Paint expressway=yes (similar to motorroad=yes)

[adamfranco]

The ​motorroad concept doesn't map cleanly to the legal situation in the US, so mappers in the US have been standardizing on the ​expressway key to designate high-throughput roads that do not meet the motorway criteria. Conceptually, motorroad is about access control first and foremost and the roads it applies to often have enhanced physical infrastructure. In contrast, the expressway=yes concept starts with the physical properties (multiple lanes, grade separation, higher speed designs) and these roads often (but not always for their full length) have some level of access restrictions which may or may not be equivalent to those for motorroads. The roads in question are often very similar, but the two tags approach a related concept from opposite reasoning.

Using the same or similar painting style would be useful for those mapping in the US to more easily distinguish between trunk/primary/secondary/¿tertiary? roads that are tagged as expressways and those segments that aren't tagged with expressway=yes. These concepts may be considered close enough to use the same rendering in JOSM. In fact, ​issue #1148 in the OpenMapTiles project intends to surface them both as equivalents for renderer styles using OpenMapTiles.

For reference, it looks like motorroad painting was added in https://josm.openstreetmap.de/changeset/1824/josm

[adamfranco]

JOSM motorroad=yes rendering in contrast to current expressway=yes non-rendering.

[skyper]

This tag is only valid in the US, right? And motorroad=* is not used at all? Is there a con-sense about this?

I am not sure if it is smart to support tagging systems only used in some parts of the world in default style, though, it is possible. For a presets, I'd say it better fits in an external one and an external style might be a solution here, too.

[ezekielf@…]

expressway=* is mostly used in North America currently, but the concept is applicable anywhere in the world.

As I understand it the reason for the motorroad=yes tag is that in countries where it is used, access restrictions are not explicitly signed on motorways and similar roads. Instead there is a blue sign with an icon of a car which means "motor vehicles only". Since the sign doesn't say exactly what modes of transport are prohibited it's hard for mappers to set all the right access tags (horse=no, bicycle=no, etc). In North America on the other hand, access restrictions generally are explicitly signed (No pedestrians, No bicycles, etc) so it is easy for mappers to tag them explicitly and there is no real need for the motorroad tag. It does see some use though. Regardless of usage, this is a different concept than expressway which is about the physical characteristics.