Canadian Road Network from OpenStreetMap, Including Highways and Trails

OpenStreetMap exports provide a free, collaborative road network for Canada. The data includes all features tagged with `highway`, such as motorways, residential streets, and footways. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas typically well-mapped and remote areas potentially incomplete.

Use Cases

• Calculate optimal routes for navigation based on the comprehensive highway tag hierarchy.
• Analyze accessibility to services and infrastructure based on the network of roads and trails.
• Plan for disaster response and evacuation using the mapped road network.
• Conduct transportation and land-use studies leveraging the volunteered geographic information.

Strengths

• Covers all OpenStreetMap features tagged with `highway`, a broad category.
• Available in multiple geospatial file formats including GEOPACKAGE, SHP, and JSON.
• Data is licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL-1.0), allowing for sharing and adaptation.

Limitations

• Completeness varies by region; remote areas may be incomplete.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is in the future (2026-05-17).

Provenance

Source

OpenStreetMap

Collection Method

Volunteer-contributed mapping and exported by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-17 09:10:36.029378; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canada