Hi everyone, Borneo-based mapper here.
I’ve noticed that the road classification in major Sarawak cities, particularly Kuching, lacks diversity on the map. As you can see in the attached screenshot, almost all major roads in Kuching are currently tagged as ‘highway=primary’. The only ‘highway=trunk’ is the Pan Borneo Highway bypassing Batu Kawa.
According to current Malaysian Road Tagging guidelines, the ‘highway=expressway’ tag is avoided in Sarawak because we don’t have toll roads. Currently, ‘highway=trunk’ is mainly reserved for federal routes with dual carriageways, while ‘highway=primary’ is used for single-carriageway federal routes.
However, the major roads in Kuching are largely dual-carriageway state roads (marked with a ‘Q’) or municipal roads. I believe we need to refine how we classify Sarawak’s state roads to determine which should remain ‘primary’ and which qualify as ‘trunk’.
My Proposal:
I suggest that state roads with dual carriageways and partial access control be upgraded to ‘highway=trunk’. For example, the Kuching-Samarahan Expressway (Q13 and Q14) and Lebuhraya Pehin Adenan Satem (Q30) fit this perfectly (especially Q30, which literally has ‘Lebuhraya’ in the name).
Proposed Constraint:
Because this loose criterion could result in too many roads becoming ‘trunk’, I propose an additional filter: a ‘trunk’ road should not be pedestrian or bicycle-friendly (i.e., lacking dedicated roadside walkways). This would help us exclude standard dual-carriageway state roads like Jalan Wan Alwi (Q112) from being tagged as ‘trunk’.
This approach wouldn’t disrupt established tagging norms in Peninsular Malaysia (which rely strictly on the wiki and road administration roles). Instead, it provides a clear resolution for the Sarawak and Sabah dilemma, where state roads physically match the standards of federal dual carriageways. Ultimately, this will significantly improve the OSM road hierarchy and rendering for Kuching.
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear any suggestions to improve this ‘trunk’ vs. ‘primary’ dilemma for our state roads.
FYI: I have already updated Sarawak Route Q30, Federal Route 801 and 802 to ‘highway=trunk’ as a test case (Q30 due to its ‘Lebuhraya’ status, 801 and 802 because it is a federal dual carriageway).
