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Decode Quebec road numbers
Even or odd
- If a highway is parallel to the river, it will bear an even number. If it is perpendicular, it will have an odd number. In addition, the highway numbers are in ascending order from south to north and from west to east.
- The highways have a number between 1 and 99 and between 400 and 999. An even number (4, 6 or 8) placed before a highway number means a bypass highway (each end is connected to the main highway) and an odd number (5, 7 or 9) to a collecting highway (only one end is connected to the main highway).
Main or secondary
- The main or national roads are numbered from 100 to 199, from west to east and from south to north.
- Secondary roads are numbered from 300 to 399 on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River and from 200 to 299 on the south bank.
Motorway exits
- The numbering is based on the cardinal points and on the notion of distance.
- The westernmost or southernmost point of a highway is chosen as the beginning of the increasing mileage. Example: the Mont-Saint-Hilaire exit is number 113, which means that it is 113 km from the western end of the 20. The Drummondville exit is 64 km further east than this one, it has the number 177, which gives you an idea of the route to travel.
And these are just a few basic rules for motorway signage. Discover all the others on the website of the Ministry of Transport of Quebec. Become the number one decoding of our road network!