British Columbia
This page contains information relating to mapping activity that is specific to the British Columbia, Canada.
Tagging Guidelines
Please see Canadian tagging guidelines.
Highways and provincial roads
See British Columbia/Highway classification for a proposed new classification scheme. Actual guidelines in use for BC follow those in Canada/Tagging guidelines#Highways.
The BC Government does not have meaningful distinctions between different types of highways, therefor it is necessary to consider functional characteristics of a road to classify it. What distinctions there are (e.g. NHS) are funding categories, not visible on the ground, and typically only present in copyrighted lists which are not a usable source.
| Tagging | In built up areas | In remote areas |
|---|---|---|
| highway=motorway | A freeway with access to/from the road primarily from interchanges. Typically, but not necessarily a numbered highway. | A freeway with access to/from the road primarily from interchanges. Typically, but not necessarily a numbered highway. |
| highway=trunk | A divided highway with limited access. Intersections are infrequent with traffic priority going to the trunk road. Intersections normally have "prepare to stop" signs in advance of them. Right and left turn lanes are frequently present at intersections. Increased speed limits are common. | A divided highway with limited access. |
| highway=primary | A a numbered highway with does not meet the standards for highway=motorway or highway=trunk. | An un-divided highway. |
| highway=secondary | A major road used for thru-traffic. Frequently 4 lanes. | ? |
| highway=tertiary | A road less important than a secondary. In residential areas these are normally classified by the city as "local collectors". Normally has priority at intersections over highway=residential roads. | ? |
| highway=residential | A minor residential road. Many minor non-residential roads have been tagged as residential from the CanVec import. | |
| highway=unclassified | A minor non-residential road. Some CanVec residential roads are incorrectly tagged as highway=unclassified. | |
| highway=road | An unknown road. | An unknown road. |
| highway=living_street | Not in common use. | Not in common use. |
| highway=service | A service road | A service road |
Highways should be tagged with lanes=* maxspeed=* surface=* as appropriate.
Cities/Towns (by population (1))
- Vancouver
- Victoria
- Kelowna
- Abbotsford
- Kamloops
- Nanaimo
- Prince George
- Chilliwack
- Vernon
- Courtenay
- Penticton
- Duncan
- Campbell River
- Port Alberni
- Williams Lake
- Quesnel
- Parksville
- Cranbrook
- Terrace
- Powell River
- Dawson Creek
- Fort St. John
- Prince Rupert
- Squamish
- Kitimat
- Ucluelet
- Tofino
(CMA = urban centre-census metropolitan area, CA = census agglomeration (CA) Other towns
Cities/Towns (by Regional Districts)
Cariboo Regional District
- 70 Mile House
- Alexandria
- Alexis Creek
- Anahim Lake
- Horsefly
- Kersley
- Lac La Hache
- Likely
- Lone Butte
- McLeese Lake
- Nazko
- Nimpo Lake
- One Hundred Mile House
- Riske Creek
- Quesnel
- Tatla Lake
- Wells
- Williams Lake
Central Coast Regional District
- None
Columbia-Shuswap Regional District
- Salmon Arm
- Revelstoke
- Golden
- Sicamous
- Anglemont
- Blind Bay
- Celista
- Craigellachie
- Eagle Bay
- Falkland
- Malawka
- Notch Hill
- Ranchero
- Scotch Creek
- Silver Creek
- Sorrento
- Sunnybrae
- Swansea Point
- Tappen
- White Lake
Fraser Valley Regional District
Metro Vancouver Regional District
- Anmore
- Belcarra
- Bowen Island
- Burnaby
- Coquitlam
- Delta
- Langley
- Lions Bay
- Maple Ridge
- New Westminster
- North Vancouver
- Pitt Meadows
- Port Coquitlam
- Port Moody
- Richmond
- Surrey
- Vancouver
- West Vancouver
- White Rock
Northern Rockies Regional Municipality
Peace River Regional District
qathet Regional District
Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako
Regional District of Fraser-Fort George
Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine
Regional District of Central Kootenay
Regional District of Central Okanagan
Regional District of East Kootenay
Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
Regional District of North Okanagan
Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen
Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District
Squamish-Lillooet Regional District
Sunshine Coast Regional District
Thompson-Nicola Regional District
- Ashcroft
- Blue River
- Barriere
- Brookmere
- Cache Creek
- Chase
- Clearwater
- Clinton
- Kamloops
- Little Fort
- Logan Lake
- Lytton
- Merritt
- Savona
Vancouver Island
Alberni—Clayoquot Regional District
Capital Regional District
- Central Saanich
- Colwood
- Esquimalt
- Southern Gulf Islands
- Highlands
- Langford
- Metchosen
- North Saanich
- Oak Bay
- Saanich
- Sidney
- Sooke
- Victoria
- View Royal
Comox Valley Regional District
Cowichan Valley Regional District
Regional District of Mount Waddington
Regional District of Nanaimo
Strathcona Regional District
Potential Datasource
http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/gis/index.html
BC Gov't geographic information portal
ILMB BC Digital Road Atlas (2007, Partially Attributed) - https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/geometadata/metadataDetail.do?recordUID=45674&recordSet=ISO19115
Downloads
The Garmin MapSource (Windows) Installer file is available here http://www.mediafire.com/file/0jh1inmgdoe/BCarea-mkgmap-routableOSM_22June2010.exe
The Garmin IMG tiles (routable) are available in this zip file, http://www.mediafire.com/file/mxuknamztig/BCarea-mkgmap-routableOSM_22June2010.zip
This was created from the OSM download of the outline of the province from http://downloads.cloudmade.com/north_america/canada/british_columbia#downloads_breadcrumbs using splitter and mkgmap