Joseph R P (2024-05-28 17:45:05+00:00): Like I implied, I didn't "guess" the importance of the roads. It's pretty clear to see how a road is used based on its traffic data when put up against other nearby roads, with consideration for the context of which area they're and where they go. The edits I made in downtown Cincinnati a couple years back were primarily based on roads being signed as US Routes and Interstate Alt. routes. I've changed my stance to be less so oriented on how a road is signed but rather its actual importance if you take away those factors.

I disagree that Loveland-Madeira/Camargo and Columbia/Lebanon should be the same classification as McKinney and Loveland west of Lebanon. The former are more important in the sense that they are longer, straighter, and busier roads with more development along them and they form a direct connection from Loveland to the nearby Interstates and US 22. I would compare them less with mostly-residential collector roads and more to a highway like Route 48 which also links Loveland to the nearby highways, just in the other direction. I could see Kemper Road west of 22 making sense as a secondary route given its similar characteristics and AADT compared to Fields Ertel Road, but I'm on the fence about upgrading it to secondary east of that, as while it still provides somewhat of a through route there, it's not as direct or as developed as the current secondary roads that go in/out of Loveland and there are better, more direct routes from Loveland to Cincinnati and Mason. Loveland-Madeira/Camargo also links the area down to Madeira and Mariemont. I of course don't believe every single road that links every single suburban town to each other should be upgraded to secondary but this is a comparatively major route to the other nearby tertiary routes which do not serve as direct connections between other towns/commercial areas.

I think secondary for a road like Reed Hartman while relatively minor roads like Lebanon Road are also being tagged as secondary is perfectly fine. The only instance where roads like Reed Hartman are viable alternatives to mainline Interstates are when those Interstates are backed up, which is a very frequent scenario but not a constant one. In regular traffic, I 71 ALT serves as a typical arterial road, connecting other secondary routes to the Interstates, albeit one built with expressway characteristics and instead of retail areas, residential neighborhoods, schools, etc., it's office/industrial parks. Furthermore, unlike US 22 and 42, it does not leave the metro or connect to any downtowns of any sort. However, if it were directly adjacent to a road like Lebanon Road, I would either upgrade Reed Hartman Highway to primary or downgrade Lebanon Road to tertiary, but since these two roads are in different sections of the metro that see widely varying traffic volumes altogether, I don't see any particular issues with the two being classified the same.

Snider Road could be upgraded to secondary. It does parallel multiple other secondary routes but a scenario like this is bound to occur in such an unorganized semi-grid layout like the Cincinnati metro's is. Upgrading Tylersville Road between I 75 and US 42, Mason Montgomery Road from US 42 to I 71, and Field Ertel Road from there to US 22 forms a network of major arterial roads that are just important as US 42 and US 22. A highway like US 42 may hold more priority as it's an intercity route which leaves the metro, but that's really only when it actually exits the metro, and while it parallels I 71 through Cincinnati and Mason, it is mostly just a busy commercialized thoroughfare and links other major highways and suburban cities areas just like the other three aforementioned roads do.

Streets like Terra Firma and Stillpass are in a position where they are definitely more important than typical residential roads but not exactly as much as a tertiary route. I'd say it makes sense to revert them to their original classifications, as there isn't really a way to imply that these roads are still relatively busy through streets that connect other major through streets.

Feel free to do whatever you want to my edits, I don't own them and can't control them, but I'd rather work with what I've begun than start over.