Any GIS nerds here that have access to road data including speed limits? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any GIS nerds here that have access to road data including speed limits?

Motorcycle Mike

Well-known member
This is probably a long shot, but I was just wondering if anyone here had access to some sort of road database that includes the speed limit as an attribute? It doesn't really matter what format... ArcGIS, Mapinfo, whatever...

The purpose is that I was thinking today that I would like to filter out all roads that are less than 70kph limits and all roads 100kph or higher. By doing so, I could plot routes that avoided major highways, but also avoided routes with small town after small town.

I found some freely available road data online, but none of it had speed limit data as an attribute.

I wish my GPS had an 'avoid city' mode.


EDIT... I might have found something at GeoBase... looking into it now.
 
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I have road data from geobase.ca. It doesn't have speed limits as an attribute but it does differentiate road category ie highway, collector, arterial, local. Based on that, I'm sure you can come up with your own way of avoiding certain roads
 
I have road data from geobase.ca. It doesn't have speed limits as an attribute but it does differentiate road category ie highway, collector, arterial, local. Based on that, I'm sure you can come up with your own way of avoiding certain roads


I just downloaded the GeoBase data too, now I have to remember how to do this.

The last software I used was ArcGIS... about 10 years ago, so to say I am rusty is an understatement. Any suggestions what program I should use that would allow me display and filter shape file?
 
I use ArcGIS 10.1

It's not so much the shape files you want to filter but the attributes. I don't know of any free programs that allow you to build attribute queries but I'll see what I can do.
 
I opened up the Roads shapefile in Qgis.

I looks like they added a Speed field, however every road is classified as -1 (unknown)

Speed Restriction
The maximum speed allowed on the road. The value is expressed in kilometers per
hour
Domain: -1 when unknown or a multiple of 5 lower than or equal to 120
Data Type: Integer

Right now I am working on filtering out everything but the arterial roads and see if that gives me anything useful. If not, I'll try arterial and collectors.

I suspect this is not going to yield what I am looking for, as I saw a lot of gravel roads listed as local roads even though most gravel roads have 80kph speed limits, and I use them often in my routes.
 
I don't think you'll be able to accomplish your goal of filtering by speed limit to avoid towns. Main roads still have their speed limit drop when entering towns
 
I don't think you'll be able to accomplish your goal of filtering by speed limit to avoid towns. Main roads still have their speed limit drop when entering towns

Yeah, I know, that is part of the problem.

Next attempt I'm going to try and remove all municipal roads... but that won't work either as provincial roads still run through cities and in many cases their speed limit drops.

I think I need to find a data set that has speed limits in the database, once that is available this will be easy.
 
I've never come across anything with a speed limit in it but I hope you do.
 
I've never come across anything with a speed limit in it but I hope you do.

I think it is lacking in the Canadian data at the moment.

The minute I cross the border my GPS can warn me when I am breaking the speed limit because speed limit information is part of the data.

I'll likely have to wait until the next version of road data comes out from geobase. I think the latest one they have up there is 2012, so hopefully they release an updated version soon.

Many years back, like 15 years or so, I used to work for the MTO in the GIS department -- too bad I didn't still have contacts there to get their current databases.
 
I'm a GIS technician with a municipal government and we don't have speed limits in our data.
 
Speed limits show up in the TomTom app but they are not always accurate. Did not notice that they were missing in Canada.

Also some of the small towns really are like 4 houses in the US and don't detract much from the ride. I must admit Winding Roads did an excellent job of getting out and around Orleans last time but I could not for the life of me recreate.
Really have to put the tracker app on when I go next time.

•••

I wish my GPS had an 'avoid city' mode

If you have an iPhone as well as the GPS TomTom's Winding roads will generally avoid towns, can be set for avoid highways and gravel can be avoided or not.
Results in a nice route nearly always but you don't know ahead of time. :rolleyes:
 
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Speed limits show up in the TomTom app but they are not always accurate. Did not notice that they were missing in Canada.

Also some of the small towns really are like 4 houses in the US and don't detract much from the ride. I must admit Winding Roads did an excellent job of getting out and around Orleans last time but I could not for the life of me recreate.
Really have to put the tracker app on when I go next time.

•••



If you have an iPhone as well as the GPS TomTom's Winding roads will generally avoid towns, can be set for avoid highways and gravel can be avoided or not.
Results in a nice route nearly always but you don't know ahead of time. :rolleyes:


How does winding roads work in Southern Ontario though, for example?

I often ride to Stratford to visit my parents, and I hate taking the 401. I also equally hate going through Kitchener, Guelph, or Cambridge.

I have plotted two country routes that get me to/from Stratford missing nearly all cities, but it took a bit of work and a bit of investigating. It is challenging because there is essentially only one or two roads between Cambridge and Guelph that are not residential, and then I have to veer slightly North to miss the top end of Waterloo. I still end up hitting Conostogo and a bit of St. Jacobs, but not much.

On the Southern route there is only one or two roads (and only two bridges) over the Grand River between Cambridge and Ayr and then Paris. Some of those roads are still reduced to between 40 and 70kph for no other reason that I can see other than rich NIMBYs canvassed to have the speed limits reduced on their roads.

When I try to head East while avoiding any residential area, it is even worse. About the best I can do is head up to #9 and cross Newmarket on either county road 31 or up to county road 19. Only with those two options could I avoid residential mess or 401 nightmares.

As you see, the routes that I mean have little to do with winding roads, it is about avoiding most residential areas. I don't mind towns that reduce me to 35mph for 1/2 a mile, and then I am back on my way. I want to plot decent routes through possible hidden bypasses to avoid places like Newmarket, Barrie, Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge, and other such sprawling urban centers.
 
I can only tell you the results of the algorithms ends with very few towns. Obviously the fewer the road options the more towns will be inevitable.

For instance the Grand River acts as barrier funneling roads into towns.

You are in no way forced to take the suggested route and it recalculates if you decide to go poke into another corner or ignore it's selection and stay on a main route.

It's the surprises that are such a treat....and no poring over maps. Just get out and ride.

No matter where I wander it will keep me going in the general direction of my destination...if it gets late in the day I just switch to fastest route - no rentry of destination etc.
 
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So really winding roads has absolutely nothing to do with what I asked.

I asked for map data so I could narrow my routes to 80 or 90kph roads with the purpose of avoiding residential areas. Nowhere in anything I posted here did I ask about winding roads, in fact, if the roads I am taking are gravel, I don't want them to wind at all.

Yet, in typical MacDoc fashion, you need to pollute yet another thread with your advertising for winding roads, tom tom, and apple products. I am surprised there wasn't a comment about how if I were on a Burgman I wouldn't bother avoiding residential areas.
 
Garmin data contains road speed limits for major roads in Canada. Not sure how you can get access to that data though.
 
How does winding roads work in Southern Ontario though, for example?

Was that you or your nice doppelganger that slipped in?

you are the one that asked. I answered based on what I use. You don't like it ...move on.
Guess riding buddy was right :rolleyes:

Winding Roads is only available on iPhone or TomToms own GPS - go gripe at TomTom for that.
I use lots of other apps such as MotionX products which you can explore for yourself.

http://gps.motionx.com

only available for iPhone......guess you are SOL.
 
This is probably a long shot, but I was just wondering if anyone here had access to some sort of road database that includes the speed limit as an attribute? It doesn't really matter what format... ArcGIS, Mapinfo, whatever...

The purpose is that I was thinking today that I would like to filter out all roads that are less than 70kph limits and all roads 100kph or higher. By doing so, I could plot routes that avoided major highways, but also avoided routes with small town after small town.

I found some freely available road data online, but none of it had speed limit data as an attribute.

I wish my GPS had an 'avoid city' mode.


EDIT... I might have found something at GeoBase... looking into it now.

I doubt that you will find many interesting roads (especially in Southern Ontario) that don't have a small town at the ends of them. Realize most roads are built to connect towns. The sheer lack of density up north means that most roads are based on ways to get to towns, and in the Southern area the density alone means that you will tend to almost always come across towns. In some case there are small towns that are by-passed so that you don't come across them as often but this isn't the norm. This is also pretty much true in most areas of the US I have been in. There are more scenic roads down there that are built just for sight seeing but still most roads connect towns.

I know it doesn't help when you are in a hurry or just don't want to waste time but these little towns often ad to the flavour and charm of the roads.

As a little footnote my Garmin 660 has speed limits for many roads in Ontario. These tend to be more well-traveled roads though.

..Tom
 
Yeah - any farming area will generally have small towns at intersections but I'm always surprised in the US how far you can go on the back roads ( sometime dismayingly so when low on fuel ) without any sign of civi other than farms.

Especially in Amish country. I concur the very small towns add interest and sometimes a good feed ( Corner Cafe in Ulysses )

Of course parts of the outback in Aus you can go a horrendous long way not seeing a car or person ...think the US with 5% of the population.
 
I doubt Garmin will release their GIS data. It's how they earn their bucks
 
Was that you or your nice doppelganger that slipped in?

I asked that follow up question just to see if winding roads actually had anything to offer in this situation as I was trying to figure out why you posted a solution that had nothing to do with my original question, but I guess it doesn't.

Thanks for coming out though.

To give a better idea of exactly what I am trying to do, see the image of the route I have attached. Basically it is the shortest and fastest route between two points avoiding freeways. Nearly every road used has a 80kph speed limit, but I avoid towns by turning off (basically a left-right tour) before hitting the next town down the road.

If I ever find the data I am looking for, I want to develop an algorithm that can generate this for me, not manually like I did this one. I posted this thread on the off-chance that someone here might have access to that data. I knew Mathew worked as a GIS tech and had access to road data, but his road data doesn't contain the attribute I need.

Anyway, thanks for any helpful comments made.

stratford.jpg
 

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