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European route - Definition and Overview |
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Europe's road system incorporates a series of European routes, which are numbered E1 and up. They cross national borders and are the responsibility of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). E routes are somewhat similar to the interstate highway system of the United States.
Numbering system
The route numbering system, defined by UNECE since 1975, went through a major change in 1992 and is now as follows (text and layout slightly modified from the original for clarity of understanding):
- Reference roads and intermediate roads, called Class-A roads, have two-digit numbers. Branch, link and connecting roads, called Class-B roads, have three-digit numbers.
- In general:
- North-south reference roads have two-digit odd numbers terminating in the figure 5 and increasing from west to east.
- East-west reference roads have two-digit even numbers terminating in the figure 0 and increasing from north to south.
- Intermediate roads have two-digit odd (north-south) and two-digit even (west-east) numbers between the numbers of the reference roads between which they are located.
- Class-B roads have three-digit numbers, the first digit being that of the nearest reference road to the north, the second digit being that of the nearest reference road to the west, and the third digit being a serial number.
- North-south Class-A roads located eastwards of road E99 have three-digit odd numbers from 101 to 129. Other rules mentioned in paragraph 2 above apply to these roads.
- Class-B roads located eastwards of E101 have 3-digit numbers, beginning with 0, from 001 to 099.
Exceptions
Two Class-A roads, namely E47 and E55, remain signed by their pre-1992 numbers, E6 and E4 respectively, within Sweden and Norway. These exceptions were granted because the expenses connected with re-signing these extremely long road portions would be too large. These roads are signed by their new numbers from Denmark and southward, though, as are other European routes within Scandinavia.
Class A roads
North-South reference
West-East reference
North-South intermediate
West-East intermediate
Class B roads
See also
External links
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