Roads layer (transportation)

The roads layer contains comprehensive transportation data, encompassing various types like highways, major and minor roads, paths, railways, and ferries. For example, this dataset is important in fleet management applications, ensuring vehicles comply with regulations by following approved routes and restrictions.

The following figure illustrates an example of a road rendered from vector data:

The layer content has the following definition:

• Layer name: roads
• Geometry types: line, point

The following sections provide an overview of the roads layer in the HERE Vector Tile API.

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Note

When working with the roads layer, consider the following design features and restrictions:

• To accurately represent layered overpasses, bridges, and tunnels, ensure to apply the sort_rank for proper layering.
• To improve performance, some road segments are merged at low and medium zoom values. This means that certain properties are removed at those zoom levels, for example, is_bridge and is_tunnel, name, network, oneway, and ref. The exact zoom level at which a property is no longer relevant varies by feature class.
• The Advanced Roads layer expands upon the roads layer by providing specialized information specifically designed to meet the requirements of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). For more information, see Advanced roads layer.

Shared properties

Every feature in the roads layer includes a set of properties that define it, regardless of the specific type of road it represents.

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Note

These properties are referred to as common properties in the Tilezen schema. For more information, see Tile layers.

• name - The name of the road,in the local language. The name might be provided in multiple languages, depending on the the available data.
• kind - The general type of road. For more information, see Kind values for the roads layer.
• kind_detail - Additional details about the kind of road. For example, the minor_road kind can have residential, service, or unclassified kind_detail values. For more information, see kind_detail values for the roads layer.
• landuse_kind - Property calculated by intercutting roads with the landuse layer to determine if a road segment is over a park, hospital, university or other landuse feature. Use this property to modify the visual appearance of roads over these features. For example, light grey minor roads might not be legible over most landuse colors unless darkened.
• sort_rank - A value used to prioritize the display order of different types of features on the map. A feature with a higher sort_rank value is displayed on top of a feature with a lower sort_rank value. At zoom level 14 and higher, sort_rank is adjusted to realistically model bridges and tunnels. For example, for an is_bridge=true feature, the sort_rank value at zoom level 13 is 337, while at zoom level 14 the sort_rank value changes to 427.
• min_zoom - Indicates the suggested minimum zoom level at which a roads becomes visible.
• ref - A commonly used reference for a roads feature, for example, "I 90" for Interstate 90. To use with shields, see the network and shield_text property definitions.
• network - Useful for shields and road selections, for example, US:I for the United States Interstate network. The property contains only road network types. For a full list of available values, see Road network values.
• shield_text - Refers to the text displayed on a road shield. For example, consider the I 90 road, which belongs to the US:I network and has a shield_text of 90. While the ref value (I 90) contains additional information, it might not be as suitable for direct shield display without further processing. For certain roads, this property can contain non-numeric characters. For example, the UK's M1 motorway has a shield_text value of M1 rather than just 1.
• all_shield_texts - Lists all the shield texts associated with the particular road. These texts are presented as a collection of shield_text values separated by semicolons. For further details, see the shield_text property definition.
• all_networks - All the networks associated with the particular road. These networks are presented as a collection of network values separated by semicolons. For further details, see the network property definition.
• all_route_types - Various route types that encompass the specified road. These types are represented as a series of numeric codes, separated by semicolons. These codes are used for shield styling based on the country's specifications.
• all_refs - encompasses all the references associated with this road. These references are presented as a sequence of ref values separated by semicolons. For further details, see the ref property definition.

Conditional properties

Some roads features include properties that are provide additional information, for example, whether a particular road is a part of a tunnel, a bridge, and so on.

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Note

These properties are referred to as common-optional properties in the Tilezen schema. For more information, see Tile layers.

• is_bridge - Set to true and present only if the road is part of a bridge.
• is_link - Set to true and present only if the road is part of a highway link or ramp.
• is_tunnel - Set to true and present only if the road is part of a tunnel.
• is_present_in_landuse - Indicates whether the road has a detailed polygonal representation within various landuse categories, such as expressway, urban_expressway, national_road, major_road, or other_road. Alternatively, it might be formed as an area not covered by specific landuse categories for minor roads. This property exists solely within the core map parameter and has limited coverage for Japan at zoom level 14. facilitates the filtering of road centerlines while displaying comprehensive road geometries derived from landuse data. For more information, see Polygonal roads.
• is_present_in_city - Set to true if the rail is integrated into the city rail network. This property is available exclusively within the core map parameter, with restricted coverage applicable to Japan at zoom 14 and higher. Rails possessing this property are solely employed for labeling purposes when displaying line geometries derived from the city rail network. This property is applicable only to the rail kind.
• pedestrian_zone - Set to true if a pedestrian road is part of a pedestrian zone.
• public_access - Set to true if the public has an official and legally protected right to access the element.
• private - Set to true if the element is not open to the public, and access is only granted with individual permission.
• delivery_road - Set to true if access to the element is only allowed when making deliveries to it.
• through_traffic - Set to true if passage is permitted through the road exclusively when both the origin and destination points are situated outside the current road.
• fclass - This property indicates a functional class numeric value for roads with kind_detail:motorway and kind_detail:motorway_link. For more information, see fclass values.
• under_construction - Set to true and present when the road is under construction and may not be accessible to some or all types of traffic.
• surface - Set to unpaved and present only if the road is unpaved.
• oneway - An optional property that indicates if traffic is one-way and travels in the same direction as the linestring. This property can only have the yes value.
• toll - An optional boolean property that indicates if a fee must be paid by general traffic to use the feature. This property can only have the true value.
• z_level - An optional property to manage the loading and rendering order of features on the map, mirroring the above/below relationships observed in reality. If the property is absent, it defaults to a value of 0. Roads with higher z_level should be drawn after roads with smaller values. The current allowable range for z_level values is -4 to 5.

The following figure illustrates a map featuring sample features with varying z_level values. This example showcases how features with a higher z_level value are depicted "above" features with a lower z_level value.

kind values for the roads layer

The following list provides detailed explanations for each available type of the roads layer feature, and the supported geometry type:

kind_detail values for the roads layer

The following table provides the kind_detail values that can provide additional information about a road kind:

service values for kind_detail: service

The roads with kind:minor_road and kind_detail:service can have the following additional property:

• parking_aisle - Typically refers to the designated area within a parking lot or structure that serves as the driving lane for accessing parking spaces.

Japan-specific kind_detail values

The following table provides Japan-specific kind_detail values within the core map. For more information, see Map parameter.

• light_rail - for the rail kind
• subway - for the rail kind
• speed_rail - for high-speed railroads with the rail kind
• private_rail - for privately owned railroads with the rail kind
• state_rail - for state-owned railroads with the rail kind
• monorail - for monorails with the rail kind
• roller_coaster - for roller coaster with the rail kind
• cable_car - for the aerialway kind
• gondola - for the aerialway kind

fclass values

Roads in the HERE Vector Tile API are traditionally categorized into so-called functional classes, which do not match one-to-one Tilezen's roads categorization. The mapping from one to the other are as follows.

Japan-specific fclass values

The following table provides Japan-specific fclass values within the core map. For more information, see Map parameter.

Next steps

• For more information about other layer feature types available in the HERE Vector Tile API, see Tile layers.