WikiProject Belgium/Conventions/Highways

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Type	Comment
motorway	Motorways (nl: autosnelweg - fr: autoroute) have A or in some cases B (Bretelle) numbers, and many have E numbers as well (see #Reference numbers below). All roads which have this sign [1] (F5) should be tagged motorway. Rx should also be tagged as motorways
trunk	Some 'upgraded' primary/secondary roads that are restricted to automobiles and trucks (nl:autoweg - fr:route pour automobile) but wich are not motorways. These roads have this sign [2] (F9). This also applies if the road has no separate roads for each direction.
primary	??? National roads with ref= Nx or Nxx, or if the main traffic road is diverted through another way (although the national road is still in the old track. E.g. traffic diverted by means of ring road)
secondary	??? National roads with ref= Nxxx (or Nx/Nxx with a supplemental 'downgrading' letter) or important roads in large towns/cities
tertiary	??? Other important roads
residential	Streets mostly residential
pedestrian	Streets 'designed' for vehicles but where access is restricted to pedestrians (could be permissions to load/unload vehicles)
footway	Ways 'designed' for pedestrians where vehicles have no access.
unclassified	Small ways that typically are located in rural areas.
track	All ways which are unpaved, and accessible to motor traffic.
path	All ways which are not accessible for motor traffic

Reference numbers

The usual tag you should use is "ref", so you can get

ref=N16
ref=A12
ref=B101
ref=R11a
ref=E40
ref=T701

Please use a capital letter at the beginning. An extra letter after the number should be lowercase. No spaces should be used.

European E-numbers

Roads with European E-numbers for motorways also have national reference numbers. In that case use this convention:

ref=E19
int_ref=E19
nat_ref=A1

Use the E-number for the "ref" tag, since that's what people use in Belgium, and that way the E number will be shown on the map instead of the A number.

There are some places where the E-number is used on a road which isn't a motorway (notably N49-E34 Zelzate-Knokke). I think they usually use the N number there, so "ref" should have the N-number. can someone confirm this who lives there?

• The formal situation is this: Antwerpen - Zelzate = E34 (ref=E34; int_ref=E34; nat_ref=A11). Just after the tunnel and junction with R4 west of Zelzate, it switches to nat_ref=N49, but still is int_ref=E34. Road signage continues to reference E34-N49 there, but the moniker 'N49' is so engrained in people's thoughts, that they always mention 'expressweg' or 'N49', not E34. But they also do that for the part Zelzate - Antwerpen, that's officially not N49 anymore, but A11, so YMMV. --Ldp 11:45, 25 July 2008 (UTC)