How to label and name roads (Ireland)

This page covers road names for Ireland. For other countries see this page.

Introduction

See the following forum posts for discussion:

• Road Labelling
• Carriageway Labelling

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations should be considered to conserve screen space.

Notes:

1. Roads like "The Avenue", "The Green" etc should not normally be abbreviated.
2. TTS = Text To Speech for supported countries.

Road Types

The following convention should be followed as far as possible. This includes where major and minor routes pass through towns.

See the following from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_roads_in_Ireland): "The Roads Act 1993 gives local authorities the duty to "assign a number or other identifying mark to each local road in respect of which it has responsibility". Local Road numbers have been used for administrative purposes since the Act came into effect, but Local Road numbers did not generally appear on directional signposts until the late 2000s. Most road-maps do not show Local Road numbers, although some are marked on OpenStreetMap. Local roads are classified by the road authority for the area as Local Primary, Local Secondary or Local Tertiary roads. The Local Primary roads are numbered from L1000 - L4999. Local Secondary Roads are numbered from L5000 - L8999. Local Tertiary roads are numbered from L10001 - L89999, with the first four digits representing the Local Primary or Secondary Road it is off. Local Tertiary Roads which are unrelated to a Local Primary or Secondary Road are numbered from L90000 upwards. Local Roads are divided into segments of 2 kilometres to 3 kilometres maximum. For this reason they serve a limited function as the applicable L road number generally ends at junctions with other local roads. The numbering systems are not widely known to the public. However they must be made available to the public on request in accordance with section 10 of the Roads Act 1993. Unlike National and Regional Roads in Ireland, Local Road numbers are not unique. For example, there is an L1001 in Inch, Co Wexford, another L1001 in Limerick and a third in Longford. There are various unrelated roads numbered L1002 across Wexford, Kildare and Meath."

Broadly speaking the Local Primaries are Primary Streets; the Local Secondaries are Streets and the Local Tertiaries are Dirt Roads but users should use their best judgement when occasionally this doesn't produce useful results. Remember that Primary Streets do not disappear when you zoom out - if you have too many, the map becomes cluttered.

Road Names for Numbered Roads

If you are adding a local name to a numbered road then the number should be first and separated from the name i.e. "R126 Hearse Rd"

Naming local roads by the townlands is acceptable and probably of more use as this makes these addresses searchable. The non-uniqueness of L numbers and the lack of knowledge of them makes them of dubious value.

Motorway Carriageway Naming Convention

Whenever possible, on split roads, name carriageways with the direction of travel. Insert the direction of travel at the end of the road name; e.g.,

• M1 N
• M50 S

This makes traffic and incident reports much more useful and helps with navigation.