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Public domainLast verified 2026-08-31

US Census TIGER/Line Shapefiles

US Census Bureau

The only comprehensive fully-public-domain US road network. Strategic value: a zero-ODbL fallback stack (TIGER roads + GNIS names + US Topo + 3DEP) exists if legal ever vetoes OSM share-alike exposure. Also the road source USGS itself switched to for US Topo in 2016.

Editor's notes

Positional accuracy and attribute richness are well below OSM (no trails, few POIs, no turn restrictions); fine for reference basemaps, weak for turn-by-turn routing.

Shapefile (per-county roads, per-state primary/secondary roads), annual releases; also geodatabases

All-county national roads ~6-8 GB of shapefiles

Download from source

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Source & license

US federal government work (public domain).

Use of this material does not imply endorsement by its publisher or any government agency.