Road Classification

Main Roads in cooperation with local governments manage Western Australia’s road network.

A Metropolitan Road Hierarchy has been developed to designate the role of all roads within the region and to encourage uniform traffic management of roads of the same type.

Criteria for classifying roads includes:

• Predominant activity;
• Intersections;
• Indicative traffic volume;
• Property frontage allowed;
• Pedestrians allowed;
• Speed;
• Buses allowed;
• Parking allowed; and
• Truck routes.

Ideally every road should meet all the criteria of one road hierarchy type. However, many roads meet some of the criteria appropriate to different road types and are difficult to define.

General MRWA Functional Hierarchy Classifications

Access Road - Maximum 3 000 vehicles per day.
Local Disributor - Maximum 6 000 vehicles per day.
District Distributor - Maximum 8 000 vehicles per day.