Skip to main content
MDT - How Montana Roads are Segmented
Lauren Miller avatar
Written by Lauren Miller
Updated over a week ago

In Network Screening - Segments, all routes in Montana are subdivided into segments to make network screening easier. This allows you to compare smaller portions of a roadway with similar characteristics in Network Screening rather than evaluating an entire route.

Segment Criteria

When segmenting a route, a new segment is created each time one or more of the following roadway characteristics changes:

  1. Volume on the route (AADT, or Annual Average Daily Traffic)

  2. When a route changes between Urban and Rural

  3. If the route changes from Interstate to Non-Interstate

  4. When a route changes its Functional Classification

  5. When the number of lanes changes on the route

  6. If the location Terrain Type changes

After segments are created following the guidelines above, minimum and maximum segment lengths are used to ensure that segments are not too small or too large. These are combined using Python script to segments provided by MDT with 3rd party SPFs.

Min/Max Segment Lengths

  • Any segment that is < 0.1 miles will be added to the smallest adjoining segment.

  • Any segment that is > 10 miles will be segmented at the 10-mile mark.

Did this answer your question?