NAVTEQ® Core Map[from official website]

Core Attributes

The NAVTEQ core map has 204 attributes broken into 14 different categories as follows:

• Link Attributes – Includes over 50 road classification attributes to determine an efficient route for a traveler. 
• Administrative Areas – Identifies government entities associated with the sides (left and right) of a link. 
• Points of Interest (POIs) –Includes named, geocoded sites, such as banks, gas stations, and restaurants. 
• Signs – Includes representations of textual information posted along roadways. 
• Land Use – Includes cartographic information, principally covering man-made and natural polygons and landmark footprints such as shopping centers, schools, airports, lakes, oceans, parks, golf courses, and the like.
• Country Attributes – Includes a variety of useful data for the country in which the user is traveling; attributes such as Driving Side, Telephone Country Code, and Time Zone are covered.
• Nodes – Includes intersections, both simple and complex, described through attributes.
• Conditions – Includes limitations or qualifications for using a road, for instance, gates that restrict access to residents or those with permission, High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, and restricted maneuvers, such as U-turns.
• Traffic Attributes – A standard set of codes for describing traffic conditions, called Radio Data System–Traffic Message Channel (RDS–TMC) codes.
• Generalization Attributes – These attributes (Intersections, Roads, and Objects) are captured in the NAVTEQ Composite Road Feature (CRF) coding systems and are a means of attributing features such as multiple digitized roads, intersections comprising multiple links and nodes, and ramp interchanges so that these complex features can be generalized. 
• Additional Attributes/Advanced Driving Systems – These extend the value of the database and include conditional speed limits and total number of lanes on a roadway.
• Extended Lane Information – Includes attributes to describe the number of lanes, lane connectivity, and lane direction of travel along complex intersections on Functional Class (FC) 1 and 2 roads to provide lane-level guidance.
• Map Voice Data Attributes – NAVTEQ delivers phonetic data, a textual representation of how a word is pronounced, as an add-on to the core map database. These phonetic data are called NAVTEQ Map Voice Data™.
• Other – An additional attribute for Direction for Linear Administrative Boundaries, which indicates to which side of the link a name applies.

The NAVTEQ database provides superior detail and richness, delivering critical information to make navigation and turn-by-turn directions as accurate as possible. This information includes:

• Turn restrictions
• One-ways
• Access restrictions
• Underground exits
• Physical barriers
• Complex maneuvers
• Vanity addresses
• Specialty POIs

Coverage

NAVTEQ digital map data are available in 58 countries, covering 6 continents and approximately 11 million roadway miles (over 17 million kilometers):  over 6 million miles in the Americas; over 4 million miles (7 million km) throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and more than 200,000 km in Asia.

There are two primary dimensions to navigation-related map data coverage:  population coverage and road coverage. Population coverage refers to the availability of road map data at some level of detail in a given geographical area. Road coverage refers to how detailed that coverage is. Does it cover only major freeways? Or does it also cover other main thoroughfares, suburban streets, rural roads, and so on? The variation between these kinds of roads is captured in the form. of road Functional Classes (FCs).

Five road FCs are captured in the NAVTEQ database:

• FC 1:  Very long distance routes between major cities – The "highest level" network comprises the FC 1 arterials, which are primarily controlled access highways designed for very-long-distance travel linking major metropolitan areas and cities. 
• FC 2:  Primary routes between major and smaller cities and through metro areas – Extending the coverage of the FC 1 network is the primary role of the FC 2 network. Most high-speed, limited-access highways not in the FC 1 network are assigned FC 2, together with other classes of roadways. Often, the FC 2 network connects the major cities as the FC 1 network does, but at a lower mobility level; it also provides the best connection between smaller cities. Major through roads in metropolitan areas are typically coded FC 2.
• FC 3:  Major routes between minor cities or towns, and through city districts – The FC 3 network complements the FC 1 and 2 networks to form. connections between the higher level networks and minor cities. In metropolitan areas, roads used for intermediate-distance routes, capable of handling high traffic volumes relative to other local roads, are often coded FC 3 to serve as primary routes through and between contiguous town centers or city districts.
• FC 4:  Routes connecting minor towns or villages and collecting the local traffic in the city districts – The FC 4 network moves most traffic along main roads to smaller towns and through and between neighboring parts of cities. The FC 4 roads form. a well-connected network of "good quality" roads for through traffic in the interstices between the higher-level arterials. The FC 4 level is used when a hierarchy between two or more roads cannot be guaranteed by the simple combination of the other traffic attributes and the length of the links.
• FC 5:  Roads that are not efficient through routes – The "lowest level" and final category is FC 5, which comprises roads not considered to be arterials or transportation corridors. The local streets, including most minor collectors, roads in areas with few outlets, low-speed neighborhood streets, most indirect routes, and dead-end streets are coded FC 5.

Today, with a majority of the NAVTEQ database 100% navigable, the goal is to provide navigation support for 100% of the population in coverage areas for every road FC. NAVTEQ calls achieving coverage of all five FCs in a given area Detailed Coverage, meaning not only have all these road classes been captured digitally, but also every road has been verified to NAVTEQ standards, providing optimal navigation functionality.

Coverage highlights are as follows. The Americas core data product features:

• Over 6 million miles of roadway in the five FCs from residential streets to superhighways. Currently, NAVTEQ provides a fully navigable product with 100% of roads in the United States and Canada mapped. By the end of 2006, more than 70% of the combined population of the United States and Canada will have complete Detailed Coverage (e.g., all FCs), providing full turn-by-turn navigation. By the fourth quarter of 2008, the entire North American population will be mapped to the highest standard of Detailed Coverage. 
• Over 1.6 million core POIs, in approximately 50 categories, including banks, hotels, restaurants, and service stations; extended POI listings comprise 13 million POIs in 80+ categories. Recently, NAVTEQ has joined forces with leading data providers such as Zagat and Fodor's to offer even richer POI information.
• A total of 204 separate roadway attributes, permitting development of the most advanced navigation and location-enabled and route-guidance applications; the NAVTEQ Attribute Overview in theKnowledge Basecontains detailed information on the NAVTEQ database attributes and their uses for application developers. 
• Countries covered are the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands), Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.