Canada has at least four federal level road network products. Knowing the differences, and when to use which one, is not as straight forward as it should be. Even worse, these products are updated on different schedules, so knowing which one has the most up to date information is a tricky task.

We will discuss what the respective networks are and their intended use, covering distribution formats, dataset coverage, and examples of the types of analysis that can be performed with each one using both geospatial and non-geospatial tools. Then we take a deeper dive into the Statistics Canada Road Network File and National Road Network, talk about how these datasets are changing in the near future, and discuss the current and future goals of road network datasets in Canada.

The session will close with information on how everyone can get involved to help shape the future of road network datasets in Canada as we move to a more user centric model of data delivery and responsiveness.