Alberta/Highway classification

This page describes the highway classification scheme used in Alberta following the 2022 Canadian highway guidelines. This is a working draft and contents may be subject to discussion.

Guidelines

These tagging guidelines are tentative, and should be discussed with other Alberta mappers before applying to the map. The existing guidelines in the main provincial page still applies. Calgary and Edmonton are special cases

• highway=motorway - Freeways (e.g. Anthony Henday, Stoney Trail, most of the QE2)
• highway=trunk - NHS core routes that aren't freeway standard (e.g. parts of the QE2 that are below freeway standard, most of the Yellowhead and Trans-Can, Highway 63, Highway 9), plus some additional routes listed below
• highway=primary - Most provincial highways (numbers 1-216) that aren't trunk or motorway, at-grade segments of the Edmonton ring road except Yellowhead Trail (trunk, upgrade to freeway ongoing). Calgary primary roads still need to be settled.
• highway=secondary - Highways 501-986, most other arterials in urban areas
• highway=tertiary - important rural roads (usually paved and/or with higher posted speed limit than the 80 kh/h default for most rural roads), collector streets in urban areas
• highway=unclassified - most rural roads
• highway=residential - residential roads

expressway=yes will be used to indicate roads that are designed for high speed but are not completely controlled-access. In Alberta, these are usually divided, and are slated for upgrade to freeway in the long term. The classification of such roads follow those listed above.

Population centres

Population centres for trunk determination includes all cities that are centres of census metropolitan areas, and most cities and towns used as control cities in NHS routes. In most of Alberta, these should generally be cities, but some towns of importance are also listed.

• Calgary
• Cold Lake
• Edmonton
• Fort McMurray
• Grande Prairie
• High Level
• Lethbridge
• Lloydminster (including area in Saskatchewan)
• Medicine Hat
• Peace River
• Red Deer

Motorways

Trunk roads

Trunk network will largely be the same, but with further additions. Changes to be coordinated with those in Montana and Saskatchewan:

Expressway

Expressways in Alberta are to be tagged with expressway=yes. These are usually divided, with limited access to properties and high speed limits and some grade separations.

Resources

• Provincial Highway Service Classification Map, Alberta Transportation. Used to determine potential trunk routings. Alberta Transportation uses four service classifications of highways, which are independent of traffic volumes:
  • Level 1 - International and interprovincial importance. Links population centres of over 50,000. Includes all NHS core routes.
  • Level 2 - Similar to level 1, but of intra-provincial importance.
  • Level 3 - Inter-regional or intermunicipal importance.
  • Level 4 - Intra-regional importance.
• Roadside Management Classification Map, Alberta Transportation. Used to determine additional trunk routes, as most of the existing trunks (also NHS core routes) are being planned for eventual upgrade to freeway.
• Functional Classification Map - Existing Conditions, Alberta Transportation. Reflects current functional classification. Alberta Transportation classifies its provincial highways into either freeway, urban expressway, arterial, collector and local, with sub-classifications for urban and rural areas. Except for freeway, most don't have one-to-one correspondence with OSM, and they mostly reflect the road's construction standard.
• Traffic Data Mapping, Alberta Transportation. Used here to determine the best routes for potential additional trunk routes crossing provinces where there are more than one excluding existing trunks (e.g. Red Deer to Saskatoon trunk).

Neighbouring projects

For classification projects in neighbouring provinces and territories connected by highway with Alberta:

• British Columbia - Yes
• Northwest Territories - No (existing classifications already compatible with nationwide proposal)
• Saskatchewan - Yes

Neighbouring US states (basing on United States/2021 Highway Classification Guidance)

• Montana - No