National Highway Network System of Canada (NHNS)
In addition to Russia's road network, I also worked a little on Canada's. It just so happens that there is no national level designation of roads. All roads in the country are governed and maintained by each province respectively. This is because Canada is a confederation; it is a union of "countries" so to speak. This extends much beyond roads (drinking age, education, almost everything), but I focused on making some sort of national road system. Unlike the United States that have a national freeway network, this is a network of roads that span the country; some are freeway sections, others aren't. Canada is too sparsely populated to have a full network of freeways.
Like many other projects on this website, this is not a client project; I created this simply for myself.
Highway Shield
When creating the design of the shield, I wanted to make it practical and unique. Quebec has Autoroutes which have shields with an identical colour scheme to Interstate highway shields in the United States.
I considered making European-style rectangular markers, but I understood that this is not a very accepted idea here. In the Americas road markers are always in the form of an iconographic shield. However, I still use European-style shields as a condensed form.
Note the French "Nationale" title on the N-18 shield.
I used the fully-rounded bullet shield that is used on the Trans-Canada Highway in Newfoundland and Labrador and colour it red. I tend to think that national-level road systems should be coloured either red or blue; no other colour is acceptable.
Due to the close ties with Canada's neighbour to the south, the numbering system was kept the same as with Interstate highways and auxiliary Interstate highways.
New signage
Later, I added another very important sign that is used globally, but not in North America. Signs indicating the beginning of a freeway or limited access road are crucial because this lets drivers know about what is expected of them on the road ahead. All informational/directional signs are green, so I made these green as well.
The blue sign is an alternate variant for provinces to choose should they prefer it (Québec, je parle de vous).
Reorganization of Road Hierarchy
In addition to a national network with special signage, I also desired to create a more organized classification system for roads in each province, as a "default" system for all roads in Canada. The idea was inspired by the way roads are organized in a few European countries, especially Finland.
For Canada, I had the idea of using a three-digit number for all provincial-level highways. National roads, along with their auxiliaries would be fixed one-, two, or three-digit numbers, while provincial highways would always have three numbers. Hierarchy of provincial roads would be determined by the first digit in a road number.
As well as numbering, I had some thoughts about perhaps creating a signage style for controlled-access highways, hence the section.
Alternate Shield Style (The New Maple)
After about two years of not working on this project I began to work with the problem of the Trans Canada Highway marker, and how it can be reimagined on a 1:2 triangular grid as a simplified, geometric form. The thing is, shapes don't need to be complex on road signs – otherwise they look like white blobs from a distance (why I dislike many US state highway shields). With this new form, as opposed to the current, more detailed one, a driver in the distance will see this form approximate to a maple leaf.
Another benefit of remastering an existing concept is that people will remain familiar with it, which is relevant for massive changes such as this.
Furthermore, it's fully expandable, unlike it's current version and even my NHNS shield, which makes it extra useful for provinces with large TCH numbers (104 in New Brunswick, for instance) and also allows for easy auxiliary numbers in the NHNS numeration system.
Signage Samples
Example signage (including distance to exit, like in Europe).
Provincial Network: Ontario
Highway 400 north of Barrie splitting away with the road continuing as Highway 11.
The Simplification of Ontario's Highway Shields
Ontario's primary highway shields are white with black lettering. They can also appear as a simplified silhouette of a St. Edward's crown on a green background when used for signs, or a curved bullet shield with a very complex St. Edward's crown when used as reassurance markers. They can also appear green with white text to indicate that a road is leading to that particular highway (both in shield and crown form). This variety of appearances of provincial highway shields in Ontario is major design flaw.
While spending endless hours on Google Street View, I noticed that the many of the Canadian provincial shields are in the shape of a traditional, British heraldic shield. Most often they are simplified to a to a straight-edged bullet shield. Other provinces round it at the bottom (Autoroutes in Quebec, Ontario primary highway reassurance shields) or even make it fully-rounded, with no vertex where the two sides meet (British Columbia).
I decided to go ahead and use the straight-edge bullet because of it's geometric properties. It can be expanded to any width without space for characters being limited (unlike in a rounded bullet shield).
The standard shield for two-digit routes.
A wider shield, using a condensed version of the FHWA font.
Another wide shield, but without the header "ON" label, simplified for use on overhead signs.
Ontario's 407 Express Toll Route shield, as it is often depicted, with a blue background.
Google Maps Mockups
I decided to keep ON-407 blue of its special status as a toll road. This is simply an experimental visualization.
ON-404 at Steeles Ave. in Toronto, Ontario.