Australian Tagging Guidelines

Australian Road Tagging

Here are some recommendations for tagging of Australian Roads. Use the discussion page for recommendations or comments.

Regional Roads

• highway=motorway. Motorways, freeways, and freeway-like roads. Divided roads with 2 or 3 lanes in each direction, limited access via interchanges, no traffic lights. Generally 100 or 110 km/h speed limit. For example: Hume Freeway. In states with the Alphanumeric system, these are 'M' roads if they are of freeway standard.

• highway=trunk. National highways connecting major population centres. For example Bruce Highway. State strategic road network for example: Pacific Highway. In states with the Alphanumeric system, these are 'A' roads. 'M' roads which aren't of freeway standard are also classified as a trunk road.

• highway=primary. State maintained roads linking major population centers to each other and to the trunk network. In states with the Alphanumeric system, these are 'B' roads.

• highway=secondary. District roads that are generally council maintained roads linking smaller population centres to each other and to the primary network. In states with the Alphanumeric system, these are 'C' roads.

• highway=tertiary. Other roads linking towns, villages and Points of Interest to each other and the secondary network. In South Australia, roads that are classified as a 'D' route under the Alphanumeric system use this classification.

• highway=residential. Local streets found in and around cities, suburbs and towns as well as in rural areas.

• highway=unclassified. Other named rural roads.

• highway=track. Gravel fire trails, forest drives, 4WD trails and similiar roads. Gravel roads connecting towns etc. should be tagged as appropriate (secondary, tertiary or unclassified), along with the 'surface=unpaved' tag.

• highway=service. Unnamed access roads. e.g. Entranceways and roads in parks, government properties, beach access etc. Use a short service road where you may want to mark the entrance to a private/government area, but not map the interior private roads in detail.

Use the surface=unpaved tag to indicate where roads are not sealed.

Use the ref tag to indicate a route number that is signposted according to the standard below. Omit non-signposted, anachronistic or historical route numbers.

Urban Areas

• highway=motorway. The metropolitan motorway network.

• highway=trunk. "Metroads" in the cities where they exist, or other similar cross-city trunk routes in cities where they do not.

• highway=primary. Other main cross city and arterial routes. Major connecting roads in larger rural cities.

• highway=secondary. Major through routes within a local area.

• highway=tertiary. Minor through routes within a local area.

• highway=residential. Residential streets.

• highway=unclassified. Other streets. Not generally through routes.

• highway=service. Un-named service and access roads. Also used for small named rear-access lanes.

Use the abutters=residential tag where trunk, primary, secondary and tertiary roads pass through residential areas.\

Use the ref tag to indicate a route number that is signposted according to the standard below. Omit non-signposted, anachronistic or historical routes.

Reference Tagging

The 'ref=' tag is used to add route reference numbers to highways. Currently, these are only displayed as text above the reoad. There has been no standard for route numbering accross Australia and the route numbers are not rendered in the correct style. One of our members is working on rendering route numbers with the correct visual look. To allow this to happen we need to use a consistent route tagging scheme accross Australia. All states either use the old 'shield' system, or the new Alphanumeric system. Some (NSW and Queensland) are in the process of changing from one to the other.

Use the following tags. The style of the signage will give you clues as to which is the correct tag

ref=NR1     National Route - (black on white shield)
ref=NH31    National Highway - (yellow on green shield)
ref=MR2     Metroad - (blue on white hexagon)
ref=S151    State Route - (white on blue shield)
ref=T5      Tourist Route - (white on brown Pentagon)
ref=A1      A Roads (yellow on green rectangle)
ref=B2      B Roads (yellow on green rectangle)
ref=C3      C Roads (yellow on green rectangle)
ref=M4      Motorways(yellow on green rectangle)

Multiple references for the same road should be seperated by semi-colon's. For example, a section of State route 69 that also carries tourist routes 7 and 8 should be tagged

ref=S69;T7;T8

Pay close attention to the name of the road and the routing reference. For example the M5 motorway in Sydney is called M5 Motorway and its reference is MR5. This will change with alphanumeric references, but for now the only road with a motorway reference in Sydney is the M7. This is different in Melbourne and other states.

Bus Stop Tagging

Use the following for nodes identified as bus stops with the highway=bus_stop tag.

"loc_ref=423"

For multiple tags use:

"loc_ref=423,425,426,L23"

External Links

Australian Highway information on Wikipedia

Expressway - The Australian Highway Site

Ozroads: The Australian Roads Website