Labels for Highway exits dominate map

Hello when using OSM as a base map for cartography the highway exit labels dominate the map. At different zoom levels the exit labels (96A, 96C, etc…) are quite dominant and at Zoom 14 the actual highway number (Hwy 101 in this example) doesn’t appear!


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Is there a way to suppress these exit labels? I’m using it as an embedded service in QGIS.
They’re not relevant for the general map user and they make the map cluttered and hide the actual highway label. thx

You can make your own map style if you want. Not using QGIS myself, but there seem to be ways to use custom basemaps: Adding basemaps in QGIS - Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange
Else, you can try contacting the Carto developers (that’s the standard map on osm.org).

PS: I do think that exits are important. I’d find it much worse to miss my exit than not knowing which highway I’m on. Then again, on modern systems both aren’t an issue, so the general map user probably doesn’t care either way.

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That style (the standard tile layer aka osm-carto) is managed via a github repository here:

That would be the place to suggest a change in the style.

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Thank you. I found a 2022 thread there on this issue

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I don’t think you’ll have any luck persuading the Carto contributors to remove exit labels. In general it makes sense to show exit numbers at these zoom levels. Here you have an unusually high density of exits here, and with any form of automated cartography, there’s going to be the occasional ugly result.

You could easily hack your own version of the Carto style to suppress exit numbers, but deployment can then be a problem.

Frankly your best bet is to find an different source of tiles you can link to QGIS.

The Trackstack Topo map is a lot cleaner in this area. It only seems to be showing a random subset of the exits (which I find odd). Not so useful, but perhaps prettier.

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