Canada | Area code 1 | Common abbreviation CDN | Last updated 30-11-2008 | |||
| Road class | Syntax explanation | Administrative subordination | Sub classes | Zones | System | Remarks |
| Trans Canada Highway | [0-9]<1-3>{A} | group of provinces | West | |||
| Centre | ||||||
| East | ||||||
| Provincial Highway | [0-9]<1-3> | province | see region table | |||
| Other highways | various | province or county | ||||
| General description: | ||||||
| Trans Canada Highways: Even though the name suggests that these are national
highways, the numbering is not unique thorughout the country.
The country can be divided into three parts: The West (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba)), The Centre (Ontario and Québec) and Atlantic Canada. Each of these have their own Trans Canada Highway network. In the West, routes 1 and 16 are the main east-west roads. Route 100 is part of the Winnipeg ring road. The suffix 'A' is used for some short sections. In the East, every province has its own Trans Canada highway numbers: 2 and 16 in New Brunswick, 1 in Prince Edward Island and (separately) in Newfoundland, and 104, 105 and 106 in Nova Scotia. The Centre has some main east-west routes with Trans Canada Highway designation but without numbers, though they all have provincial highway numbers as well. Provinces not mentioned in this section do not have Trans Canada Highways. Strictly speaking, there is no national road numbering system, which is unique world-wide (see the Philippines, however). | ||||||
| Provincial highways: Every province except Nunavut has some kind of provincial highways. Many also have different classes, with various names. Some also have separate motorway numbers.
Some provincial highway numbers were derived from (existing or obsolete) US highway numbers, e.g. 93 in British Columbia and Alberta and 75 in Manitoba.
For more details see region table. | ||||||
| Road signs: Green with white text | ||||||
| History: In 1997 and 1998, many Ontario provincial highways were downgraded to County highways ('downloaded'). Only the most important roads were kept as provincial. Many signs still show the old road numbers and some roads have become discontinuous as a result of this downgrading.
In northern Ontario, there are no counties and therefore some provincial highways were downgraded to non numbered roads.
In 1965, the current numbering system in New Brunswick was introduced. | ||||||
Sources and links: Various maps and atlases, websites
Official sites: | ||||||
| AB | Alberta |
| BC | British Columbia |
| MB | Manitoba |
| NB | New Brunswick |
| NF | Newfoundland |
| NT | Northwest Territories |
| NS | Nova Scotia |
| NU | Nunavut |
| ON | Ontario |
| PE | Prince Edward Island |
| QC | Québec |
| SK | Saskatchewan |
| YK | Yukon |
| Province | Main roads | Syntax/system | Secondary roads | Syntax/system | Local roads | Syntax/system | |
| Alberta | Primary Highway | [0-9]<1-2>{[AX]} | Secondary Road | [5-8][0-9]<1-2> | |||
| British Columbia | Provincial Highway | [0-9]<1-2>{[A-C]};101 | Motorways have exit numbers by kilometers | ||||
| Manitoba | Provincial Trunk Highway | [0-9]<1-2>;101 | Provincial Road | [2-5][0-9]<2> | City of Winnipeg Route | [0-9]<2-3>Odd numbers east-west increasing to the south, even numbers north-south increasing to the west but number 1xy fits into the system as xy | |
| New Brunswick | Primary Route | [0-9]<1-2> Exit numbers by kilometers | Collector Route | 1[0-9]<2> | Local Route | [2-9][0-9]<2> | |
| Newfoundland | Provincial Highway | [0-9]<2-3>{`suffix`} suffix either -A or -[0-9]<2> | Sub classes: [0-9]<1-2>0 [0-9]<1-2>[1-9] Suffixed numbers | Trans Canada Highway 1 is the main east-west through road. Provincial Highways on the main island have numbers 10 to 480, increasing in westbound direction. Numbers in Labrador begin with 5. | |||
| Northwest Territories | Provincial Highway | 1-8 | |||||
| Nova Scotia | Trunk Road | [0-9]<1-2> | Collector Highway | [23][0-9]<2> | |||
| Arterial Highway | 1[0-9]<2>, derived from Trunk Road by adding 100 (also applies to Trans Canada Highways) | Mostly motorways, some single carriageways, exit numbers sequential | |||||
| Nunavut | No road numbers | ||||||
| Ontario | South | Primary Provincial Highway | Motorways 4[0-9]<2>, exit numbers by kilometers | County/District/Regional Road | [0-9]<1-3>, numbering per county/district/region | ||
| Other roads [0-9]<1-3>{[AB]} sub classes: 1-/2-d 3-d These can have motorway sections | |||||||
| North | Secondary Provincial Highway | [56][0-9]<2>{[AB]} | Tertiary Road | 8[0-9]<2> | |||
| Prince Edward Island | Primary and Secondary Provincial Highways form an integrated system | ||||||
| Primary Provincial Highway | [0-9]<1-2>{A} | Secondary Provincial Highway | [0-9]<1-3> | Sub classes: 1-/2-d 3-d | Zones for 3-d numbers: 1 Prince 2 Queens 3 Kings | ||
| Québec | Autoroute/Motorway | [0-9]<1-3> | Sub classes: 1-/2-d 3-d |
Odd numbers north-south increasing to the east, even numbers east-west increasing to the north 3-d numbers are derived from 2-d numbers by prepending a digit. They are not unique in the province Exit number by kilometers | |||
| Provincial Highway | [1-3][0-9]<2>
sub classes: 1[0-9]<2> [23][0-9]<2> Even numbers northeast-southwest increasing to northwest, odd numbers northwest-southeast increasing to northeast Numbers beginning with 1: main roads, on both sides of Saint Lawrence Numbers beginning with 2 or 3: other roads, 2 southeast of Saint Lawrence, 3 northwest of Saint Lawrence | County Highway | [0-9]<2> only near La Tuque | Forest or ZEC Road ZEC= | [CGL-OQT][0-9]<3>, zones:
C9 Northeast G1 South of Saint Lawrence L2 around Chicoutimi M6 North of Montréal N8 Northwest O7 North of Hull Q3 North of Québec T4 around La Tuque Numbers are unique without the letter | ||
| Saskatchewan | Primary provincial Highway | [0-9]<1-2> | Secondary Provincial Highway | [0-9]<3> | |||
| Yukon | Provincial Highway | 1-11 | |||||