Thus, there is a necessity to be able to distinguish roads designated as autoroutes from other national highways. Whether a highway is an autoroute or not, cannot be linked to physical properties of the road (e.g. dual carriageway / all roads tagged as highway=motorway), at least not by law, because
In other words, the law does not dictate any hard requirements for a highway to be designated as an autoroute. How it looks in the reality I do not know, but not sure if it is relevant unless the situation is absolutely unambiguous.
So, my question: Is it possible to determine whether a highway is an autoroute based on the tags of that highway? Are all autoroutes consistently tagged in a way so that they can be clearly distinguished from other highway?
And, well, if not, whatâs your suggestion for a tag that denotes this?
In the Montreal area, almost all motorways have been tagged correctly, realigned, the number of lanes have been validated and added, and the transitions are there too. Speed limits are verified too.
Thereâs a very simple reason that the ref tagging on Quebec highways doesnât use âA-__â prefixes: by definition all provincial highways numbered 1-99 and 400-999 are autoroutes. The numbering doesnât overlap with other classifications of provincial highways, so you donât need to disambiguate any further. Itâs not like in the US where you might have âInterstate ##â, âUS Route ##â and âState Route ##â all in the same state, or âAutobahn ##â and âBundestraĂe ##â in Germany. (Keep in mind there is no overarching federal highway system or standard in Canada.) A Quebec highway with ref=20 for example is, by definition, an autoroute; a Quebec highway ref=234 is by definition a lower-tiered ârouteâ.
Yes, since @westnordostâs default speed limits parser necessarily varies rules by jurisdiction, this heuristic should be workable. For completeness, note that the forest routes are being tagged with alphanumeric way refs to avoid conflicting with the autoroute numbering scheme, for example ref=R0404, corresponding to whatâs signposted as âR 404â on a blue shield. (There are also route relations tagged with network=CA:QC:R, but not as comprehensively as for autoroutes.)
Yes, the forestry roads are tagged ref=R####, as the respective blue shield signs do read âR ####â. (Whereas the routes and autoroutes just have a numbered shield with no âAâ or âRâ.) Note also that the forestry roads are now four digits, which may or may not be reflected in posted signage, but there is a method to the madness in that the first two digits in the four-digit code correspond with the administrative region the road is located in. E.g. all forestry roads that begin with â04â are in Mauricie.
Oh well, nevermind. It is, and you also provided a link earlier:
Motorway: autoroutes, including the two-lane ways where you can drive 100, and spur roads with 4xx, 5xx, 6xx or 9xx designations;
Trunk: autoroute part of National Highway Service (federal) (NHS) that is not dual carriageway (ie: double central yellow line and not separated by grass). Good example is the autoroute 50 between Lachute and Gatineau as well as the 117 up to Ontario border.
No, most trunk roads are not autoroutes. For example:
Route 133 is tagged as highway=trunk because itâs the main connection between St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Interstate 89 until Autoroute 35 is complete.
Correct me if Iâm wrong, but I was under the impression that autoroutes also go from 1 to 99 (the âmainâ class, as opposed to the three-digit âspurâ class).
In fact, the word autoroute can appear in the name of a road that isnât designated as an autoroute, as the French translation of the English word âexpresswayâ, for example in Route 136 (Autoroute Ville-Marie). This leads me to wonder if the law you cited applies to anything that is built as an freeway/expressway or anything that is designated as an autoroute.
