Network, which includes all E- and AH-routes, all ს[number]-Roads and some შ[number]-Roads.

highway=trunk, if the road is either dual carriageway or a motorway with only one carriageway open for traffic yet. Add motorroad=yes where applicable. highway=motorway, if the road has a motorway designation (international sign).

Currently (Aug. 2011) The Route ს 1 between the northern exit of Tbilisi and Gori has a Motorway designation, the motorway is about to be extended further west, there are constructions going on between Gori and Khashuri. So keep an eye on it. There are only very few stretches of dual carriageway in Georgia outside of Tbilisi, but maybe some ს-roads will be upgraded in the future.

The Motorway between Tbilisi and Gori has a motorway designation, but is not according to international motorway standards, as it has several small intersections at grade, access to private properties, bus stops and is also (illegally?) used by pedestrians and agricultural traffic, so please discuss here, if it should be better tagged as trunk (at least between Tbilisi and the junction near Mtskheta (S1/S3)

Regional Road Network

• შ[number]-Roads

Georgian letter Shin (Sh): Secondary highways, maintained by the state. Some are in very good condition, some are unpaved and only passable with a 4x4-vehicle. numbers შ 1 to 44 seem to be more important and connect important cities and remote regions over longer distances. But only according to the number, it is not possible to determine the general condition. Unless not part of the International Network (see above) tag them as highway=secondary if several of the following conditions apply:

• • they connect regions and/or bigger cities to the network of ს-roads,
  • they provide shortcuts or attractive alternative routings to ს-roads,
  • they are in relatively good condition - not necessarily paved but at least driveable with a normal car, during most weather conditions,
  • they are somehow signposted,
  • they have significant amount of non-local traffic.

Tag as highway=tertiary if they do not qualify as a secondary highway. No numbered road should be lower than tertiary.

• Unnumbered Roads:

Tag as highway=tertiary if they connect to several villages, else as highway=unclassified. It is difficult to make a definite classification scheme, but you can judge by general state of the road, signposting, amount of traffic and so on. Use common sense. Also, secondary routes (and higher) should form a network, they should have dead-ends only in exceptions, e.g. valleys without exit.

Villages and hamlets are connected at least by highway=unclassified. highway=track is only used for roads that access fields, forests etc. Even if there is no visual difference between tertiary, unclassified and track, if a road is the only or main connection to a settlement, it is not a track!

Please use the keys smoothness=*, surface=*, smoothness=*, or tracktype=* to describe the condition and usability of roads, especially the bad ones.

Road Tagging (Urban)

Note, that in Tbilisi and Kutaisi, numbered roads begin at the city limits, but the classification should continue through the city. So it is possible to follow a primary highway through the city, even if it does not have a number.

highway=motorway only if motorway designation (so far, no urban motorways exist in Georgia)

highway=trunk - if it is a major throughway with high speed character: dual carriageway, few traffic lights, few 4-way-intersections, little access to private properties, not inner-city but more suburban surrounding.

highway=primary - Major throughways connecting primary highways and major urban roads connecting big neighbourhoods, collecting all other kinds of lower road classes on the way. They are usually multi-lane, left turns are often forbidden and usually only possible through U-Turn-lanes.

highway=secondary - Other important roads that interconnect bigger neighbourhoods.

highway=tertiary - Local collector roads are classified as tertiary.

highway=residential - Roads in residential areas without throughway character

highway=unclassified - Roads in industrial areas, or roads through residential areas that continue as "unclassified" outside of the city.

highway=service service=alley for roads in courtyards highway=service service=parking_aisle foot=designated motor_vehicle=destination for legal parking on wide sidewalks (e.g. Chavchavadze Str. in Tbilisi)