Hi arjweddell, thanks for your reply and the additional information.

It is great to hear that the city is using OpenStreetMap data in its work!

> It’s also important for people who use OSM as a base for network analysis that the streets be properly classified in order to set up preferences and hierarchies. 

I completely agree and this is why I raised the issue to begin with. There's a saying, "garbage in = garbage out".

I agree with what Jarek explained: tagging roads as unclassified is valid and common practice in OpenStreetMap. In addition to Jarek's [link to the highway=unclassified wiki page][1], have you reviewed the [wiki guidelines for tagging roadways in Canada][2]? This helped me understand OSM road classifications much better.

If your intent is to get different results from a tool like Streetlight Data, it may be better to reach out to their developers to change how they interpret the data. The OSM community tries to avoid ["mapping for the renderer"][3] and in this case there exist clear guidelines for tagging the roads as unclassified. I appreciate that you improved many incorrectly tagged roads; others should remain unclassified.

Having reviewed the wiki more closely now, I will be making several changes to road classifications in Vancouver. I welcome further discussion since my interpretation is not necessarily best.

I hope you continue to contribute to this collaborative mapping project!

Thanks,
Joel

[1]: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=unclassified
[2]: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canada/Tagging_guidelines#Roads
[3]: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tagging_for_the_renderer