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For other uses, see Highway (disambiguation).

A highway is a major road designed for automobile travel that connects cities, places, other highways, or other significant points of interest.

Highway designs vary widely. They can include some characteristics of freeways and motorways such as multiple lanes of traffic, a median between lanes of opposing traffic, and access control (ramps and grade separation). Highways can also be as simple as a two-lane, shoulderless road.

The United States has the largest^{[citation needed]} network of national highways, including Interstate highways and United States Numbered Highways. This network is present in every state and connects all major cities. China has the fastest expanding^{[citation needed]} and second largest highway system in the world.

Some highways, like the Pan-American Highway or the European routes, bridge multiple countries. Australia's Highway 1 connects all state capitals and runs almost the entire way around the country.

The longest single national highway in the world is the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs from Victoria, British Columbia, on the Pacific Coast, through ten provinces to the Atlantic Coast, at St. John's, Newfoundland.

Highways are not always continuous stretches of pavement. For example, some highways are interrupted by bodies of water, and ferry routes may serve as sections of the highway.

Nomenclature

The terms used for various types of highways (such as autobahn, autoroute, expressway, freeway, and motorway) vary between countries or even regions within a country. In some places a highway is a specific type of major road that is distinct from freeway or expressway; in other places the terms may overlap. In law, highway may mean any public road or canal. However, in some countries, the term highway is not generally used at all.

Australia

In Australia, a highway is a distinct type of road from freeways and motorways. The word highway is generally used to mean major roads connecting large cities, towns and different parts of metropolitan areas. Metropolitan highways often have traffic lights at intersections, and rural highways usually have only one lane in each direction. The words freeway or motorway are generally reserved for the most arterial routes, almost always with no traffic light intersections and usually significantly straightened and widened. The term motorway is used in some Australian cities to refer to freeways that have been allocated a metropolitan route number, and in Sydney, a motorway has a toll, whereas a freeway is free of charge. When the Albury-Wodonga Bypass is opened, it will be possible to travel from Melbourne to Sydney without having to stop at a traffic light. Roads may be part-highway and part-freeway until they are fully upgraded.

Brazil

In Brazil, highways (or expressway/freeway) are named "rodovia", and Brazilian highways are divided in two types: regional highways (generally of less importance and entirely inside of one state) and national highways (of major importance to the country). In Brazil, rodovia is the name given exclusively to roads connecting two or more cities with a sizable distance separating the extremes of the highway. Urban highways for commuting are uncommon in Brazil, and when they are present, they receive different names, depending of the region (Avenida, Marginal, Linha, Via, Eixo, etc). Very rarely names other than "rodovia" are used.

Regional highways are named YY-XXX, where YY is the abbreviation of the state where the highway is running in and XXX is a number (e.g. SP-280; where SP means that the highway is running entirely in the state of São Paulo).

National highways are named BR-XXX. National highways connects multiples states altogether, are of major importance to the national economy and/or connects Brazil to another country. The meaning of the numbers are:

001-100 - it means that the highway runs radially from Brasília. It is an exception to the cases below.
101-200 - it means that the highway runs in a south-north way.
201-300 - it means that the highway runs in a west-east way
301-400 - it means that the highway runs in a diagonal way (northwest-southeast, for example)
400-499 - another exception, they are less important highways and its function is to connect a city to an arterial highway nearby

Often Brazilian highways receives names (famous people, etc), but even though, they continue to have a YY/BR-XXX name (example: Rodovia Castelo Branco is also SP-280).

Canada

Highway 401 that crosses Toronto, showing the wide 14-18-lane, collector/express lane cross-section. Note the safety features such as the long acceleration and decelleration lanes, emergency lanes, high mast lighting and the 3 tall concrete medians. This highway is the busiest in the world.

In Canada, there is no national standard for nomenclature, although highway appears more popular in most areas.

In Ontario, all provincially managed roads are known legally as the King's Highways, although this name is more commonly used only for the primary highways (numbered 2 through 148, with speed limits of at least 80 km/h) and the 400-Series Highways. The words freeway or expressway are sometimes used to refer to controlled-access, high-speed, grade-separated highways such as the 400-series, the Conestoga Parkway, the Don Valley Parkway, or the E.C. Row Expressway. The only highway officially labelled as a freeway is the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, usually known as Highway 401, or simply "the 401", the world's busiest highway. The stretch of highway 401 between London and Windsor, Ontario, is also the world's busiest truck route.

In Quebec, major highways are called autoroutes in both English and French.

Nova Scotia numbers its freeways by the routes they parallel, for example, Highway 107 parallels Trunk 7.

The Trans Canada Highway, the highway that crosses the entire country and enters all ten provinces, holds the record as the longest national highway in the world. It ranges from a small two-lane highway to freeway-calibre.

China, People's Republic

"Highways" in China, more often than not, refer to China National Highways. The fully controlled-access, multi-lane, central-separation routes are instead called expressways. As of 2005, there were 1.55 million km of highways and 42,000 km of expressways in China; both total lengths are second only to the United States.

In Mainland China, private companies reimbursed through tolls are the primary means of creating and financing the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS).

Expressways are lumped with first-grade G-prefixed guodaos (国道, or "national highway") or A-prefixed first-grade expressways in major municipal cities. All roads in the NTHS and most A-prefixed roads are expressways.

G-prefix: National highways (typically expressways)
A-prefix: Municipal highways (typically expressways)
S-prefix: Provincial highways
X-prefix: County highways
Y-prefix: Rural roads
Z-prefix: Special use roads (e.g., airport expressways)

Some highways are numbered with a leading zero (e.g. G030).

The term Freeway during the 1990s was used on a few expressways (such as the Jingshi Freeway). The term freeway has since been replaced with expressway on all signs in China. The Chinese name for expressways is uniform; in pinyin, it is gaosu gonglu, which literally means "high speed public road".

Signs on the National Highways (G-prefix) are green, while on the lower-grade highways and urban expressways (A-prefix) are blue.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, the type of high speed roads is referred to as expressway, but some are named as highways or roads ('Yuen Long Highway', 'Tolo Highway', 'Tsuen Wan Road', 'Tuen Mun Road', etc.). Some others are named corridors and bypasses.

France

France has a national highway system dating back to the Napoleonic era. The chausees constructed at this time, radiating out from Paris, form the basis for the "routes nationales" (RN), whose red numbers differ from the yellow numbering used for secondary "routes departmentales". The RNs numbered from 1 to 20 radiate from Paris to major ports or border crossings. More recently (after the Second World War), France has constructed Autoroutes, superhighways (usually toll) with a speed limit of 130 km/h (110 in rainy conditions or urban areas).

Germany

Aside from highways bearing the Autobahn designation, Germany has many two- and four-lane roads. Federal highways not known as autobahns are called Bundesstraßen (Bundesstrassen) and, while usually two-lane roads, they may also be four-lane, limited-access expressways of local or regional importance. Unlike the Autobahns, though, Bundesstraßen (marked by black numbers on a yellow background) mostly have speed limits (usually 100 km/h, but occasionally higher on limited-access segments, and lower in urban areas or near intersections). But if these roads are built like an Autobahn, there is usually no speed limit.

India

In India, 'Highway' refers to one of the many National Highways that run up to a total length of about 58,000 kilometers. An expressway refers to any elevated road with grade-separated intersections. As of 2005, there were 4,885 km of expressways in India.

South section of North-South Expressway in Malaysia, facing towards Kuala Lumpur.

Ireland

The Republic of Ireland has a similar system to the United Kingdom except that its major roads are classed as 'N' road or 'R' road rather than 'A' road/'B' road as in the UK.

Malaysia

The highest level of major roads in Malaysia, expressway (lebuhraya), has full access control, grade separated junctions, and mostly tolled. The expressways link the major state capitals in Peninsular Malaysia and major cities in Klang Valley.

Highway is lower level with limited access control, some at-grade junctions or roundabouts, and generally with 2 lanes in each separated direction. These are generally untolled and funded by the federal government, hence the first one is called Federal Highway linking Klang and Kuala Lumpur.

The trunk roads linking major cities and towns in the country are called federal trunk roads, and are generally 2 lanes single carriageway roads, in places with a third climbing lane for slow lorries.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, a motorway runs through urban areas and an expressway runs through rural areas. Both motorways and expressways generally have no access to adjacent properties. Although motorways provide no facility for pedestrians or cyclists, expressways such as the Bombay Expressway south of the Bombay Hills, below Auckland, and leading from the Auckland Motorway system, provides a cycleway on the outside lane. New Zealand's main routes are designated state highways. State Highway 1 is the only route to run through both the North and South Islands, and runs (in order north-south) from Cape Reinga to Wellington in the North Island, and from Picton to Bluff in the South Island. State Highways 2-5 are main routes in the North Island, State Highways 6-9 in the South Island, and state highways numbered from 10 onwards are generally found in numerical order from north to south. State highways usually incorporate different types of roads, for example, State Highway 1 from Auckland to Hamilton incorporates the Northern and Southern Motorways in the Auckland area, the Waikato Expressway, and a rural road before passing through the streets of Hamilton. The term freeway is rarely used relating to New Zealand roads, and can only be considered an Americanism.

Pakistan

Pakistan has its own network of motorways. The first one, the M2 was built in 1997 with the contract being awarded to the Korean firm Daewoo. It linked the fedral capital Islamabad with Punjab's provincial capital Lahore. The network was then extended to Sargodha and then to Faisalabad with the M3. There exist plans to construct the M1 motorway to the NWFP's capital Peshawar. N5 links Karachi to other cities. More highways are being planned and some are also being built by local and foreign firms.

South Africa

Colloquially, the terms "freeway," "highway," and "motorway" are used synonymously. There are very few references to the term "expressway" in South Africa. A freeway, highway or motorway refers to a divided dual carriageway with limited access, and at least two lanes in either direction. A central island, usually either with drainage, foliage or high-impact barriers, provides a visible separation between carriageways in opposite directions. As with the UK and Australia, South Africans drive on the left-hand side of the road and all steering wheels are on the right-hand side of vehicles.

Freeways are designated with one of three labels: N (in reference to national roads), R (short for "route," in reference to provincial roads), and M (in reference to metropolitan roads). This has more to do with the location of a road and its function than anything else. In addition, "N" roads usually run the length of the country over long distances, "R" roads usually inter-connect cities and towns within a province, and "M" roads carry heavy traffic in metropolitan areas. Route markings also determine who paid for the road: "N" was paid for by national government, "R" by provincial government and "M" by local government. In recent years, some "R" roads have been re-designated as "N" roads, so that control and funding comes from the South African National Roads Agency.

Switzerland

The term Autobahn is used for normal expressways where there is a central physical structure separating two different directional carriageways. This is often translated into English as motorway.

In express routes where there is no central physical structure separating two different directional carriageways, but crossings are still motorway-like otherwise, and traffic lights are not present, the road is instead called an Autostrasse, translated into English as a motorroad. Autostrassen often have a lower speed limit than Autobahnen.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, unless a route is classified as a motorway, the term used may be main road, trunk road, 'A' road/'B' road, or, where appropriate, dual carriageway. In the law of England and Wales the term highway covers everything from a footpath (for foot passage only), to a bridleway (for foot, bicycle and equestrian use), to a byway open for all traffic (for all the aforementioned users, plus any motorised user), to unclassified county roads, classified roads, trunk roads, motorways and special roads. In British law, there is no definition of "road", and generally the most common usage refers to:

Thumb

In England and Wales the public are said to have a "right of way" over a Highway. This means that, subject to statutory restrictions, the route must be kept clear to allow travel by anyone who wishes to it. At common law, it is forbidden to obstruct a highway or interfere with passage. However, many statutory provisions provide powers to do so (for instance to carry out road works). Rights of way exist both over roads maintained at the public expense (the majority of roads) and over some roads on private property. In this case, the owner must allow passage over the highway. A right of way may be created by custom (i.e. the road has been used for a long period of time) or under the relevant positions of the Highways Act 1980. A right of way may by only be extinguished or diverted by or under an Act of Parliament. For instance, under the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 authority is given for the builder of the rail link to stop up certain highways mentioned in Schedule 3 of the act.

The contrast to a Highway is a private road over which no right of way exists. Travel on a private road is subject to the consent of the owner of the land.

United States

In the United States, "highway" is a general term for denoting a public way, including the entire area within the right-of-way, and includes many forms:

a high-speed, limited-access road like expressways and freeways.
an important road that connects cities.

The familiarity of the Interstate Highway system implies "highway" describes any freeway, regardless of whether it is part of the Interstate Highway system.

However, the United States Numbered Highways system, which predates Interstate Highways, can vary from 2 lanes (1 lane each direction), shoulderless, paved roads with no access control to roads built to the same standards as Interstate Highways. These roads are usually distinguished by being important, but not always primary, routes that connect populated areas.

"Highway" even includes roads that serve similar purposes to United States numbered highways but which are numbered and maintained by state or local governments.

Arguably, the most famous United States highway is Route 66. It is immortalized in the song "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66." Other famous highways of song include Carefree Highway in Arizona (Gordon Lightfoot, 1974), Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California (Jan & Dean, also Beach Boys, 1964), Ventura Highway in California (America, 1972).

Social and environmental effects of highways

By reducing travel times relative to arterial streets, highways have a positive effect upon balance of leisure or productive time through reduced commute and other travel time. However, highways have criticisms, partially due to being an extended linear source of pollution:

Community cohesion: Where highways are created through existing communities, there can be reduced community cohesion and more difficult local access.
Roadway noise: Highways generate more roadway noise than arterial streets due to the higher operating speeds. Therefore, considerable noise health effects are expected from highway systems. Noise mitigation strategies exist to reduce sound levels at nearby sensitive receptors.
Air quality issues: Highways may contribute fewer emissions than arterials carrying the same vehicle volumes. This is because high, constant-speed operation creates an emissions reduction compared to vehicular flows with stops and starts. However, concentrations of air pollutants near highways may be higher due to increased traffic volumes. Therefore, the risk of exposure to elevated levels of air pollutants from a highway may be considerable, and further magnified when highways have traffic congestion.

Further information

For information on the history and local styles of highways around the world refer to

Avtocesta (Slovenia)
Autocesta (Croatia)
Auto-Estrada (Portugal, notable for the introduction of the world's first electronic toll collection system, the Via Verde.)
Autopista (Spain)
Autoput (Serbia)
Autoput or Autocesta (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Autoroute (France)
Autoroute (Quebec)
Kōsokudōro (Japan)
Autobahn (Germany)
Autostrada (Italy, Poland, Romania, Egypt)
National Highways (India)
Expressway (Mainland China)
Transportation of Israel Israeli Expressways, named "Kvish Mahir" (expressway in Hebrew)
Expressway (Lebuhraya) (Malaysia)
Freeway, Expressway, and Parkway (United States)
Freeway (Canada)
Motorway (United Kingdom)
Motorway (Ireland)
National Trunk Highway System (Mainland China)
Rodovia (Brazil)
Motorväg (Sweden)
400-Series Highways (Ontario)
100-series Highways / 100-Series Highways (Nova Scotia)
Alberta's 200-Series Highways (Alberta)
Manitoba's Primary Routes (Manitoba)

External links

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 ===Switzerland===
-{{see also|Transportation in Switzerland}}
+{{see also|Autobahns of Switzerland}}
 The term ''[[Autobahn]]'' is used for normal expressways where there is a central physical structure separating two different directional carriageways. This is often translated into English as ''motorway''.