Route du Président-Kennedy (Saint-Georges to Maine USA): trunk road or not?

[hoserab]

@ezekielf

That seems reasonable when looking at Québec alone, but Québec does not exist in isolation.

Some Québécois would find that to be a very inflammatory political statement, hahaha.

I 100% agree about cooperating to find the most acceptable (or least objectionable…) solution to all. That said, I don’t agree with the premise that the entirety of US 201 and Quebec Route 173—at least, from St-Georges to the border (i.e. not including from St-Georges to Québec City, as Autoroute 73 parallels the route and is definitely far more important and is already tagged motorway)—ought to be uniformly tagged primary or trunk all the way along. It’s perfectly reasonable to me that US 201 may be more important to the road network in Maine and to Mainers than Route 173 is to Quebeckers, and one merits ‘higher’ classification than the other.

I mentioned this in my reply to the discussion about Manitoba PTH 10 that I linked earlier. I didn’t quote the full paragraph earlier, but I went on to write:

@hoserab

Just one man’s opinion, but I don’t think there has to be any uniformity between the tagging of roads at border crossings, and it’s totally reasonable that highways on the American side would be tagged with a higher importance than on the Canadian side. I think for instance of the crossing at Coutts, Alberta (Alta. Hwy 4) and Sweetgrass, Montana (I-15): OpenStreetMap You hit the border coming from Alberta and the tagging immediately jumps to motorway from trunk, for good reason: I-15 really is built and maintained to a higher standard. The difference is palpable, the only Alberta highway that comes close is Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton.

Physical construction isn’t the sole determinant of a highway’s importance but… man, you guys really do have far more substantial highway infrastructure down there. And I sincerely believe there are stretches of highway that are far more important south of the border than north of the border. Again, that example of I-15 in Montana vs. Alberta Hwy 4? I don’t even question for a second tagging I-15 with higher importance; it IS more important. It’s bigger, better built, better maintained, better signed… Everything about it is a step up.

From where I live in Southern Alberta, if I was planning a trip to anywhere east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, I would dive south into the States instead of going around the north side of the Great Lakes. It wouldn’t even cross my mind to go through Northern Ontario; that’s the long way. Our patchwork of interprovincial roads is laughable compared to the Interstate Highway System.

As much as you’ve stressed the importance of considering “the whole route between Québec City and Portland, ME”, we also need to consider the tagging within the greater context of the Québec and overarching Canadian road networks. Where I really bristle at the idea of ‘upgrading’ Québec Route 173 to trunk is that it would make it equal in stature to e.g. Ontario Highway 7 between Peterborough and Ottawa, or Ontario Hwy 17 between Thunder Bay, Sault-Ste-Marie & Sudbury. Those are far more important to the overall road network than Route 173 from St-Georges to the US border.

It’s not as though primary highways aren’t still important, they’re just not as important/big/busy/etc as trunks. I don’t think that’s espousing an unreasonable position on it.