West Virginia

Interstate Highways

Main article: Interstate Highway relations

Interstate highways should be tagged as highway=motorway and ref=I num (without a hyphen), and their route relations with network=US:I. Interstate ramps onto or from a motorway should be tagged as highway=motorway_link; destination=* tags should be added according to signage.

US Highways

Main article: United States roads tagging § U.S. Highways

Most US highways in West Virginia will be tagged highway=primary, though this is not a hard and fast rule; some non-motorway divided highways (such as US 50 between Parkersburg and Clarksburg) are more appropriately tagged as highway=trunk. Controlled-access highways occasionally exist near (relatively) major cities, and should be tagged in the same fashion as an Interstate Highway. Tag all US highways as ref=US num, and their route relations with network=US:US.

State Routes

Most state highways in West Virginia can be either tagged highway=primary or highway=secondary, depending on the usage; occasional exceptions do exist, such as highway=trunk. Tag all state routes with ref=WV num, and their route relations with network=US:WV.

Do note that the WV Department of Transportation uses the term “trunk” in a different way than OSM does^[1]. For example, WV 5 between Glenville and I-79 is considered a trunk road by the WVDOT, but would only be considered highway=primary by OSM standards as it is (relatively) low-volume.

County Routes

Most county highways—technically secondary state highways as they are managed by the WVDOT^[2]—are most often tagged as highway=unclassified, highway=residential, or highway=tertiary. Tag all county routes with either ref=CR num for “whole number” routes, or ref=CR numerator/denominator for “fractional” (spur) routes (e.g. ref=CR 220/7 for the sign displayed on the right); tag their route relations with network=US:WV:County^{[note 1]} and is_in:county=CountyName, where CountyName is, e.g., “Gilmer” or “Harrison”.

Do NOT tag county highways as highway=track; instead, use highway=residential or highway=unclassified, and some combination of surface=*, smoothness=* and/or tracktype=*.

Beware that TIGER can be notoriously inaccurate for county routes, especially small spur roads. Real-world examples^{[note 2]} of such inexactitude include (but are assuredly not limited to): a ten-meter driveway being displayed as “State Route 47” on the latest TIGER overlay; ref=CR 7/3 being erroneously tagged name=County Route 73 in the original TIGER import; and three roads with identical names intersecting each other in the 2016 shapefiles.

Home Access Road Program (HARP)

HARP roads are almost always highway=residential. Tag all HARP roads with either ref=HARP num for “whole number” routes, or ref=HARP numerator/denominator for “fractional” routes, similar to the county route scheme; tag their route relations with network=US:WV:HARP and is_in:county=*.

Delta Roads

Delta roads are entirely defunct^[3] despite the rare sightings of remaining signage. Do not tag delta roads in ref=*; instead, use old_ref=*.

Park and forest routes

Main article: United States roads tagging § Tagging Forest Roads

Roads in nature reserves (i.e. parks) can generally be tagged as highway=unclassified or highway=path; use discretion as appropriate. National Forest Roads will use either ref=NF num for primary forest routes, or ref=FR num for secondary forest routes^[4]. State Park and Forest roads (depicted right, though generally unsigned on-the-ground) are notated as ref=PFR num^[5].

Officially labelled trails, meanwhile, are to be tagged as ref=TR num^[4].

Orthoimagery

Note that Mapbox and Esri take the imagery mostly from Maxar.

Deciphering signs

Surrounding states

• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Virginia