In 2018, a small team of CIIC members convened to develop a resolution, which was adopted at the 2018 CIIC annual meeting in Gorlitz, Germany. An excerpt from the resolution states that:

“Historic roads include those designed for foot, animal powered vehicles, or automobile. Significant historic roads can have profound and lasting cultural, social, economic, political, and technological impacts on the associated geographical regions/nations.

Historic roads may come in many different types, layouts, specific uses, and dimensions. Accordingly, they may receive very different names in the various cultures and languages. For example, a historic road may be referred to as a path, byway, trail, walkway, footpath, road, highway, etc.

There may be historic roads or sections of historic roads, that like buildings and cultural landscapes help make up components of a cultural route, although on many other occasions this may not be the case as they may exist independently of the said cultural routes. On occasion, a significant historic road may meet the criteria of a cultural route in and of itself.”

The CIIC also recognized that historic roads have special conservation considerations that have not yet been addressed in a scientific way within ICOMOS.