Philippines/Mapping conventions/Roads/Classification

Motorway

The highest classification, highway=motorway should only be used in roads with full control of access, as defined under the Limited Access Highway Act (Republic Act No. 2000). This is used with most of the mainline expressway network, composed of High Standard Highway Class 1 (HSH-1) roads with full control of access and are largely toll roads. Characteristics are:

• Grade separation
• Limited access through entrance and exit ramps
• No at-grade intersections or traffic lights (termini or ramps may have traffic control devices)
• Road design standards supporting higher speeds over long distances
• Traffic restrictions (no bicycles, pedestrians, tricycles, non-motorized vehicles, and motorcycles with engine displacement below 400 cc)

These routes should generally be divided, with at least two lanes per direction, but they do not need to, as long they meet the access control, grade separation and highway design standard requirements. As of 2021, all expressways mapped are completely divided.

Trunk

As the topmost non-motorway designation, trunk should be applied to:

• In areas of low population density, major routes between large population centers, such as cities with populations of 100,000 and above (see list below), metropolitan areas or urban agglomerations
• In areas of high population density, (e.g. Metro Manila), the main through route[s] across the area
• Regional expressways with some of the characteristics for highway=motorway and is a class 2 High Standard Highway (HSH-2).

In some places, two large cities, especially where designated as regional centers, may be served by multiple routes with similar travel times. In general, trunk routings should:

• represent the best route between the cities when all possible factors are considered
• minimize change in route numbers, use of off-route “shortcuts”, and jogs in alignment.
• favor routes with the best connectivity to the rest of the road network
• favor bypasses or diversion roads to divert traffic around congested areas or sections.

In between and around major population centers, it may be appropriate to tag additional trunk routes outside of the guidelines to highlight other major high-quality long-haul traffic routes or to differentiate it from other major roads of equal importance in the area.

Trunk routes are allowed to be assigned on routes paralleling an expressway; this guideline is created to provide toll-free alternate routes of equal importance in the same corridor, as expressways are generally toll roads and some people choose to avoid using them for various reasons.

Most of the proposed trunk network will be following much of the existing roads tagged as such and most of the trunk network will correspond to the designated national primary network by DPWH, but will add some national secondary roads and some unnumbered national roads to fill the gaps such as the Calapan-Iloilo City corridor, where the trunk routing follows the main routing of the Western Nautical Highway between those cities.

Primary

Primary is generally applied to roads connecting other major population centers such as smaller cities and large municipalities (with populations of 100,000 an above). Most national secondary roads (with 3-digit route numbers, except those leading to airports or other points of interest) and identified high-importance national tertiary roads can be classified as primary. In addition, these should generally be used in lower-importance alternate routes of trunk routes between major population centers. In urban areas, these should be generally used on main thoroughfares, which are usually also national roads and are of a reasonable density (i.e. usually spaced far apart).

Primary should also be assigned to roads leading to all other provincial capitals that are neither cities nor large municipalities; this is done to highlight critical roads links to less populous provinces.

Primary routings should generally prefer routings avoiding congested areas or narrow roads; they need not to serve directly the downtown/poblacion or CBD and best routed on a bypass or larger parallel roads.

Secondary

This generally applies to roads connecting to medium-size municipalities with populations of 10,000 to 99,999 in rural areas, and minor arterials in urban areas. In most cases, these generally includes most national tertiary roads, provincial roads, and major city/municipal roads. These may or may not be marked.

Tertiary

This fourth level of non-motorway roads should be applied to roads connecting to small municipalities (with populations below 10,000) and most barangays in rural areas, and collector roads (usually within the same barangay or district) in urban areas. Examples are the majority of roads between barangays, and the largest roads of large gated communities with multiple entry/exit points like Ayala Alabang, Dasmariñas Village or BF Homes, or local streets with significant amounts of through traffic in central business districts or huge gated industrial parks with multiple entrances. If a tertiary route is physically larger or carries more traffic than other tertiaries, or serves three or more barangays or districts with minimal alignment jogs, a tertiary can be promoted to a secondary, taking most factors in account, most importantly, connectivity.

Unclassified

The least important roads in the network, which are not residential. Examples are most other rural roads and roads to a barangay with no other links to other barangays or a remote sitio or purok, commercial streets, and local streets in an industrial park. These are mostly unmarked.

Residential

The least important roads in the network, with the primary purpose of serving homes. In most of the Philippines, many major roads are lined with houses, but this does not mean they should be tagged highway=residential. Instead, highway=residential is used on roads primarily used to access homes (e.g. roads inside residential areas).

Summary table

Exceptions

There are plenty of exceptions to the guidelines listed above, mostly done for various reasons. This list is incomplete as of 2022.

By province and by region:

Population sizes of communities

One factor missed by the previous scheme is the population size of the communities served.

Cities with a population size of 100,000+ are usually the primary destination of trunk routes. Cities with a population size below 100,000 and municipalities with 100,000+ inhabitants are usually the primary destination of primary routes. Municipalities with a population size of 10,000-100,000 are usually the primary destination of secondary routes. Municipalities with a population size of <10,000 are usually the primary destination of tertiary routes.

That said, most places will have access from a route with a higher classification provided many are along a larger or longer route. In cases of conurbations like Metro Manila, the total population the of the cities forming it are taken into account. In such places, trunk should be limited to the main through routes across the region, and all others will be classified primary and below.

Other additional considerations are:

• Primary should generally be assigned to highways to all other municipalities that serve also as provincial capitals (see list below). This overrides the other guidelines mentioned above, and is done to highlight critical link roads especially in less developed regions.
• Trunk roads should generally follow routes passing through a regional center (see lists below), to highlight critical road links between regional centers.

Function, physical attributes, and government designation

There are many factors taken in account to determine the best road classification, but the three most important are:

• Functional criteria: Highways connecting large cities would be more important than highways connecting small towns. The greater the importance of the road involved, the larger the population of the communities involved.

• Physical criteria: The better the highway, the faster the travel speeds and greater the preference given to it, resulting to most traffic using it. Multi-lane highways, both divided and undivided, are generally more important than two-lane undivided roads and paved roads would generally be more important than unpaved roads.

• Administrative criteria: expressways and national roads would generally be more important than provincial roads, which would be more important than municipal roads. Local roads and access roads would also be less important than the main routes.