Estonia | Area code 372 | Common abbreviation EST | Last updated 25-3-2007 | |||
| Road class | Syntax explanation | Administrative subordination | Sub classes | Zones | System | Remarks |
| European road | E[0-9]<2> | Europe | See Europe | Only E20, E67 and E77 | ||
| National road (Maantee) | (T-)[0-9]<1-2> | national | main: 1-10 | spider-web | ||
| basic: 11-88 | clustering | |||||
| Community road (Korvalmaantee) | (T-[12][0-9])[12][0-9]<2> | national | ||||
| General description:
1, 2 and 4 are the main roads from Tallinn to Narva (-Saint Petersburg), Tartu-Luhamaa and Pärnu (-Riga) respectively. 3 and 5 are lateral roads Johvi-Tartu-Valga and Rakvere-Paide-Pärnu. 6 is the road between Pärnu and Valga and 7 is a short connection between Latvia and Russia on the route between Riga and Pskov. 8, 9 and 10 are recently upgraded former basic roads.
There is no clear zone system for basic roads, but they appear in clusters, typically of numbers beginning with the same digit. | ||||||
| Community road numbers all have 5 digits. The first two digits depend on the county: | ||||||
| Number | County (Maakond) | |||||
| 11 | Harju | |||||
| 12 | Hiiu | |||||
| 13 | Ida-Viru | |||||
| 14 | Jõgeva | |||||
| 15 | Järva | |||||
| 16 | Lääne | |||||
| 17 | Lääne-Viru | |||||
| 18 | Põlva | |||||
| 19 | Pärnu | |||||
| 20 | Rapla | |||||
| 21 | Saare | |||||
| 22 | Tartu | |||||
| 23 | Valga | |||||
| 24 | Viljandi | |||||
| 25 | Võru | |||||
| When a Community road crosses a county boundary, the number does continue, so not all Community roads within a county have the same two first digits. The county indication does not appear on signs. | ||||||
| Road signs: Indirect references to road numbers appear in a dashed rectangle (as in Iceland and sometimes in Germany). | ||||||
| Road/destination type | Background | Text | Road numbers (not related to road/destination type) | |||
| Class | Shape | Background | Text | |||
| Main roads | Blue | White | Main roads | Rectangle | Red | White |
| Other roads | White | Black | Basic roads | Rectangle | Yellow | Black |
| Local destinations | White | Dark green | Community roads | Rectangle | White | Black |
| History:
Estonia is one of the few countries in the world that have had four different road numbering systems (like Latvia). After Soviet occupation, the system was changed and after independence, a new national system was introduced. The Soviet system was also changed once.
In 1998, three new main roads were introduced: basic roads 19, 16 and 30 were upgraded to 8, 9 and 10 respectively. These roads have possibly had five different numbers. The years in the table below are estimated: | ||||||
| System > | Old national | Old Soviet | New Soviet | New national | ||
| Route | 1930-1940 | 1940-1980 | 1980-1995 | 1995-1998 | 1998-present | |
| Tallinn-Narva | 2 | 21 | M11 | 1 | ||
| Tallinn-Paide | 1 | unknown | A202 | 2 | ||
| Tallinn-Pärnu | 4 | 21 | M12 | 4 | ||
| Tallinn-Risti-Haapsalu | 6 | unknown | A206 | 16 | 9 | |
| Risti-Virtsu | 7 | unknown | A207 | 30 | 10 | |
Sources and links: Estonian road administration, various maps and atlases
Official sites: | ||||||