Roadnumbering in Switzerland

[vinny]

On the Dutch forum http://www.wegenforum.nl/viewtopic.php? ... a&start=30 we have a very confusing discussion about roadnumbering in Switserland and also questions about for which roads you need a vignette or you have to pay toll for it.

It seems to me that there are two road types:
A x: Autobahnen, motorways
H x: Hauptsrasses, main roads
The first ones are indicated by a red German-like shield with the number (without indicating the 'A')
The last ones are indicated by a blue square (white edge) with the number (without indicationg the 'H')

Contributing to the confusing is that there seems to be an administrative numbering of the roads, the old N numbers appear (Nationalstrasse) as being used in official documents, while with A roads 'Alpstrasse' is ment.
(and you have J and T roads too). The discussion focussed on 'A 21' with someone claimed it was the Alpstrasse 21 (while it was the extended H 21), and others claimed it was Autobahn 21. So what is it actually?

[Danny]

Actually there are 3 road types (there are more but 3 are using numbers):

Autobahnen (A..) vignette required, max. speed 120 km/h
Autostrassen (T..) vignette required, max. speed 100 km/h
Hauptstrassen (..) , max. speed 80 km/h

A and T numbers are being used by the public, but except for traffic information, I have never heard anybody using the Hauptstrasse numbers to describe where he or she was going to. They may be used in public documents to some extend.

"A" does not stand for "Alpstrasse". For some reason, some officials still use the old N-numbering. I have no explanation for that (e.g. http://www.westumfahrung.ch).
Edit/update:According to wikipedia, the N-numbers refer to cantonal (local) motorways (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalstrasse).

Things are actually even more complicated then described here as there are several classes of motorways but i'll leave that away for simplicity.

[Markus]

Sorry, that's wrong.

Administrative Numbers:
A stands for "Alpenstrasse"
T for "Talstrasse"
J for "Jurastrasse"
N for "Nationalstrasse"

All of them can be a "Hauptstrasse" (H), an "Autostrasse" or an "Autobahn".

On Google Earth, you can see, were it needs a Vignette (red Streets). You need it only on "Autobahnen" and "Autostrassen", that are in the Ownership of the "Bund" (="Nationalstrassen"). Cantonal Autobahnen are free. (orange (Autobahnen) and (yellow (Hauptstrassen))

[Danny]

Alpenstrasse.... Markus, machst Du hier einen auf Troll? Das Forum sollte der wahrheitsgetreuen Information dienen. Für solche hanebüchenen Behauptungen erwarte ich eigentlich eine Quellenangabe.

Zur Info: "A" steht für Autobahn (resp. autoroute/autostrada), hab ich jetzt schriftlich vom ASTRA.

Gruss

[rower2000]

Sorry, that's wrong.

Administrative Numbers:
A stands for "Alpenstrasse"
T for "Talstrasse"
J for "Jurastrasse"
N for "Nationalstrasse"

All of them can be a "Hauptstrasse" (H), an "Autostrasse" or an "Autobahn".

On Google Earth, you can see, were it needs a Vignette (red Streets). You need it only on "Autobahnen" and "Autostrassen", that are in the Ownership of the "Bund" (="Nationalstrassen"). Cantonal Autobahnen are free. (orange (Autobahnen) and (yellow (Hauptstrassen))

Alpenstrasse.... Markus, machst Du hier einen auf Troll? Das Forum sollte der wahrheitsgetreuen Information dienen. Für solche hanebüchenen Behauptungen erwarte ich eigentlich eine Quellenangabe.

Zur Info: "A" steht für Autobahn (resp. autoroute/autostrada), hab ich jetzt schriftlich vom ASTRA.

Was er sagt ist 100%-ig richtig. Das A steht für Autobahn bzw. -strasse in der publizierten, für den Verkehrsteilnehmer gedachten Nummerierung.
Was Markus angeführt hat, war die administrative Nummerierung. Und da steht "A" tatsächlich für "Alpenstrasse", während die Volks-As dort Ns sind, für "Nationalstrasse". Also nicht gleich über Trolle aufregen, wenn sie sogar recht haben .