The 2020 North America Roads dataset represents an update to the base layers of the North American Environmental Atlas, created and maintained by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). This update aims to provide open-access cartographic layers that serve as input data for a wide variety of spatial analyses across Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America.

This version of the North America Roads map integrates national road networks in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The original roads and ferry routes information used in this map was obtained from Statistics Canada, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), Instituto Mexicano del Transporte (IMT), the United States Census Bureau, and the United States Department of Transportation.

The information shown in this map represents the state of North America’s major roads network in 2020 (Canada, Mexico, and the United States). The year of the ferry routes information varies across countries: 2020 for Mexico, 2018 for the United States, and 2017 for Canada. This map replaces the major roads map published by CEC in 2011 but retains the same three general categories: Major Roads (main roads, including divided, multi-lane, and limited-access highways), Secondary Roads (roads that do not meet the definition of major roads), and Ferries (major ferry links connecting urban areas).

The 2020 North America Roads dataset substantially increases the level of spatial detail available in the previous map, offering a much larger number of major roads in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It delivers standardized and topologically consistent information to assist users in incorporating roads or ferry routes in fragmentation and accessibility analysis, environmental impact assessments, or land change analyses at a continental scale.

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