Important Note
Massachusetts Functional Classification settings are dictated by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), at the request of the local jurisdictions, and in coordination with neighboring states. If you do not agree with our FC levels, please petition MassDOT to change the rating they've assigned.
Do NOT make random changes on your own.
Locking Standard
In Massachusetts we have a set minimum standard for locking roads based on segment type. Any road of a certain segment type must be locked at least to the rank (level) in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (areas with construction, tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower.
A great time to implement these locks is while bringing the road types of an area into compliance with the current US road type standards (FC and highway systems). Lock the roads based on type after they've been set to current US road type standards.
| Segment Type | Statewide |
|---|---|
| Freeway | 5 |
| Ramp | Highest rank of connected segments |
| Major Highway | 4 |
| Minor Highway | 3 |
| Primary Street | 1 (Auto) |
| Street | 1 (Auto) |
| Private Road | 1 (Auto) |
| • • • • Ferry • • • • | 5 |
| |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| | 2 |
Note: Do Not Mass Edit just to update locks to these standards, these can be adjusted as you find them while editing other aspects of the segments such as FC, speed limits, naming, etc.
Some segments still warrant higher locks and care should be taken when setting segment lock to these standards to look for and protect these special setups with higher locks. Some examples; segments which are part of BDP, U-turn prevention, or using micro-doglegs, or other complex intersection setups.
FC, Numbered Route Naming and Additional Guidance
See Massachusetts/Major roads for additional guidance in procedures specific to editing Major Roads in Massachusetts.