Roads, Ferries, Address Areas

Network

nw

The Network (nw) theme contains all of the topological Transportation Elements (Roads, Ferries, Address Area Boundaries Elements) within the MultiNet^® Shapefile product set. The Network theme is useful for many GIS applications. For example:

Displaying all Transportation Elements in one theme;
Making queries on all Transportation Elements;
Supporting vehicle routing applications.

Extended attributes can be assigned to the network layer in some geographical locations. The file extension to identify extended attributes for the network layer is *nwea.dbf.

The Oneway, F_BP and T_BP (Blocked Passage) fields in this layer reflect the restrictions for Passenger Cars (VT=11 & VT=0) as they also are available in the Restrictions (rs) table. The Time Domain Information is not taken into account to populate these fields. Whether a Blocked Passage is removable or not also is found in the rs table.

PJ

The PJ (Plural Junction) field holds information to indicate whether a driving instruction needs to be generated. Possible values are:

ATTRIBUTE CODE	DEFINITION	DESCRIPTION
0	Not part of a plural junction	0 is the default value
1	Intersection Internal	In this case, no special instructions are needed for guidance.
2	Indescribable	There may be unusual turns or maneuvers that cannot be clearly conveyed in a single instruction. Display of the maneuver is necessary in this case.
3	Maneuver	In this case, special instructions are needed for guidance before the start of the Road Element.

PROCSTAT

This field indicates the level of attribution for a particular Road Element or Ferry Connection.

ONEWAY

The ONEWAY field indicates whether a road element is open in both directions (blank); open in positive direction (FT); open in negative direction (TF) or closed in both directions (N). Note that the restrictions table (rs) contains the most restrictive information and should be considered over values that may appear contrary to information in the ONEWAY field.

Example: The nw ONEWAY field is filled with "N" indicating closed in both directions (at all times). The rs table indicates that the direction of traffic flow is actually open in the positive or negative direction at certain times of the day for the same road element. These times are indicated and linked from the rs table to the time domain values in the td table.

KPH

The KPH field in the Shapefile Network file (nw) represents the average speed over the entire distance of a road. This calculation is based on the Functional Road Class (FRC), Form of Way (FOW) and whether the Road Elements travel through Built Up Areas (BUAs).

ADA

The ADA field (Advanced Driver Attributes) in the Shapefile Network file (nw) indicates whether the selected Road Element is compliant with ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) requirements. Road geometry is considered ADAS compliant when the absolute positional accuracy of the geometry is +/- 5m and the relative positional accuracy is +/- 1m. The content of this field is either "0" if the geometry is not compliant, or "1" if the geometry is compliant.

TRANS

The TRANS field in the Shapefile Network file (nw) represents the MultiNet concept of "Transition," meaning that a road element that is flagged as a Transition element indicates that part of the Road Network Geometry does not truly represent the actual road centerline.

DYNSPEED

The DYNSPEED field in the Shapefile Network file represents a roadway that may be subject to speeds regulated by variable or dynamic traffic signs (e.g., electronic traffic signs).

Junction

jc

The Level 1 Line Features that make up the Transportation Network for navigation are bounded by Junctions at the following locations:

Start and end of a road (dead-end);
Road crossing at grade;
Change of a road characteristic (Attribute value like Street Name or Number of Lane);
Crossing with an Administrative Area or Built-up Area (for example, at a municipality border);
Connection between Road Network Geometry and Ferry Geometry;
Where a TMC (traffic information) Location refers to a point on the Road Network;
Crossing with Railway.

Note: Outside of the United States and Canada, Junctions also are found at Address Area boundary crossings and when constructing an Intersection or a Road (Level 2 Features).

Note: Junctions with multiple Types are provided in the jcea (Junction Extended Attributes) table. Junctions are an integral part of Level 2 Roads. See also Intersections later in this user guide. Junction IDs on dataset boundaries have a "10000" prefix.

Note: See also Working with Junctions on Dataset Boundaries in Shapefile later in this user guide.

Geocode

gc

The geocode theme is a reference theme designed exclusively for geocoding. This theme contains all of the edges/lines/arcs and attributes required for address geocode operations. The parsed addresses conform to normal postal standards for the spelling of street abbreviations and road names.

NAMEFORM

The NAMEFORM attribute is not implemented.

FULLNAME

The FULLNAME field is, in most cases, the summation of the PREDIR, NAMEPREFIX, NAME, NAMESUFFIX and SUFDIR fields. This field should be used to obtain the full street name.

Note: Concatenation of the PREDIR, NAMEPREFIX, NAME, NAMESUFFIX and SUFDIR fields will not always result in a properly formatted street name.

NAMEPREFIX and NAMESUFFIX

The NAMEPREFIX and NAMESUFFIX fields in the gc file are used to store the prefix or suffix portions of the FULLNAME. Often, the street type is represented as a prefix or suffix, depending on language. See examples below.

Examples

COUNTRY	FULLNAME	NAME	NAMEPREFIX	NAMESUFFIX
Germany	Lehenweg	Lehen		wig
Spain	Calle de Vilamalla	Vilamalla	Calle de
Canada (QC)	Rue Principale	Principale	Rue
Canada (NS)	Ellsworth Ave	Ellsworth		Ave
United States	Greenview Rd	Greenview		Rd

See Geocoding with MultiNet^® Shapefile in this user guide for usage.

Census Enhanced Geocoding Attributes

The Census Enhanced Geocode (CEGC) Table contain Census related information on the GC Transportation Elements. Each record in the CEGC table has one related record in the NW layer and one or more related records in the GC layer. This table contains the same census information as the legacy product MultiNet Census Enhanced Geocode Layer being related to Road Elements and Address Area Boundary Elements.

Postal Code Information on Transportation Element

pc

The Postal Code Information on Transportation Element describes the main Postal Codes per side and per transportation element. Also the sub-postal code information is described, ordered from start to end junction per side of the transportation element.

Postal Code Name Information

pcnm

The Postal Code Name Table contains all captured names, in different languages. The table can be linked to the pc table via the POSTCODE attribute.

Intermediate House Numbers

ih

The Intermediate House Numbers describe the order of House Numbers on a street, side dependent. This table only contains the individual house numbers for captured intermediate house numbers. These are primarily present in case of irregular house number structures.

Transportation Element Belonging to Area

ta

The Transportation Element belonging to Area describes the relation between the Transportation Elements and the areas they belong to. The area types are limited to Administrative Areas, Administrative Places, Built-up Areas and Index Areas.

Address Area Boundary Element Belonging to Address Area

ab

Address Area Boundary Element belonging to Address Area (ab) contains the relation between the Address Area Boundary Element and the Address Area (aa) that it bounds. See also Address Areas in this document section.

Note: This feature is not currently available for MultiNet® in the U.S. and Canada.

Official Street Codes

sc

The Official Street Codes are currently used only in Europe. An Official Street Code represents a unique reference of streets within a country. A street in this sense is a logical unit having the same official street name. The code is provided by the official authorities to conveniently link statistics and other official data referring to the particular streets.

Route Numbers

rn

The Route Numbers table contains all Route Numbers for Road Elements separately with their own type and direction. See Route Number Types in this user guide for details on the RTETYP field. See also Route Numbers later in this user guide for Route Number usage.

SHIELDNUM

Beginning with MultiNet^® Shapefile v. 4.4, the SHIELDNUM field takes the place in the table where previously the ROUTENUM field was located. The SHIELDNUM field contains the route number portion found on a signpost shield.

Example

SIGNPOST	SHIELDNUM CONTENT
	88

ROUTENUM

Beginning with MultiNet^® Shapefile v. 4.4, the ROUTENUM field represents the full route number (prefix and the route number found on a signpost shield).

Example

SIGNPOST	ROUTENUM CONTENT
	AB-88

ROUTENAM

Beginning with MultiNet^® Shapefile v. 4.4, the ROUTENAM field represents the route name associated with the route number.

SIGNPOST	ROUTENAM CONTENT
	Bicentennial Hwy

EXTERTNAM

Beginning with MultiNet^® Shapefile v. 4.4, the EXTERTNAM field represents the extended route name associated with the route number.

SIGNPOST	EXTERTNAM CONTENT
	Bicentennial Hwy

Tourist Roads

to

The Tourist Roads table contains the Tourist Road name and types of Tourist Roads. One Transportation Element can belong to different Tourist Routes. Each Tourist Route Name is referenced to a Transportation Element.

Maneuvers

mn

A Maneuver is a mandatory, preferred or prohibited access of a Transportation Element in relation to another Transportation Element. The Maneuvers table is a table of Attributes relating to the type and structure of a Maneuver Relationship. The Relationship relates access to one Transportation Element from another Transportation Element. This table also contains Junction geometry.

See Maneuvers and Routing later in this user guide.

FEATTYP

Maneuver feature types include: Bifurcation, Priority, Prohibited, Restricted, Calculated or Derived Prohibited and Image Maneuver.

Bifurcation

Bifurcation maneuver types suggest that guidance is needed at a junction because there is more than one obvious route to take.

Figure: Maneuver Bifurcation

Priority

Priority maneuver is a maneuver that has priority over another maneuver at an intersection. Priority maneuvers are valid in both directions of a maneuver path.

A Priority maneuver is useful for both guidance suppression and guidance encouragement:

Guidance Suppression: A route that includes the entire path of this maneuver should suppress the guidance to turn at the decision point in the maneuver. It can either be suppressed completely or replaced with lesser guidance ("stay left" instead of "turn left"), since continuing on this path is obvious.
Guidance Encouragement: A route that includes one (but not both) of the Road Elements of the maneuver should encourage guidance. In a route that goes straight (usually requiring no guidance) it now would say "continue straight on."

Prohibited

This type of maneuver is physically possible, but legally prohibited.

Figure: Prohibited Right Turn

Restricted

Restricted maneuvers are legally defined by traffic signs along the road or painted on the road. In the example below, both signs along the road and painted on the road indicate north and west as valid directions from the intersection. Therefore, direction of travel at this intersection is restricted to north and west only.

Figure: Restricted Maneuver

Calculated or Derived Prohibited

Calculated or Derived Prohibited Maneuver is a maneuver type that is created as an alternative for Restricted Maneuvers and Blocked Passages.

Image Maneuver

An Image Maneuver represents a path through a junction where a Junction View is advised. A Junction View is an image showing a simplified representation of a complex traffic situation where the advised route to follow is indicated.

Figure: Junction View

PROMANTYP

Prohibited maneuver types are Prohibited, defined above, and Implicit:

Implicit

Implicit maneuvers are determined when potential paths of travel may be legal but most likely are prohibited.

An Implicit Turn is a type of Maneuver.
An Implicit Turn refers to a situation that is independent from the presence of a white line or white shaded area on the road pavement.
The determination of an Implicit Turn is dependent from traffic restrictions on the Road Elements involved and is usually disputable.
Turn recommendations are unwanted on sharp angles.

Example: In the figure below, the desired route is the blue line C to get from A to B. The implicit maneuver is the red line that turns right at the intersection.

Figure: Implicit Maneuver captured at a crossing with a small slip road

See the MultiNet Data Specifications and Data Model document for more details.

Maneuver Path Index

mp

The Maneuver Path Index table describes the path of a Maneuver Relationship from start (TRPELID) to end (TRPELID). The Sequential Number (SEQNR) Attribute contains the exact position that an Element occupies in a Maneuver Relationship chain.

See Maneuvers and Routing later in this user guide for usage.

Signpost

sg

Signposts are useful for directional and destination information. Transportation Elements that lead to a destination indicated by a signpost can be linked.

The sg table includes the Junction geometry of the decision point on the signpost path and also contains an identifier of the color pallete used on the signpost for each country.

Color information for Signposts is found in the aoas, aoav or a1as, a1av tables.

Signpost Path Index

sp

The sp table describes the path of a Signpost. The first Transportation Element is the start of the path and the last Element is the end of the path. The Sequential Number (SEQNR) Attribute contains the exact position that an Element occupies in a Signpost Path chain.

Signpost Information

si

The si table includes signpost text and/or pictogram descriptions. If a signpost has multiple textual descriptions (for example, when the same destination is described in two languages), or multiple pictograms (for example, Railway Station with Parking Facility on the same signpost), then the records are repeated in the SI table for each textual description or pictogram, and ordered by a Textual Context Sequential Number (SEQNR).

The different signpost-related tables are linked by means of a Signpost ID.

INFOTYP

The INFOTYP field contains two-character GDF attribute codes describing the type of information on the signpost. Possible types are listed in the MultiNet Shapefile Specification on this documentation DVD.

Traffic Signs

ts

Traffic Signs is a point feature in Shapefile format. Traffic sign type and position are indicated as file attributes, when known.

See also Traffic Signs later in this user guide.

Traffic Sign Along Road Elements

tt

Traffic Sign Along Road Elements is a table in Shapefile format. Position of the traffic sign along a Road Element and validity direction are indicated as file attributes, when known.

See also Traffic Signs later in this user guide.

TMC Information Along Road Elements

rd

This table provides TMC chain information on transportation elements for all locations captured on the network with reference to the TMC path(s) where they are located. The same Transportation Element might be repeated if several locations are located on it and/or if they are part of several TMC Paths.

Definition of RDSTMC value "ABCCDEEEEE" for Level 1 Elements:

A = Direction of Road Element (from start Junction to end Junction) compared with the TMC chain direction:
- + = in positive direction and external to the TMC point location;
- - = in negative direction and external to the TMC point location;
B = EBU (European Broadcasting Union) Country Code;
CC = TMC Location Code;
D = TMC Direction of the Chain;
- + = in positive direction and external to the TMC point location;
- - = in negative direction and external to the TMC point location;
- P = in positive direction and internal to the TMC point location;
- N = in negative direction and internal to the TMC point location.
EEEEE = TMC Point Location Code (found in the official TMC location Databases).
See TMC Location Structure in MultiNet^® Shapefile Data later in this user guide for a description and comparison with Complex Feature location codes.

TMC Location

tl

The tl and tp Tables contain a link to the actual location references in the specific TMC database of a given country. The bounding TMC Location References of a path in the tp Table are in the tl Table. The TMCLOCREF field is a field that is coded for elements represented as Complex Features. See TMC Location Structure in MultiNet^® Shapefile Data later in this user guide for a description and comparison with Level 1 location codes.

TMC Location Index

tc

The Location Index table includes a list of all Transportation Elements belonging to the same TMC Location or Path. A TMC Location also can include Junctions. See figure below.

Figure: Relating IDs in the NW, TC and TL Tables

The orange Road Elements in the figure above (bounded by two Junctions that are also bounding Access/Exit Ramps) belong to one TMC Location, whose ID is in both the tc and tl Tables.

TMC Path

tp

A TMC Path is defined by the chain of TMC Locations using the positive or negative offset in one direction of the traffic flow. A TMC Path:

starts where a TMC Location does not refer to a previous TMC Location (no negative offset in the location table);
ends where a TMC Location does not refer to a next TMC Location (no positive offset in the location table).

See an example taken from the tp table in TMC Location Structure in MultiNet^® Shapefile Data.

TMC Path Index

tg

The TMC Path Index table describes the path of a TMC Path Relationship. The Sequential Number (SEQNR) Attribute contains the exact position that an Element occupies in a TMC Path Relationship chain. See figure below.

Figure: Location and Sequence of Road Elements in a TMC Path

The TMC Path that is bounded by the illustrated TMC Location consists of 25 Road Elements. The Road Elements are sequentially ordered in the tg Table, and each has the same TMC Path Identification. The tp table shows that the path runs from TMC Location Reference 5600 to 5642. TMC Location 5618 is located in this path.

TMC Path Location Index

ti

The TMC Path Location Index table describes the sequence of the TMC Locations along its related TMC Path along with a simplified geographical point representation. This table is available only for the U.S. and Candada. For other countries this table cannot be provided because of licensing issues.

Level 2 Roads

2r

Level 2 roads form a generalized representation of the Road Network. The first and last Elements of a Level 2 Road are always an Intersection. See Roads (Level 2) earlier in this user guide. The Level 2 Roads table describes all of the Transportation Elements that form a functional unit between the two Intersections.

See also How to Use Roads (Level 2) later in this user guide.

Intersections

is

Intersections are Level 2 objects. The Intersection table represents one component necessary to define an intersection. This table contains extra Attributes, Intersection Type and Freeway Intersection Type, for an Intersection. The table also contains the Official Name and Number of the Intersection, if present. A Relation can be made between the ig Index table and the is Intersection table via the Intersection ID field. See Intersection Index below.

See also How to Use Intersections later in this user guide.

Intersection Index

ig

An Intersection is comprised of one or more Junctions and Transportation Elements. The basic table that describes an Intersection by its Junction(s) and/or Transportation Elements(s) is the ig Intersection Index table. This table builds an Intersection Geometry Index, giving a sequence number to all the Elements within the Intersection, and defining the Feature Type of these Elements, whether Junctions, Road Elements, Ferry Elements or Address Area Boundary Elements.

The ELEMID field in the ig table corresponds to the Transportation Element ID in the nw table. Finally, it is stored in the Center Point of Freeway (cf) table.

Center Point of Freeway

cf

A Center Point of Freeway represents the central position of a Freeway Intersection by a Point Feature. The Center Point of Freeway is always located on top of one of the Road Elements forming part of the Intersection. This Point Feature gets the same Intersection ID as the Intersection it represents.

Restrictions

rs

Restrictions and Maneuvers are used to identify restricted movements on Transportation Elements and to limit the number of Transportation Elements used in a route calculation. A Restriction limits access to part or all of a Transportation Element.

Please refer to record *rs* in the MultiNet^® Shapefile Format Specification document on this documentation DVD for the list of restriction types and values.

Time Domains

td

This table represents time domain restrictions on the road network. See Time Domains earlier in this user guide for a description of the TIMEDOM attribute.

Speed Restrictions

sr

The Speed Restrictions table contains speed information for Vehicle Types, Direction of Speed Restriction Validity, type of speed restriction and the speed for the selected transportation element.

SPEED

The unit of measure for the SPEED attribute is defined in the country (Administrative Order A0) area feature's MUNIT field. The SPEED field represents either the maximum, recommended or lane-dependent speed for a single Road Element. Note that a particular Road Element can be flagged in the nw file with an average speed that may be higher than the sr maximum speed value.

SPEEDTYP

Speed restriction types tagged "undefined" ("0") can be due to no existing sign posts indicating a maximum or recommended speed.

VALDIR

The VALDIR field indicates whether the speed restriction is valid in the positive, negative or both directions of the related transportation element.

Note: A road element flagged as a oneway may be assigned speed restrictions in both directions. The speed restrictions that are assigned to the opposite direction of the oneway road element can be ignored.

VERIFIED

The VERIFIED field in the Shapefile Speed Restriction file (sr) indicates whether the speed values were verified by reliable sources ("1") or were calculated ("0" - not verified).

Example: In the U.S., a Major Slip Road is an example of a road tagged both with a SPEEDTYP = "0" (undefined) and VERIFIED = "0" (not verified).

Speed Restriction Time Domains

st

If a Speed Restriction applies to a specific time period, this table links the transportation element to a TIMEDOM field. See also Time Domains earlier in this user guide.

Lane Divider Information

ll

The Lane Divider Information table indicates the type of separator on the road in between two lanes. The divider type (DIVIDERTYP) represents a lane's separator with its neighboring lane, starting with the first lane. Lanes are identified with a counter from right to left taking into account the direction of the Road Element From-To direction.

Note: The VALIDITY attribute in the ll, ld and lf tables relates the validity of the main attribute of those files to the road lanes. Values in the VALIDITY field always start with "R," indicating lane identification is from right to left. Subsequent numbers following the "R" is either "0" or "1" for each lane:

"0" indicates that the attribute is not valid for the lane;
"1" indicates that the attribute is valid for the lane.

Lane Direction Information

ld

Lane Direction represents the direction a lane is leading to, indicated on sign plates or indicated on the road.

Note: Note: The VALIDITY attribute in the ll, ld and lf tables relates the validity of the main attribute of those files to the road lanes. Values in the VALIDITY field always start with "R," indicating lane identification is from right to left. Subsequent numbers following the "R" is either "0" or "1" for each lane:

"0" indicates that the attribute is not valid for the lane;
"1" indicates that the attribute is valid for the lane.

Direction of Traffic Flow for Lane

lf

The Direction of Traffic Flow for Lane table indicates the direction of traffic flow for each road lane. The DFLANE attribute represents a lane's direction of traffic flow. Lanes are identified with a counter from right to left taking into account the direction of the Road Element From- To direction.

Note: The VALIDITY attribute in the ll, ld and lf tables relates the validity of the main attribute of those files to the road lanes. Values in the VALIDITY field always start with "R," indicating lane identification is from right to left. Subsequent numbers following the "R" is either "0" or "1" for each lane:

"0" indicates that the attribute is not valid for the lane;
"1" indicates that the attribute is valid for the lane.

Figure: Validity Example for Direction of Traffic Flow for Lane

Time Domains for Direction of Traffic Flow

lt

This table holds time domain restriction information for direction of traffic flow, if applicable.

Lane Connectivity Information

ln

Lane Connectivity is a relationship between a Road Element, Junction and another Road Element. The Lane Connectivity Information table identifies a junction point where a sign indicates a lane change. The FROMTO lane information is in the format x/y: where x = the From lane, and y = the To lane.

Lane Connectivity Path

lp

The Lane Connectivity Path table identifies the Road Elements in the path comprising the lane connections. The IDs in the Lane Connectivity Path and the Lane Connectivity Information table relate the two tables.

Lane Type Information

li

The Lane Type information file identifies what type of lane the flagged road element represents. Types of lanes identified in this table include:

Exit/Entrance Lane
Shoulder Lane/Emergency Lane
Parking Lane
HOV Lane

See the MultiNet^® Shapefile Specification document on this documentation DVD for details.

Lane End

le

The Lane End file identifies the road element that is flagged as being the end of a lane or the beginning of a lane.

Speed Restriction per Lane

sl

This file identifies speed restrictions that apply to lanes of a roadway. The types of vehicles and the lane direction(s) that the speed restriction affects are also identified.

Lane Dependent Toll Payment Method

pm

The Lane Dependent Toll Payment Method layer describes the available payment methods at a toll station and identifies the lane that the toll payment method is valid for.