Highway in Pennsylvania, USA
- For other uses, see Highway (disambiguation).
A highway is a major road within a city, or linking several cities together. It includes roads known as interstate highway, freeway, motorway and autobahn, where a full description varies by country. Generally, a highway is a road which has multiple lanes of traffic in each direction, often with a physical division (median) between opposing traffic, and separate access ramps to and from the highway which are more widely separated than connections on a standard road and are often grade-separated. A highway may prohibit access by pedestrians and limit what vehicles may travel on it.
Historically, a highway was any major road travelling a long distance outside of a city. Early roads between cities would sometimes suffer from highwaymen who would rob people travelling the route.
In the 20th century, however, the word generally came to be used only for high-speed, often specially-designed automobile routes. On 10 September 1913 the first paved coast-to-coast highway opened in the US.
Highways usually have a higher speed limit than other roads because they have additional lanes and are designed for driving at a higher speed. In remote areas, a highway may have rest areas where motorists may stop and relax before resuming a long drive.
By convention, the lane nearest the median on a multi-lane highway is called the passing lane.
The United States has a vast network of national highways (Interstate highways) linking the different U.S. states together, as does Australia albeit on a much smaller scale and mostly concentrated on the southeast coastline. Some highways, like the Pan-American Highway or the European routes, bridge multiple countries. With the latter a single road may have several national designations in addition to the European one.
Probably the most famous highway in the United States is Route 66, as immortalized in the song "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66", while if one follows Australia's Highway 1 the driver can travel from state capital to state capital, almost the entire way around the whole 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 need not be continuous stretches of unbroken road; where highways are interrupted by bodies of water, ferry routes serve as sections of the highway.
Nomenclature
The terms used for various types of highways such as freeway, expressway, motorway and autobahn, 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.
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 and no facility for pedestrians or cyclists. 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.
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).
See List of Brazilian Highways
Canada
- 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".
- Nova Scotia numbers its freeways by the routes they parallel, for example, Highway 101 parallels Trunk 1.
- 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
"Highways" in China, more often than not, refer to China National Highways. The multi-lane, central-separation routes are instead called expressways.
In Mainland China, private companies reimbursed through tolls are the primary means of creating and financing the National Trunk Highway System.
There is actually no separate classification for expressway (which is the term more often used in the PRC). Most likely, they are lumped with first-grade guodaos (meaning National roads). Beneath guodaos in rank level are shengdaos (provincial roads) and xiandaos (pronounced hsien-daos or shien-daos, which equate to county-level roads). Some expressways are numbered with a leading zero (e.g. G030).
Freeway was used on a few expressways (such as the Jingshi Freeway) before expressway was chosen as a standarised term.
The Chinese name for expressways (or freeways, as they used to be called) is uniform; in pinyin, it is gao su gong lu, which literally means "high speed public road".
In the mainland of the PRC, highway does not refer to a freeway or expressway, but instead to a normal road equivalent to an "A"-level road in Britain, or a class-one non-expressway. This can cause some confusion, though.
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) always have speed limits (usually 100 km/h, but occasionally higher on limited-access segments, and lower in urban areas or near intersections). If these roads are built like an Autobahn, the speed limit is usually 130 km/h.
India
Main article Indian highways
In India, 'Highway' refers to one of the many National Highways that run up to a total length of about 58000 kilometers. An expressway refers to any elevated road with grade-separated intersections.
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.
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/egress, with 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.
See also: Lists of Autobahns
United Kingdom and Ireland
In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, unless a route is classified as a motorway, the term used may be main road, trunk road, 'N' road/'R' road (In Ireland), 'A' road/'B' road (In The UK), 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:
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 U.S., the meaning of the term "highway" varies considerably from place to place and person to person. There are three basic meanings for "highway" used in the United States: a high-speed limited-access road like expressways and freeways, a main or important road that goes a long distance outside of a city, or any road at all.
The Interstate Highway system, which consists almost entirely of freeways, is familiar to most Americans, and this results in the word "highway" being sometimes used to describe any high-speed limited-access road, regardless of whether it is part of the Interstate Highway system. See freeway for information about the distinctions between freeways and expressways.
The U.S. Highways, which predate the Interstate Highways, are mainly not high-speed limited-access roads, but are distinguished from other roads by being mainly important routes that lead from one settled area to another, rather than roads confined to one city. The usage of the word "highway" to refer to the U.S. Highways and similar roads which are not part of the U.S. Highway system, reflects the older usage of the word "highway" that means a road that goes a long distance outside of a city.
Finally, further confusing the issue is the fact that, in some places, "highway" is legally just a synonym for "road" or "street", such as in California, where Cal. Motor Veh. Code § 360 states: "'Highway' is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. Highway includes street."
Social and environmental effects of highways
By reducing travel times relative to arterial streets, highways have a positive effect upon balance of leisure time through reduced commute and other travel time. Where highways are created through existing communities, there can be reduced community cohesion and more difficult local access.
Highways generate more noise than arterial streets due to the higher operating speeds. Therefore, increase noise health effects are expected from highway systems compared to arterial roadways. The issue of air quality is somewhat more complicated. Highways may actually contribute fewer air pollutant emissions than arterials carrying the same vehicle volumes, since high constant speed operation of vehicles tends to create emissions reduction; however, the air pollutant concentrations near highways are often extremely high due to the traffic density, so that the risk of exposure to elevated levels of air pollutants is greater for a highway than a conventional arterial. This fact is magnified when highways have traffic congestion.
Further information
For information on the history and local styles of highways around the world refer to
See also
External links
