Alberta
V・T・E Alberta, Canada  |
| latitude: 54.5, longitude: -115 |
| Browse map of Alberta 54°30′00.00″ N, 115°00′00.00″ W |
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External links:
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| Use this template for your locality |
Alberta is a province in Canada at latitude 54°30′00.00″ North, longitude 115°00′00.00″ West.
This page contains information relating to mapping activity that is specific to Alberta, Canada.
Highways
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Discussion is underway to revise the highway tagging guidelines in coordination with changes being undertaken in the United States. The existing road classification guidelines listed below will remain in place until a final consensus is reached. |
See Canadian tagging guidelines for overall guidelines.
Specific guidelines following were originally from the Calgary page and were placed here to avoid duplication. The rationale behind these guidelines was based on the Winnipeg guidelines.
The quick guide
- highway=motorway: Highways which allow free-flowing traffic
- highway=trunk: Highways 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 16, 43, and 63
- highway=primary: All other primary provincial highways (numbers 1 to 100, not including those already classified as trunk).
- highway=secondary: Secondary Highways (numbers 500 to 899 and 900 to 999)
- highway=tertiary: Major range/township roads in rural communities
- highway=unclassified: Rural roads that are not part of the numbered highway system.
Highways should get a surface=* tag indicating paved or unpaved. If there is no surface=* tag, the assumption is paved.
Highways with two lanes in each direction (but without a divider/central barrier) should be tagged as lanes=4. If there is no lanes=* tag, the assumption is lanes=2.
All highways should have ref=* tags added indicating the highway/road number. Those that are named (e.g. the Trans Canada Highway, Yellowhead Highway, Queen Elizabeth II Highway) should also have name=* tags.
The rationale
The highway=* tag in OpenStreetMap is intended to describe the official classification of a given road. At the same time, this is not enough information to draw a useful map.
The highway tag is used to record the road's official classification. It also carries certain implications regarding the road itself; notably, highway=motorway implies that the road is a divided highway, and both highway=motorway and highway=trunk imply limited access. However, the primary meaning of highway is the official classification. This naturally leads to:
- Provincial Trunk highways that are part of the National Highway System (highways 1, 2, 3, and 16) and ring roads 201 and 216: highway=trunk
- Other Provincial Primary highways (numbers up to 100): highway=primary
- Provincial Secondary highways (numbers 500 to 899 and 900 to 999): highway=secondary
Rural roads that are not part of this highway classification system can be tagged as highway=unclassified. This leaves the "in-between" status of highway=tertiary unused, but this class is useful when mapping important roads in urban areas.
In Alberta, the number of lanes on a highway can vary on the trunk highways, the lanes=* tag can be used to record the total number of lanes of travel on the highway including both directions (i.e. lanes=2 for a two-way highway with one lane each direction, lanes=4 for a street with two lanes in each direction with no divider, and lanes=2 on each way of a four lane divided highway with two lanes in each direction).
The surface of the road does not affect the highway's official classification, and so it does not impact the highway=* tag. But it is important information, and can be captured in the surface=* tag. Suggested values are surface=paved and surface=unpaved. Provincial highways and roads that are unpaved are gravel roads; for highway=unclassified roads that are unsuitable for heavy travel (dirt, grass, really bad gravel), consider switching to highway=track.
Note that routing software might make use of the surface=* tag.
Winter roads (which are either closed or not maintained during the winter months) are not currently being mapped. If you map them, please give some consideration as to the sort of tags that should be used, and document that here.
Cities/Towns/Villages
Official list:
Wikipedia list:
There are also a couple of additional 'place' types in Alberta
- Summer Village - A mainly vacation/weekender community, separately administered.
- Special Municipal District
See WikiProject Power networks/Canada/Alberta for further information specific to power-related mapping in Alberta.
OSM Pages for specific places
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Strathcona County
- Crowsnest Pass comprising of Bellevue, Blairmore, Coleman, Frank and Hillcrest.
- Camrose
- Parkland County
Roads
List of Alberta provincial highways
Buildings
There were 1,772,670 "private dwellings" in Alberta in the 2021 census. OpenStreetMap has 927,600 buildings mapped (a ratio of 0.26) as of September 2024, with about 65,000 buildings being added each year.
Tourist/Scenic Trails
There exist an number of 'scenic trails' which follow existing roads. These can be mapped using Relations.
- Boomtown Trail
- Cowboy Trail
Cowboy Trail - Crowsnest Highway Crowsnest Highway
- David Thompson Explorer’s Trail David Thompson Explorer’s Trail
- Deh Cho Trail
- Grande Alberta Trail
- Icefields Parkway Icefields Parkway
- Kalyna Country
- Klondike Trail
- North to Alaska Trail
- Northern Alberta Heritage Trail
- Northern Lights and Oil Sands Trail
- Northwestern Alberta Circle
- Trail of the Buffalo
- Trail of the Great Bear
- UNESCO Trail
- Yellowhead Highway