A

• Arr./Arroundissment : Borough. On January 1st 2002, many cities in Québec province merged. The old cities boundary are now borough boundaries or «arroundissment» boundaries.
• At-grade : See Grade separation.
• Autoroute : It is the official bilingual denomination for the provincially-owned expressways. They were created in the 50's to comply with rapid-growing traffic in urban centres. The two first autoroutes that has been built are Laurentides Autoroute (A-15, 1958) and Métropolitaine Autoroute (A-40, 1959). Some were tolled but today, autoroutes are completely free of charge. At-grades intersections on autoroutes are rare exceptions but can occur. See also Expressway, Québec Autoroutes Office and Freeway.
• Autoroutes Office : See Québec Autoroutes Office.

B

• Belt(way) : See By-pass.
• BGS or Big Green Sign : A BGS is usually used to reference the large signs mounted on overhead trusses on major divided highways. However BGS can also mean the larger signs beside highways.
• Booth (Toll) : See  Toll.
• Building dates : In fact they are opening dates, since building may take many years.
• By-pass, Bypass or Belt: A bypass is an access-controlled expressway wich runs around a city or deviates from its routing to evitate a city. Examples : A-30 runs around Montréal south shore, A-640 is the north shore bypass. A-40 was planned to belt Québec city and Trois-Rivières northward, but instead jogs respectivly on A-440 and A-755 carriage. If A-50 would have been completed up to Joliette, it would have belted around the city.

C

• Carriage : It is the main physical autoroute body itself. See also Corridor.
• Capitale : It is the french term for capital, used in the «Autoroute de la Capitale» denomination.
• Centre-Ville : French term for downtown
• Cloverleaf : Typically a cloverleaf is used where a freeway intersects a busy surface street. Much of the freeway-freeway interchanges in Québec are also cloverleaves. Full cloverleaf is not considered as applicable in some situations now as it might have been a few decades ago. Its main inconvenient is that traffic crosses between loop ramps. See also Parclo and Trumpet.
• Completion : Plans to terminate the routing of a freeway.
• Controlled Access : «Any road expressway, arterial or local that has controlled access (selected entrances or exits using by way of medians, stop lights or interchanges). We however use the term fully controlled access to describe freeways and expressways that have complete interchanges, which divide cross-traffic, rivers or railways.»
• Corridor : The land owned by the respective Departement/Ministery of  Transports, also called Right-of-Way, or ROW.

D

• Denomination : Official naming for an autoroute.
• Diamond : The basic diamond interchange is often the design of choice for lower-traffic interchanges without special constraints. It does not scale up well to heavy traffic on the surface street or ramps, or if there is heavy left-turning traffic. Traffic signals can be installed at the two points where the ramps meet the surface street, but high enough traffic volumes can cause backups on the street and the ramps. See also SPUI.

E

• Exit : Off-ramp from an autoroute.
• Expresway : It is the official term for the word «Autoroute» in english. Some autoroutes have bilingual signs (Bonaventure Aut., Décarie Aut.,...). Expressways can cross other roads at grade but is mostly grade-separated. See also Autoroute and Freeway.
• Extension : It is a further part of a road, not associated with the main carriage. Example : Bonaventure Expressway is an extension of Champlain Bridge. See also Spur.

F

• Four-laning : See Twinning.
• Freeway : Limited-access (no at-grade intersections) road, connected to other roads by interchanges. In Québec, freeways are mostly province-owned and operated. They are called Autoroutes.
• Freewayization : Involves turning usually a divided or undivided highway even as wide a 6 lanes that may have some level intersections while maintaining its current alignment into a freeway. Freewayization vs. 4 laning: Freewayization most often maintains the existing lane capacity but converts the sub-standard design flaws like RIRO or at grade intersections. This is distinguishable because 4-laning or twinning just adds 2 extra lanes beside the existing road. See also Twinning.

G

• Grade separation : It is when a  road passes over (overpass) or under (underpass) another. When two roads meet in an intersection, it is called an at-grade intersection, or simply at-grade.

H

• Highway : Superior Road Network. Not very used in Québec, this term designates the 1xx-series roads.

I

• Interstate : The United States Interstate System is a network of super-freeways with super-standards. Their shields and numbering is similar to the Autoroute system.
• Interchange : Mean of enter/exit to access-controlled roads. See also Cloverleaf, Parclo, Diamond, Trumpet, T and Stack.

J

·         Jersey Barrier : The Jersey Barrier is the tapered concrete barrier that is used in many narrow expressway medians, to prevent vehicle crossovers into oncoming traffic. It is used, for example, on Métropolitaine Expressway (A-40).

L

• Lane : Path of circulation on a road.
• Limited access : See Controlled Access.

M

• Ministère des Transports du Québec : It is the part of the government responsible for building autoroutes, formerly known as Ministère de la Voirie www.mtq.gouv.qc.ca.
•  MTQ : See Ministère des Transports du Québec
• Multiplex : When two routes "join up" and are cosigned. Ex.: A-40 and A-15 in Montréal are multiplexed between Décarie Exwy and Laurentides Freeway. A secret multiplex occurs when one route is unsigned on the concurrent section. Ex. : A-25 on its gap (A-40 and R-125).

P

•  Parclo : A2- Four ramp partial cloverleaf interchange, the design used by the MTQ at most rural interchanges. You'll notice, not urban, since these interchanges require a good deal of ROW. PARtial CLOverleaf A2 means two quadrants of the interchange have on and off ramps. A4 :Six ramp partial cloverleaf interchange, the design used by the MTQ at most suburban interchanges. You'll notice, not urban, since these interchanges require a good deal of ROW. A variation of the Parclo A4 is the Parclo B4, which just puts the ramps in opposing corners. PARtial CLOverleaf A4 means four quadrants of the interchange have on and off ramps. See also Cloverleaf and Trumpet.
• Partial cloverleaf interchange : See Parclo and Trumpet.

Q

• Québec Autoroutes Office : Now defunct, this organization was responsible for building autoroutes, naming them, maintaining them and collecting tolls on them. Autoroutes under its jurisdiction were, up until 1986 when it and toll on Québec autoroutes died, Laurentides Autoroute, Rive-Nord (North Shore) Autoroute and Eastern-Townships Autoroute.

R

• ROW, right of way : See Corridor.

S

• SPUI : Pronounced "Spooey", the Single-point Urban Interchange is a relatively new variant of the diamond. Other names for this interchange include "urban interchange" and "single-point diamond." SPUI's ramps are placed close together to make them effectively part of the same intersection. This allows one traffic signal to control all crossing movements, and enables concurrent opposing left turns, which increases the capacity of the interchange. This type of interchange is not present in Québec. See also Diamond.
• Spur : Typically not part of the Québec highway terminology, but is common to the Interstate Highway System in the US. A spur is a road that branches off the main road to another destination but does not return to the main road like a loop or a bypass would. See also Extension.
• Stack : Each road has a direct connection to the other roadways, with no looping or weaving, and the ramps cross in a 4-level deck you can see for about a mile. This type of interchange is used mainly for new highways that have enough ROW and where capacity warrants. A Four-Level is very expensive but efficient and an example in Québec can be found at the Métropolitaine (A-40)/ L-H-Lafontaine (new A-25) interchange. 
• Super-2 : A controlled-access freeway with two lanes and without a center median. Super-4s are undivided 4-lane freeways. A Super-2 Expressway is a Super-2 with occasional at-grade intersections.

T

• T : Directionnal T - Informally known as the "New England Y," this design is often seen in the urban United States, especially the northeast. It features directional ramps (no loops, or weaving right to turn left) which can be built fairly wide (multilane) in comparatively little space. The bad thing about this design: Left lane exits. Ex.: A-40/A-15 (Des Laurentides). Semi-Directionnal T -  This designed interchange is a good choice for high traffic junctions. The ramps can be made two or three lanes wide for more capacity. It's semi-directional, meaning cars veer right before crossing both roadways to the left, but the turns are gradual and eliminates the nasty left lane exists. Ex.: R-132/R-138 at the southern Mercier Bridge interchange. See also Stack.
• Toll : Mean of collecting money from an highway users. In United States, toll interstate (turnpikes) and other toll roads are common. In Québec, there is not any form of tolling.
• Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) : Beginning on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, including several car ferries, this road terminates in St. John's, Newfoundland. The highway varies in size from a two-lane road to a divided highway and is not a single route. In some places, there are actually several routes. The number of the TCH changes by province, the distinctive maple leaf sign remains.
• Trumpet : This is a conceptually simple way to end one freeway at another or another major arterial. Like a cloverleaf, it requires only one or two bridges, and designing for higher speed will take up more land. See also Cloverleaf and Parclo.
• Twinning : Often, four laning is done by twinning the existing highway or Super-2. This is done by constructing a new road parallel to the existing two lane roadway and dividing northbound and southbound traffic with the use of a median. See Freewayization.