Satnav Road Colours

Bratman91 · June 22, 2015

What do the road colours signify in the Satnav map - I thought that it was obvious but I am not sure now as the colour of the same road often changes at a junction and, for example, A-roads are not always the same colour? The Satnav manual is no help.

Steve44 · June 23, 2015

Yellow is normal A roads.

White with red thin border seems to be dual carriageway A roads.

Motorways are purple I think?

Blue is your route on the Sat nav.

Traffic indication, green is all good, down through purple, dark brown and red for varying degrees of problem.

That's what I can see/remember.

Bratman91 · June 25, 2015

Thanks, Steve44. However, my satnav colours are not consistent with yours. For example, A-roads are yellow with thin green borders and I don't think that any of my roads are white. I am going to be doing a lot of varied driving in the next couple of weeks so I'll watch and see if any sort of pattern emerges and post back.

DJP · June 25, 2015

Please do Michael, I can't understand the borders either!

Steve44 · June 25, 2015

Been out in the car again today and a few mods to what I had above.

Grey is for minor roads and residential streets, B, C class etc.

Yellow is for A class roads and main streets.

Red is for major trunk roads, single carriageway.

White with a thin red outline is dual carriageways.

Yellow with a thin red outline is motorways.

Blue is your route on the Sat nav, regardless of the road type or colour.

Traffic conditions are added to the outside of roads, with arrow indicating direction and colour of green for all good, orange for congestion and dark red for major incident. If you only have traffic updates over TMC on the radio, then the coverage on roads can be patchy, if you have connected services and online traffic, it is generally more widespread across more roads, both directions and even roundabouts and junctions.

When you have a route set and traffic info displayed, then the road colours can be hard to see, especially when you are zoomed out.

Got to say, it's not consistent, as I have 2 sets of dual carriageway near me, the A46 and A50. One is just red, the other is white with red border?!?

Bratman91 · July 12, 2015

After driving from Gloucester to the Lake District and return last week, here are my thoughts about the Satnav road colours. I asked my local Lexus dealer if there was an official de-code for the road colours but the question stumped them.

Bright blue : the satnav route guidance (100%)

Yellow with red borders: Motorways (100%)

Yellow with green borders: A and B roads (90%)

Yellow with thin green borders: Classified unnumbered roads (60%)

Yellow, no borders: Unclassified roads (50%)

Red: A or B roads which are Primary Routes (75%)

Blue/grey: minor and local roads (90%)

Broad Brown or Green strip alongside one or both outer borders of stretches of A and B roads (and, I think) Motorways. Sometimes the strips seem to have arrows embedded in them:

No idea!!!!! (100%)

Some of this is consistent with what you reported, Steve44, but other colours are not. For example, I did not see any roads that were white at all. I note that you, Steve44, have an IS300 F Sport whereas I have an IS250 Premium (a much better car!!!!!) so I wonder if there are different satnav variants and, hence, slightly different colour variations. It is incredible that neither the Satnav manual nor anything else that seems to be available provides information on what the colours and border strips indicate.

ColinBarber · July 12, 2015

Broad Brown or Green strip alongside one or both outer borders of stretches of A and B roads (and, I think) Motorways. Sometimes the strips seem to have arrows embedded in them:

No idea!!!!! (100%)

Real time traffic status. Green is free flowing, red is bad, orange is slow. Arrows indicate the direction of traffic.

ColinBarber · July 12, 2015

Some of this is consistent with what you reported, Steve44, but other colours are not. For example, I did not see any roads that were white at all. I note that you, Steve44, have an IS300 F Sport whereas I have an IS250 Premium (a much better car!!!!!) so I wonder if there are different satnav variants and, hence, slightly different colour variations. It is incredible that neither the Satnav manual nor anything else that seems to be available provides information on what the colours and border strips indicate.

Don't be too hard on yourself, the Premium grade isn't that bad :winky:

The systems are the same, you may have different map databases or software versions which could change things.

The border strips are documented in the manual, the standard road colours don't appear to be though

Bratman91 · July 19, 2015

Thanks, ColinBarber, I have now located the relevant section of the manual where the traffic information strips are detailed. I have also seen a white coloured road with red borders - I had never noticed one before. The road in question was a dual carriageway A-road with two lanes in each way and built to modern standards close to motorway ones.

However, I am not too sure what you mean in your comment about me being too hard on myself and the Premium grade not being that bad. The Premium grade is very good indeed although there are features that were in the previous top of the range model of IS250 that were better. Memory settings for passenger seat, lights on foot plates and lumbar adjustment on passenger seat, for example. Nevertheless, the Premium's advantages of spilt folding rear seats, greater passenger foot space and better lighting system outweighs the earlier ones.

ColinBarber · July 19, 2015

Steve44, have an IS300 F Sport whereas I have an IS250 Premium (a much better car!!!!!)

Don't be too hard on yourself, the Premium grade isn't that bad.

Obviously not a good joke if it needs explaining. :(

Bratman91 · July 30, 2015

Sorry for the tardy response, ColinBarber, but I have been in north-east Italy for a week or so - great wine, superb food but poor internet. Sorry, also, that I missed the joke - the wine was great, though!