Nice to see pages migrating across to Wazeopedia.
Regarding Australian Road Names: How many of the traditional signs are still in use?
I know Tourist Roads still exist, but certainly in NSW the National Highway, National Route (and Alternate), State Route and Metroads have been completely replaced by M/A/B route numbers and signage. I had thought the same was true in other states, but am open to correction.
Also, for the roads with alphanumeric routing, the naming convention has changed slightly. Besides the primary name as given, weâre also adding alternate names:
- Route number by itself - this is to support long-distance navigation/route finding algorithm in Waze
- Road name without the route number - with a city name where appropriate (i.e. short segments that have destinations on them), without one otherwise (e.g. Hume Hwy, no city; Newell Hwy, no city; Newell Hwy, Dubbo). This is to allow navigating to addresses on a numbered route, particularly where there is no separate name for the road in the town.
- Where two numbered routes intersect, add the route numbers for both routes on the intersecting segments (or on any ramp that joins them), other than roundabouts.
For example, this segment of B72 in Cooma has five names in total:
- Primary: B72 - Snowy Mountains Hwy, no city
- Sharp St, Cooma (i.e. street name before it was part of a numbered route - useful for street addresses like 137 Sharp St)
- B72, no city (route number, for navigating)
- Snowy Mountains Hwy, Cooma (less useful here, but may be used by people wanting to enter a start/end without a property number or not knowing the local street name, also if someone happens to advertise address with house number using the Highway name rather than the local street name)
- B23, no city (also for long distance navigation, because this segment meets at a junction with B23 Monaro Hwy).
The letters arenât used on many signs I have seen. However based on the article I have matched the signs to:
Hume Highway - closest to M31 picture (no white rectangle on Wiki)
Federal Highway closer to the NM23 than M23 but doesnât actual have the âMâ
All have White Shield still
Northbourne Ave matches NR23
Canberra Ave matches NR23
Majura Parkway ALTNR23
Illawarra Highway - pretty close to A48 (white box not on Wiki)
Imagery is all within 6 months.
PS See NSW Forum for discussion on Road type of Hume Highway
Having been in southern Queensland recently, I noticed that a lot of the signage there still uses the old designations. Occasionally I saw a âshield on a stickâ with the new designation, but the old designations seemed to be the most common⌠which is enough to answer my original question, the old designations are still in use and shouldnât be removed yet.
I have found an issue with the method for generating shields. The Hume Freeway between Wodonga and Violet Town has been labelled âNM31 - Hume Fwyâ presumably to get the shield with the gold border as shown here.
The problem is that âNM31â is displayed on the Waze maps and TTS includes the âNâ, eg, âTurn on to en-em 31.â This is confusing to drivers as they donât see the âNâ on any signs.
I just remembered that I had correspondence with a person from the Qld Department of Transport and Main Roads last year. Here is a link to the response that I received. It sounds like some non-state controlled routes may not be signed and that the old roadside markers were phased out when the MUTCD was updated in 2009 (part 15, Clause 4.2.5). The Qld MUTCD can be found here and part 15 is available here.
The following is what Clause 4.2.5 is referring to:
I think that the practice of maintaining old route numbers until being replaced with alphanumeric numbers would apply to all States, not just Qld. It might be best to do something similar by continuing to display route numbers until we start to notice that they have been replaced.
All of the signage that Iâve seen on the Hume Fwy between Wodonga and Melb. still has the National shield but itâs labelled in Waze as âM31â from Violet Town to Melb. and âNM31â for the other half.
Thanks for your post Tim, and Iâm sorry for the delay responding. ituajr recently queried where the advice for changing to this naming convention came from and I recall from Discord you quoted a document. Can you share that and the rationale for that with the community here, and can ituajr see if he can get that verified by someone in Waze as correct?
If itâs thumbs up, can we get the naming expectations added to the wiki page you quoted with some more forceful language around the naming convention being the expectation?
Good work all! 
Sorry, itâs taken me a while to find the document in question - mtbwill provided a link in this post.
1 Like
Thanks, Tim! I also see you added this to the âAustralian Road Namesâ wiki page in June under âJunctions between two numbered routesâ.