Map colours

Marcel Monterie

Last updated 24-2-2007

Summary
Explanation
Scale
Table
Statistics

Summary

I have more or less arbitrarily selected 100 maps and atlases (or series) and noted which colours are used for motorways and other main roads. The selection is somewhat biased by the fact that my map collection has a strong weight on Germany and German maps. It turns out that for motorways, red lines with yellow is the most popular style (31 %). Other main roads are most often represented as single red lines (63 %).

Explanation of table

Motorways are often represented by two lines, with a different colour in between. Other roads usually appear as single lines. In the table below, outline and centre colours are given for motorways and for the highest class of main roads (not dual carriageways). Often, the lines actually have thin grey or black lines on the edge, or in the middle. This is ignored, unless these are in sharp contrast with the main colours. Examples:

outline	centre	case	example
red	yellow	standard
blue	white	thin white centre line mentioned explicitly
red	yellow	double
yellow	-	thin grey outline ignored
red	-	thin black lines ignored

est = estimated year of publication

Most maps distinguish between motorways and other roads, but some display other roads with motorway characteristics (expressways) in the same way as motorways.

Scale

City maps typically have different colours than smaller scale road maps. The table below only contains only 8 city maps.

Table

Origin country	Publisher/ Description	Area	Year	Main scale 1:	Motorways		Highest class main roads		Remarks
Origin country	Publisher/ Description	Area	Year	Main scale 1:	outline	centre	outline	centre	Remarks
USA	AAA	North America	1997	various	dark red	-	red
D	ADAC	UA	2005	750000	red	yellow	red
D	ADAC Profiatlas	A	2004	100000	red	yellow	red
D	ADAC Profiatlas	D	2001	100000	red	yellow	red
USA	AME	USA - Georgia	1994	1064000	red	-	black
NL	AND	EU	2000	2000000	red	yellow	green
NL	ANWB	NL	1994	100000	red	yellow	red
NL	ANWB	NL - noord	1988	200000	blue	white	red
F	ANWB / IGN	F	1993	250000	blue	-	orange
NL	ANWB routekaart	D / DK	1990	672000	red	white	red
D	Aral	D	1994	400000	blue	white	red
D	Aral / Busche	EST / LV / LT	est 1996	750000	blue	white	red
D	BZ	D	2003	300000	red	yellow	red
H	Cartographia	H - Budapest	1986	28000	yellow	-	yellow
H	Cartographia	RO	2003	300000	green	yellow	green
H	Cartographia	PL	1990	750000	red	yellow	red
H	Cartographia	GR / TR - west	1987	1300000	red	yellow	red
GB	Collins	GB - London	1998	20000	blue	-	green
GB	Collins	GB	1992	200000	blue	white	green		thin white
PL	Daunpol / Geoida	PL	2002	250000	red	yellow	red
D	DEGES	D - A71	2005	various	red	white	purple
USA	DeLorme	various states	old	various	red	-	red		old style kept for new editions of atlases first published before 1998
USA	DeLorme	various states	new	various	blue	red	red	yellow	new from 1998
AUS	Faber and Faber	AUS	1986	various	green	-	black
D	Falk	D - Ruhrgebiet	1983	50000	purple	white	yellow
D	Falk	D	1986	250000	purple	-	red
D	Falk city atlases	D	1997	20000	orange	-	yellow
NL	Falk topografische atlas	NL	2000	50000	blue	-	red
RA	Firestone / Cartomax	RA	2000	various	blue	-	red	yellow
A	Freytag & Berndt	A - Graz	1993	15000	red	orange	yellow		double
CZ	Freytag & Berndt	CZ	1996	100000	yellow	orange	red		orange outline
A	Freytag & Berndt	HR / SLO	2004	150000	orange	-	red
D	Generalatlas	D	2006	200000	orange	-	red
D	Geo Center	PL	1997	200000	red	yellow	red
CZ	Geodezie Brno	CZ / SK	1998	200000	red	yellow	red		thin red lines
H	Gizi Map	MK	1995	260000	red	yellow	red
D	Großer Shell Atlas	D	1987	400000	red	yellow	red
D	Großer Shell Atlas	D / EU	1964	500000	purple	white	red		thin white
RUS	GUGK	Soviet Union	1991	various	-	-	red	yellow	motorways not distinguished
BR	Guia Quatro Rodas	BR	1998	various	red	-	red		no distinction between motorways and other dual carriageways
MEX	Guia Roji	MEX	1997	1000000	red	yellow	red
CH	Hallwag	CH	2003	300000	green	white	orange
CH	Hallwag	EST / LV / LT	1993	700000	green	white	red
I	Hallwag / DeAgostini	I	1998	250000	red	yellow	orange
I	Hallwag / DeAgostini	E	1992	300000	purple	-	red
CH	Hallwag / Kümmerly and Frey	A - Tirol / I - Südtirol	2003	150000	red	yellow	red		double
D	Haupka	D	1973	500000	red	yellow	red
FIN	Helsinki city	FIN - Helsinki	1999	35000	yellow		yellow
AUS	HEMA	NZ	1995	600000	green	-	red
AUS	HEMA	AUS	2001	various	green	-	red
F	Hertz / Michelin	GB / IRL	1989	1000000	blue	white	green
NZ	InfoMap	NZ - Wellington	1995	20000	orange		yellow
LV	Jana seta	LT	2003	200000	red	yellow	red
LV	Jana seta	EST / LV / LT	est 1998	700000	red	yellow	red		no distinction between motorways and other dual carriageways
FIN	Kartakeskus	FIN	2000	200000	green	-	red
CZ	Kartografie Praha	CZ / SK	1990	200000	green	white	green		Czechoslovakia
FIN	Kaupunkimittausosasto	FIN - Helsinki	1995	20000	green	-	green		no distinction between motorways and other dual carriageways
D	König	D	1966	500000	orange	-	red
D	Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen / Mair	DK	1998	200000	red		orange
GB	Kosmos / Philip	EU	1988	750000	blue	-	yellow
CH	Kümmerly and Frey	EU	1989	various	red	yellow	red
D	Landschaftsverband Rheinland	D - NRW-southwest	1980	200000	red	-	blue
B	Lannoo	B	1995	100000	red	yellow	red
D	Lettera	D	1993	500000	red	yellow	red
IL	MAP	IL	1994	100000	dark blue	white	red
RC	Map King Publishing	Taiwan	2005	100000	red	-	orange
ZA	Map Studio	ZA	1986	various	blue	-	red
F	Michelin	F - Paris	1988	100000	red	yellow	red
F	Michelin	F	2004	200000	red	-	blue
F	Michelin	North America	2004	various	blue	white	orange
D	Nelles	RC	est 1995	400000	red		red
GB	Ordnance Survey	GB	1988	190080	blue	-	red
IRL	Ordnance Survey Ireland	IRL	1995-2000	50000	blue		green
GB	Philip Navigator	GB	1997	100000	blue	-	yellow
PL	PPWK	PL	1997	250000	red	yellow	purple
GB	RAC	GB	1998	250000	blue	white	green		thin white
USA	Rand McNally	North America	1999	various	blue	-	red		free
USA	Rand McNally	North America	1999	various	green	-	red		toll
USA	Rand McNally Thomas Guide	USA - San Francisco	2007	22800	red		red
D	Ravenstein Strassen	D	1987-1999	250000	purple	white	red		thin white, no distinction between motorways and other dual carriageways
D	Ravenstein Strassen	D	2001	250000	red	yellow	orange
D	Ravenstein Strassen	D	1976-1986	400000	red	yellow	red
NL	Reader's Digest / ANWB	NL / EU	1971	various	red	orange	red
D	Reise Know How	RO / MD	2003	600000	blue	white	red
NL	Robas	NL	1996	100000	red	yellow	red
D	RV Euro Atlas	TR	1990	800000	red	yellow	red
D	RV Trucker Atlas	D	1998	150000	orange	yellow	orange
D	Serges	D	2001	250000	blue	white	red
USA	Shearer	USA - Louisiana	1997	158400	purple	-	red
NL	Shell	NL	2006	250000	red	yellow	red
GB	Shell / AA	ET	1996	500000	green	-	red
J	Shobunsha	J	2002	250000	blue	white	red
N	Statens Kartverk	N	1997	300000	red	yellow	red		no distinction between motorways and other dual carriageways
NL	TNT / Andes Travelmanager	B	2001	100000	red	yellow	orange		thin red line between carriageways
NL	Topografische Dienst	NL	1992	250000	purple		red
I	Touring Club Italiano	I - parts	1996	200000	black	white	orange		thin white
RUS	Trivium	RUS	2000	750000	yellow	-	red		no distinction between motorways and other dual carriageways
S	Vår Vägkarta	S	1993	400000	yellow		green
D	VEB Tourist Verlag	DDR	1977	500000	yellow	-	red
SK	VKU	SK	1999	100000	orange	white	red
H	Z-Press Atlasz Plusz	H	1998	360000	blue	white	red

Statistics

Most frequent motorway styles:

outline	centre	percent
red	yellow	31
blue	white	11
blue		8.5
green		6.5
red		6

Remarks:

Rand McNally uses blue for free motorways and green for toll roads, this is counted as 0.5% each.
Blue is especially popular in the United Kingdom.

Most frequent colours for other roads:

outline centre percent

red 63

orange 10

green 10

yellow 8

red yellow 3