A highway shield or route marker is a sign denoting the route number of a highway, usually in the form of a symbolic shape with the route number enclosed. As the focus of the sign, the route number is usually the sign's largest element, with other items on the sign rendered in smaller sizes or contrasting colors. Highway shields are used by travellers, commuters, and all levels of government for identifying, navigating, and organising routes within a given jurisdiction. Simplified highway shields often appear on maps.
Purposes
There are several distinct uses for the highway shield: Junction signs inform travelers that they are approaching an intersection with a numbered highway. Guide signs inform travelers which way to go at intersections, usually with an arrow pointing the way. These include: Directional assemblies, which combine highway shields with separate cardinal direction signs and arrow signs on the same post, and Direction, position, or indication signs, which include highway shields as part of the sign legend. Reassurance markers are used after major junctions and periodically in between to confirm the route and direction. Trailblazer assemblies are posted on other roadways to "blaze the trail" to the highway in question, usually with a "TO" banner plate above the shield Some jurisdictions place highway shields on highway location markers (kilometre or mile markers). At complex interchanges, route shield pavement markings help motorists get into the correct lane.
Comparison table International (style may vary according to local country): Trans-African Highway network: International E-road network: Asian Highway Network: Arab Mashreq International Road Network: Pan-American Highway:
National:
Controlled-access highway Primary route(usually called National/Federal Highway/Route) Other routes(usually called Regional/County/etc. Route) Andorra Not present Carretera secundaria Albania Armenia Argentina Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Cambodia ផ្លាកសញ្ញាផ្លូវល្បឿនលឿន ផ្លាកសញ្ញាផ្លូវជាតិ Central African Republic Not present Chile China Colombia Croatia Cuba / / Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Uses E-road or primary route signs Ecuador Estonia Not present Finland France (Corsica) Georgia Germany L 1 K 1 Ghana Greece Hungary India National expressway National highway State highway Indonesia Iran Ireland Motorway National road Regional road Israel Italy Japan /// ///The term depends on the type of prefecture, and the upper inscription on the shield changes to reflect this. Jordan Kazakhstan Kosovo Laos Latvia Not present Lithuania 1 Luxembourg French term is also used in Luxembourgish. Malaysia Mexico Moldova Not present Montenegro Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand State Highway Nicaragua North Macedonia Norway Uses E-road or primary route signs Pakistan Paraguay Peru Philippines Expressway National road Poland PortugalA 1IP 1 IC 1 N 1 R 1 Romania Russia (Avtodoroga) (Marshrut) Serbia Singapore Expressway Slovenia South Africa National route South Korea Spain Sweden Uses E-road or primary route signs Switzerland 1 Taiwan Thailand Turkey Ukraine (Avtoshlyakh) United Kingdom Motorway A-road B-road United States Interstate Highway U.S. Numbered Highway State HighwayExact terminology varies by state or territory. Shown here is the default marker from the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, but most jurisdictions use a different design specific to their area. Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam
Outside the table, some countries also have dedicated shields for local roads or municipal-level highways: Albania: Finland: Local road / Ireland: Local road / Italy: Latvia: Portugal: M 500 Spain:
Highway shields by country
Australia
Australia has maintained distinctly different trends pertaining to highway shields in the past and will continue in this vein somewhat, despite the conversion to alpha-numeric routes and shields. Alpha-numeric route numbering has been in use in Tasmania since the 1970s, and was introduced in the mainland states from 1996, with the state of Victoria being the first to implement the policy on the mainland.
Prior to this conversion and concurrently, Federal Highway (gold-on-green squared-off bullet), National Highway (black-on-white squared-off bullet), State Highway (blue bullet) and Tourist Route (white-on-brown rounded pentagon) shields existed. In Victoria Freeway shields were used (white-on-green with 'F' prefix) until the late 1980s, while during the 1990s Queensland and New South Wales implemented a hexagonal blue-on-white Metroad system of urban arterial routes. The Western Ring Road (now M80) in Melbourne initially used a shield quite similar to the U.S. Interstate shield, albeit with 'Ring Road' written instead of 'Interstate' and with 2 peaks rather than 3.
To further complicate matters, with the introduction of the alpha-numeric system, roads that are federally funded (or Federal Highways) have a squared-off bullet encompassing the alpha-numeric designation. Freeways and dual-carriageway roads often use an 'M' prefix, particularly in Victoria. In addition, trapezoidal signs are placed every 5 km on major regional highways and freeways indicating the distance to the post office of the next city or major town on the route. These signs usually only have the first letter of the destination; two or three letters are used if there is ambiguity between nearby towns or when the place name consists of two words.
Brazil
Federal and state highways shields are standardized in Brazil by the National Transit Department (DENATRAN), but implementation is not always consistent nor even existent. In many states, highway names appear on highway location markers and guide signs with no highway shield.
Canada
Each province dictates the type of shields used as highway transportation is a provincial responsibility. However, the green and white signage for the Trans-Canada Highway is used nationwide. Each province has their own shape for the sign, though.
Alberta
Shields for core highways in Alberta use black route number on a white squared-off bullet, while shields for local highways (500-986) use black route number on a white oval. Both variants feature the provincial wordmark across the top, although it may be omitted on certain guide signs.
British Columbia
Standard shields for highways in British Columbia use blue route number on a white bullet, with the provincial shield of arms placed at the top. Certain highways (e.g. Crowsnest Highway, Southern Yellowhead Highway and Nisga'a Highway) use their own variations on the default provincial highway shield.
Ontario Major or 400-series highways in Ontario have different kinds of shields depending on usage: Roadside reassurance markers take the shape of a bullet with a crown on top. Default colour scheme is black text on white background, although the Queen Elizabeth Way uses blue "QEW" on gold, and provincially maintained toll highways (407, 412 and 418) use white route numbers on blue. These shields used to be emblazoned with "The King's Highway" across the top, but the wording has been removed since the 1990s. Markers on guide signs take the shape of a crown silhouette, with the route number placed within.
The exception is the private 407 Express Toll Route, which uses black route number on a white oval marker for both purposes.
Secondary provincial highways use an isosceles trapezoid as markers, while tertiary provincial highway markers use a rectangle with rounded corners.
Numbered roads maintained by Ontario's counties, regional municipalities and single-tier municipalities use an inverted isosceles trapezoid as markers. The default colour scheme is black text on a white background, although certain jurisdictions use their own colour combinations (e.g. white on blue in Niagara, gold on black in Peel, and gold on green in Halton).
On the other hand, instead of an inverted trapezoid, the single-tier city of Toronto uses a roundel for its municipally maintained freeways, the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway. The design is two-tone gold-on-green, with the road name in white on the green outer ring, and either the cardinal direction (for reassurance markers) or an arrow (for guidance to the freeway) in black on the gold inner disc. The city's other roads, such as Allen Road, do not have their own shields.
Quebec Shields for controlled-access autoroutes in Quebec use white route number on a blue bullet, with a white stylised drawing of a dual carriageway and an overpass on red across the top. Other provincial routes use white route number on a green French shield with three white fleur-de-lys across the top, while forest routes use white route number on a blue French shield with three white stylised trees across the top.
Mainland China In mainland China, highway shields use specific letter designations to indicate the administrative level of the road, as outlined by the "Highway Route Signage Rules and National Road Numbering" (GB/T 917-2017). The designations are:
G (GUO): National highways, which include national expressways and general national roads. S (SHENG): Provincial roads, covering both provincial expressways and general provincial roads. X (XIAN): County roads. Y: A designation for rural roads, used when county identifiers overlap. C (CUN): Village roads. Z (ZHUAN): Special-use roads.
For general roads (like general national and provincial roads, county, village, and special-use roads), the shield displays the administrative letter "G(S/X/Y/C/Z)" followed by a three-digit number. National expressways specifically have shields that begin with the letter "G". For main arteries like radial roads from the capital, north-south vertical roads, east-west horizontal roads, and regional ring roads, the shield shows "G" followed by up to two digits. For bypasses, connecting roads, and parallel roads, the shield combines the "G" designation with a two-digit main line number, a type identifier, and a sequence number.
Provincial expressways start with the letter "S". The main arteries and city bypass/connecting road shields display the "S" followed by up to two or two digits, respectively. These provincial expressway shields typically have a yellow background with black characters, showing the province's abbreviation followed by "Expressway", like "Su Expressway" for Jiangsu or "Zhe Expressway" for Zhejiang. In provinces with dense provincial expressway networks, like Guangdong, where S1-S99 cannot cover all roads, shorter connecting roads may use an "S" followed by a four-digit number.
National expressways (国道) feature a red background at the top of their shields, indicating their status as national routes. Provincial expressways (省道) have a yellow background at the top. All other road categories use a white background for their shields.
Germany German Autobahns as the nation's federal controlled-access highway system use a blue shield with slanted edges and white lettering. Other federal highways use a yellow shield with black lettering. The color schemes mirror the country's directional signage coloring system on these two types of roads.
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Strategic Route and Exit Number System states that the standard shield should consist of a yellow, bullet-shaped shield with the route number in black color. It is used on all numbered routes in Hong Kong.
Japan