A highway is a main road for travel by the public between important destinations, such as cities, large towns, and states. Highway designs vary widely and can range from a two-lane road without margins to a multi-lane, grade-separated expressway, freeway, or motorway. In English, British, and American law, the word "highway" is sometimes used to denote any public way used for travel, whether major highway, freeway, street, lane, alley, pathway, dirt track, footpaths, and trails, and navigable waterways. However, in practical and useful meaning, a "highway" is a major and significant, well-constucted road that is capable of carrying reasonably-heavy to extremely-heavy traffic. Examples of these in North America include the U.S. Highways, the Trans-Canada Highway, the Interstate Highway, State Highways, and Canadian Provincial Highways. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a "highway transportation system".

The United States has the world's largest network of highways, including both the Interstate Highway System and the U.S. Highway System. At least one of these networks is present in every state and they interconnect most major cities.

China's highway network is the second most extensive in the world, with a total length of about 3,573 million km. China's expressway network is also the second longest in the world, and it is quickly expanding, stretching some 60,300 km at the end of 2008, In 2008 alone, 6,433 km expressways were added to the network.

In the United Kingdom, the term "highway" is ambiguous and not in common use, usually reserved for historic or legal use (see public highway). The terms main road and motorway are more common. Any classification of a road as a "highway" there, and therefore any statistics about the total length of a highway network there, is purely subjective.

Some highways, like the Pan-American Highway or the European routes, span multiple countries. Australia's Highway 1 is the longest national highway in the world at over and runs almost the entire way around the continent.

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. An example of this is U.S. Route 10, which crosses Lake Michigan via ferryboat.

World Record Highways

• Longest international highway: the Pan-American Highway, which connects many countries in the Americas, is nearly long . The Pan-American Highway is discontinuous because there is a significant gap in it in southeastern Panama, where the rainfall is immense and the terrain is entirely unsuitable for highway constuction. The entire area is covered with swamps and rain forests. Central Panama and Colombia are connected by ferries and by airline transportation.

• Longest national highway: Australia's Highway 1 at over 20,000 km (12,427 mi). It runs almost the entire way around the continent's coastline. With the exception of the Federal Capital of Canberra, which is far inland, Highway 1 links all of Australia's capital cities, although Brisbane and Darwin are not directly connected, but rather are bypassed short distances away. Also, there is a ferry connection to the island state of Tasmania, and then a stretch of Highway 1 that links the major towns and cities of Tasmania, including Launceston and Hobart (this state’s capital city).

• Longest national highway (Point to point): The Trans-Canada Highway (the T.C.H.) (known as TCH 1 in western Canada) is 7,821 km (4,857 mi) long . The T.C.H. runs east-west across southern Canada, the populated portion of the country, and it connects many of the major urban centers along its route crossing almost all of the provinces, and reaching almost all of the capital cities. The T.C.H. begins on the east in eastern Newfoundland, traversed that island, and crosses to the mainland by ferry. It reaches most of the Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada, and a side route using ferries traverses the province of Prince Edward Island. After crossing the two most populous provinces of Quebec and Ontario, the T.C.H. continues westward across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Colombia. Besides reaching the metropolis of Vancouver, B.C., on the Pacific Coast, there is also a ferry route west to Vancouver Island and the provncial capital city of Victoria, B.C..

• Largest national highway system: The United States of America has approximately of highway within its borders .

• Busiest highway: Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada, has volumes surpassing an average of 500,000 vehicles per day in some sections of Toronto .

• Widest highway (maximum number of lanes): The Katy Freeway (part of Interstate 10) in Houston, Texas, has a total of 26 lanes in some sections . However, they are divided up into general use/ frontage roads/ HOV lanes, restricting the traverse traffic flow.

• Widest highway (number of maximum through lanes): Highway 401 through Mississauga, Ontario, has the most unrestricted free-flow lanes, at 22 (26 including restricted) .

• Highest international highway: The Karakoram Highway between Pakistan and China.

Social and environmental effects of highways

By reducing travel times relative to city or town 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. Consequently property values have decreased in many cutoff neighborhoods, leading to decreased housing quality over time.
• 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. The idea that highway design could be influenced by acoustical engineering considerations first arose about 1973.
• 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.
• New roads can create new traffic, sometimes referred to as induced demand. If not accurately predicted at the planning stage, this extra traffic may lead to the new road becoming congested sooner than anticipated. More roads add on to car-dependence. This may mean that by building a new road, there is only short-term mitigation of traffic congestion. In the long-term, even more cars may take over the excess road space - which exacerbates the problem. The induced demand phrase is often used as a catch-all phrase by proponents of freeway revolt.
• Lanes for High-Occupancy Vehicles are being added to some newer/reconstructed highways in North America and other countries around the world to encourage carpooling and mass-transit. These lanes help reduce the number of cars on the highway and thus reduces pollution and traffic congestion by promoting the use of carpooling in order to be able to use these lanes. However, they tend to require dedicated lanes on a highway which makes them difficult to construct in dense urban areas, where they are the most effective.

New highways can also cause habitat fragmentation, encourage urban sprawl and allow human intrusion into previously untouched areas, as well as (counterintuitively) increasing congestion, by increasing the number of intersections. They can also reduce the use of public transport, indirectly leading to greater pollution.

Highway systems by country

Australia

In Australia, a highway is a distinct type of road from freeways, expressways 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, expressway or motorway are generally reserved for the most arterial routes, usually with grade-separated intersections and usually significantly straightened and widened to a minimum of four lanes. 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. On the Hume Highway when traveling from Melbourne to Sydney there is only one set of traffic signals, found in Holbrook. Roads may be part-highway and part-freeway until they are fully upgraded. The Cahill expressway is the only "named" expressway in New South Wales, which opened in 1954 the first in New South Wales .

Austria

Belgium

Belgium has the highest density highway network of Europe following The Netherlands at 54.7 km per 1000 km². Most of its highways have three lanes with a few exceptions like the ring-roads around Brussels and Antwerp which have five or six lanes in various stretches. Belgium is situated at a crossroads of several different countries, and its highways are used by people of many nationalities. In Belgium the highways are indicated by the letter "A" and an E(uropean) number. The E numbers are used most often. Roads that are (part of) a ring-road around a city or a town are usually indicated by an R number.

Many of the highways in Belgium are illuminated at night, since there is a surplus of nuclear electric power during the off-peak hours of human activity. It is sometimes spuriously claimed that the Belgium illuminated highways ("the Belgium window"[1]), along with the Great Wall of China are the only man-made structures that are visible from outer space with the naked eye. This is highly incorrect, since the Great Wall of China was the only man-made stucture that was visible by American astronauts who were on the Moon during the Apollo project, and that was 400,000 km away from the Earth. From a low-Earth-orbital altitude of 200 km above the surface of the Earth, many, many man-made structures are visible with the naked eye, including as the Suez Canal, the wakes of large, fast ships at sea, such as aircraft carriers, the large cities of the world, and the large man-made reservoirs, such as Lake Mead, Lake Volta, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

As for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Pan-European Corridor Vc Motorway, Budapest - Osijek - Sarajevo - Ploce, is one of the most significant and project of the highest priority; in Bosnia and Herzegovina it coincides with A1 Motorway. The construction works on the road have already begun, but intensified beginning of the construction will be a key starter of economic and social activities, and will enable Bosnia and Herzegovina to be connected to main European traffic network, as well as to global European economic and social structure.

Construction of the motorway, whose total length is 340 km, will provide: rational connecting to neighboring countries and regions; stabilizing and developing effects will be reached; transport conditions and quality of life improvement; economy competitiveness enhancement; new projects launched and national and international private investments enhancement.

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 receive names (famous people, etc) their YY/BR-XXX designation (example: SP-280 is also known as Rodovia Castelo Branco).

Canada

• In Canada, there is no national standard for nomenclature, although in non-technical contexts highway appears to be most popular in most areas. The general speed limits on most Canadian highways range between on two-lane highways, and between on multi-lane, divided highways.
• Canada is the second largest country in the world in terms of land area, though it only has 1,350,581 kilometers (839,212 miles) of paved roads. This is far less highway and road distance than the United States, which is smaller, but has a milder climate and a larger, more dispersed population, and more than 6,000,000 kilometers of paved roads and highways. However, Canada still has many more roads and highways than Russia, the largest country in the world in land area, with an estimated just 336,000 kilometers (208,000 miles) of paved roads.

• The most extensive freeway network in Canada is in the well-populated southeastern Canada, linking southern Ontario, southern Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the United States. This makes the freeway network there very well-traveled, requiring these routes to be well-maintained to overcome the frequently harsh winter weather, and also wide enough to accommodate the high traffic volumes that they carry in large metropolitan areas, such as around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Detroit, to prevent the economical problems and frustrations that result from heavy traffic congestion, and also be safe enough to reduce the number of vehicle accidents.

• In Ontario, all public roads are legally defined as highways, though provincially managed roads are known legally as the King's Highways. In day-to-day usage, the term highway is used for provincial routes. It is also common for surface routes to be referred to by the phrase number (e.g. "Take Number 10 from Mississauga to Owen Sound"), especially by older generations. The words freeway or expressway are sometimes used to refer to controlled-access, high-speed, grade-separated highways such as the 400-series highways, the Gardiner Expressway, the Don Valley Parkway, the Conestoga Parkway, or the E.C. Row Expressway. The only highway officially labeled as a freeway is the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, usually known as Highway 401, or simply "the 401", which is sometimes North America's busiest single highway and the widest highway in the world at places near Toronto with nine lanes in each direction. Nearly all highways in Ontario use parclo interchanges, which were developed by the province. Parclos are used to avoid weaving, and to maximize efficiency and safety.

• In Quebec, major highways are called autoroutes in French, and expressways or autoroutes in English.

• Nova Scotia numbers its highways by the trunk routes they parallel. For example, Highway 107 parallels Trunk 7. This, to a lesser extent, also applies in Ontario (e.g. Highway 410 and Highway 420 parallel Highway 10 and Highway 20.) Nova Scotia also numbers its highways according to usage: main arterial highways are in the 100s, secondary or old arterial highways are numbered in the double digits from 1 to 28, and collector roads are numbered in the triple digits starting at 200.

• The Trans-Canada Highway (T.C.H.) is a highway that crosses all of Canada from east to west and enters all ten provinces. The actual condition T.C.H. ranges from a two-lane highway across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains to a multi-lane urban expressway. There are three or more ferry routes along the T.C.H., which allows the T.C.H. to connect to Newfoundland Island, Prince Edward Island, and Vancouver Island. However the comparatively-new Confederation Bridge allows driving from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island without using a ferry. (Ferries do connect this Island to Quebec, where the main route of the T.C.H. is.)

Since the Trans-Canada Highway is not a divided, multi-lane highway for the majority of its route, the T.C.H. is considered to be more of an equivalent to the U.S. Route highway network in the neighboring United States of America. On the other hand, Ontario's 400-series expressways, Quebec's autoroutes, New Brunswick's portion of the Trans-Canada Highway, and Nova Scotia's 100-series highways are provincial equivalents to the Interstate Highway System of the United States. The Canadian expressways interconnect with each other across provencial lines, and also with the American Interstate Highway System. For example, expressways in Quebec connect Montreal with the American border, and thence Interstate 87 continues from there to New York City, and likewise, Toronto is connected the border by Ontario expressways, and thence by Interstate Highway to Buffalo, New York.

Chile

Chile has a large Highway coverage which connects the whole country but with the exception of the Magallanes Region.

China, People's Republic

"Highways" in China, more often than not, refer to China National Highways. The fully controlled-access, multi-lane, divided routes are instead called expressways. , there were 3.573 million km of highways and 60,300 km of expressways in China; both total lengths are second only to the United States.

In Mainland China, private companies reimbursed through toll 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.

• M-prefix: National (Trunk) Expressways (planned)
• 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.

Croatia

Croatia has 13 highways and 10 expressways. The earliest highway in Croatia was built in 1971. The word highway is a common Croatian translation of the term autocesta, which describes a toll highway similar to a freeway or an Autobahn.

Denmark

With the completion in the past decade or so of some extremely-long highway bridge-tunnels it is now possible to drive back and forth between the mainland of Denmark ("Jutland") and the major island of the east where the capital city of Copenhagen is located. Also, there is now a bridge-tunnel that connects that major island with Sweden and its highway system (and also its railroad system). Thus, it is now possible to drive from Denmark not only to Germany, but to Sweden, too. Those bridge-tunnels are all interconnected within Denmark by major highways. These bridges, tunnels, and highways now make it possible to drive from northern Sweden to Gibraltar at the southern edge of Spain or to Messina, Italy, at the southern tip of the Italian "boot".

Finland

The national highways in Finland are numbered 1-29 and are in total 9.000 km long. This number system originates from 1938.

France

France has a national highway system dating back to Louis XV (see Corps of Ponts et Chaussées). The chaussées 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 departementales". 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).

Hungary

Hungary has 7 major motorways ("autópálya"):

• M0 is a quasi-circular highway for the traffic bypasing Budapest. It is divided in 4 sectors: Southern (links motorways M1, M7, M6 and M5), South-eastern (links Motorway M5 and Main Road nr. 4), Eastern (links Main Road nr. 4 and Motorway M3), Northern (links Main Road nr. 2 with the Megyeri Bridge) and Western (to be finished in 2015; will link main roads 11, 11 and Motorway M1). The total length will be around 100 km.[7851]
• M1: links Budapest and the north-western border with Austria (Hegyeshalom), then continues its way toward Vienna. The total length is around 170 km.
• M3: links Budapest and the north-eastern city of Miskolc (M30 branch), eastern cities of Nyíregyháza (M3) and Debrecen (M35 branch). Provides links toward Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania. It has a total length of around 250 km.
• M5: links Budapest and the southern city of Szeged, then the Serbian border (Röszke). It provides a connection to Southern Europe by route E75 and also links to route 68 in Romania. M5 motorway has a length of around 140 km.[7852]
• M7: links Budapest and the southern shore of Lake Balaton, then continues its way toward Croatia and Slovenia. Its length is about 230 km.
• M6: links Budapest and Dunaújváros, then will continue its way toward the southern city of Pécs. The current length is around 60 km.[7853]

Also, there are other smaller motorway sections that will be linked to the national motorway network in the future. See here an animation of Hungarian motorway developments (past, present and future): "Térkép animáció".Motorways usually have 2 traffic lanes and an emergency lane on each direction, divided by a green zone and metallic rail. The speed limit is 130 km/h.

Expressways usually have no dividing lane in the middle, but sometimes have a metallic rail. The number of lanes is one per direction, with sections of 1+2 lanes (for easier overtaking). The speed limit is 110 km/h. Motorways and expressways cannot be used by vehicles that are not able to reach 60 km/h. There is a toll on all motorways, except M0. Trucks and buses have a separate toll system. ([7854])

Main roads usually have one lane per direction, no dividing rail. The speed limit is 90 km/h.

County roads have less traffic then main roads, the speed limit is 90 km/h.

India

In India, 'Highway' refers to one of the many National Highways or State Highways that run up to a total length of about 67,000 km consisting mostly of two-lane paved roads, changing into higher lanes mostly around cities. National Highways are designated as NH followed by the number.As of 2009, the four major cities in India – Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Delhi – are connected by the Golden Quadrilateral, a set of highways forming a rough quadrilateral that consists of 4 to 6 laned roads. Other major cities are connected to it by the North-South and East-West Corridor.

An expressway refers to any access controlled road with grade-separated intersections and make up a very small portion of India's highway network, at about 200 km in length.. Expressways are separate from the highway network, except for the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, which is part of NH 8and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway which is part of NH 4.

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.

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Italy

In Italy the term highway can be applied to superstrada (can be translated as expressway and it is toll free) and autostrada (Italian term for motorway: the most part of the system it is mandatory toll). Italy was the first country in the world to build such roads, the first one being the "Autostrada dei Laghi" (Autostrada of the Lakes), from Milan to Varese, built in 1921 and finished in 1924. This system of early motorways was extended in the early 1930s till the early 1970s. Now days the Autostrade is a comprehensive system of about 6.500 km of modern motorways where the maximum speed limit is 130 km/h.

Japan

The expressways, or kōsokudōro (high speed roads), of Japan are made of a huge network of freeway-standard toll roads. Once government-owned, they have been a turned over to private companies. Most expressways are four lanes with a central reservation, or median. The speed limits, with certain regulations and great flexibility, usually include a maximum speed of 100 km/h, and a minimum speed of 50 km/h. There are also expresways not able to classified as national or urban expressways.

Lithuania

Malaysia

The highest level of major roads in Malaysia, expressway , 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.

Mexico

This is a list of numbered federal highways (carreteras federales) in Mexico. Federal Highways from north to south are assigned odd numbers; highways from west to east are assigned even numbers. The numbering schema starts in the northwest of the country (Tijuana, BC). This list identifies the road terminus always starting from the north or the west end of the highway.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, both motorway and an expressway have at least two-lanes of traffic in either direction separated by a median, with no access to adjacent properties. The distinction depends on the type of traffic allowed to use the route. Non-vehicular traffic and farm-equipment are prohibited from motorways, while pedestrians, cyclists, tractors, and farm animals are legally entited to use expressways such as the Waikato Expressway south of the Bombay Hills and the Tauranga expressway system, although this is rare. New Zealand's main routes are designated state highways as they are funded by the National Government. 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 standards 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.

The Netherlands

The Autosnelweg system is in constant development. Most of its parts are owned and funded by the government, but in recent times Public-private partnership come more and more into practice, such as in a part of the A59 between Oss and 's-Hertogenbosch. The Netherlands has the highest density highway network of Europe at 56.5 km per 1000 km², followed by Belgium. The 'Autosnelwegen', the main corridors, are designated with an A while the minor connecting roads have an N number. Sections of the A network are also part of the International E-road network in connecting with neighboring Belgium, Germany and England, the latter by ferry. The speed limit is 120 km/h, unless noted otherwise, and 100 km/h or 80 km/h on various locations. This is done to "protect the environment" and to limit noise to surrounding residential areas, albeit not too effective a measure.

Norway

Norway has a national highway system, numbered 2-899. Some main highways are also European highways and have an E before the number. The highways are often relatively narrow and curvy. Near the larger cities, especially around Oslo and Trondheim, there are motorways. Norway has also been engaged in recent decades in boring some extremely-long highway tunnels through the mountain ranges, and some of these, now the world's longest, are so long that they have hollowed-out caverns in the midst of them for motorists to stop and take rests.

Pakistan

Pakistan has its own network of highways and motorways. Motorways extending from M1 to M10 will eventually connect whole length of the country from Peshawar to Karachi. The M2, the first motorway, was built in 1997 with the contract being awarded to the Korean firm Daewoo. It linked the federal capital Islamabad with Punjab's provincial capital Lahore. The network was then extended to Sargodha and then to Faisalabad with the M3. M1 highway to the North-West Frontier Province's capital Peshawar had been completed in October 2007. M4, M5, M6, and M7 have been planned and also being built by local and foreign firms. This will connect Faisalababd, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rotadero (Larkana) to Karachi. N5 links Karachi to other cities.Entry on all Pakistan highways is restricted to fast moving wheelers only. Slow-moving traffic and two wheelers (such as motorcycles and bicycles) are not allowed and construction and agricultural machinery is also restricted. Highway Police personnel use heavy motor bikes and fast moving Range Rovers for patrolling and are quite good at maintaining the traffic system. M9 and M10 are also functional now that connect Karachi to Hayderabad. The LSM (Lahore Sialkot Motorway) which is 103 km is under construction and will be completed by 2010.

Philippines

Many Philippine expressways are privately owned and maintained. All are located in the largest island, Luzon. They follow the US Interstate Highway Standards and speed limits are strictly enforced. The most modern and the longest expressway, the North Luzon Expressway links the capital, Manila to other provinces in Northern Luzon while the South Luzon Expressway links Manila with provinces on the Southern Luzon.

Presently, all Philippine expressways are under rehabilitation to decrease the occurrence of traffic jams and to improve their quality. They are widened and improved of standards.

There are only seven tollways in Luzon Island, the North Luzon Expressway (connecting Manila to North Luzon), the South Luzon Expressway (connecting Manila to Southern Luzon), the Roman Expressway (in Bataan peninsula), Subic Freeport Expressway (connecting Subic Freeport to Dinalupihan), the Southern Tagalog Access Road (STAR Tollway) (connecting Sto. Tomas to Batangas Port, to decongest the Port of Manila and it will be connected directly to South Luzon Expressway), and the Manila-Cavite Expressway, connecting Metro Manila with the Province of Cavite, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (connecting the existing Subic Freeport Expressway to Clark Zone and Hacienda Luisita and also extending North Luzon Expressway to Tarlac City but it has 3 km gap between NLEx and SCTEx).

Despite that many highways in Metro Manila, there are still two lane and one way roads like national and provincial roads around the country.

There are plans to extend the existing expressways and to build a new one throughout the Philippines, the Tarlac-La Union Expressway aims to extend North Luzon Expressway to the area near Poro Point but it will be extended initially to Rosario in La Union, Tarlac-Dingalan Expressway aims to convert Dingalan into an International Pacific Port and to decongest the Port of Manila, The Cebu Trans-Axial Expressway aims to benefit Cebu's economy and to decongest the island's coastal road and to protect Cebu's coastal areas from severe exploitation, North East Luzon Expressway aims to connect Metro Manila to Cagayan Valley but it will be built initially to Nueva Ecija. South Luzon Expressway will be extended towards Lucena City.

Portugal

Poland

Romania

Romania currently has two operational highways, summing up to 279 km; that is the least developed motorway network among all the European Union members. They are now being extended and additionally, another three motorways are planned to be built by 2016.

• Bucharest-Pitesti highway: 127 of 620 km built; completion in 2014
• Autostrada Soarelui (Highway of the Sun): 152 of 204 km built; completion in 2010
• Autostrada Transilvania (Transylvania highway): 10 of 588 km built; completion in 2013
• East-West highway: 300 km planned for completion by 2015
• Autostrada Moldova (Moldova highway): 314 km planned for completion by 2016

Taxes

There are no tolls for using the motorways in Romania, except one bridge over the Danube on the A2. Nevertheless, every car that uses a motorway or a national road in Romania must wear a sticker called a rovinietă on its windscreen, which can be bought at larger petrol stations.

Russia

Russia has many highways, but only small number of them are currently motorways. Examples of Russian motorways are Moscow and Saint Petersburg Ring Roads. Highways and motorways are free in Russia and only two motorways, Western High Speed Diameter and Moscow-Saint Petersburg toll motorway, currently under construction, will be first Russian toll motorways. It must be noted that Russians themselves often translate the Russian name for highway (Автомобильные дороги=automobile roads) into motorway in English, which is not a correct English name.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has a total highway length of 173,000 km. Highways in Saudi Arabia vary from ten laned roads to small four laned roads. The city highways and other major highways are well maintained such as the roads in Riyadh. The roads are constructed so they resist the summer's extremely high heat and do not reflect the strong sun. The outer city highways such as the one linking from coast to coast are not as great as the inner-city highways but the government is now working on rebuilding those roads.

Some of the important inter-city highways include:

• Dammam - Khafji Highway (457 km)
• Jeddah - Makkah Highway (75 km)
• Makkah - Madinah Al Munawarah Highway (421 km)
• Riyadh - Dammam Highway (395 km)
• Riyadh - Qasim Highway (317 km)
• Riyadh - Makkah Highway (950 km)
• Taif - Abha Highway (950 km)

Singapore

The expressways of Singapore are all dual carriageways with grade-separated access. They usually have three lanes in each direction, although there are two- or four-lane carriageways in some places. There are nine expressways, with another one, the Marina Coastal Expressway, currently under construction.

Construction on the first expressway, the Pan Island Expressway, started in 1966. The other expressways were completed in stages, with the first phase of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway being the most recently completed, in 2007. Today, there are 92.5 miles (148 km) of expressways in Singapore.

Slovenia

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 the carriageways in opposite directions. As in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Japan, South Africans drive on the left-hand side of the road and nearly 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.

South Korea

Expressways in South Korea were originally numbered in order of construction. Since August 24, 2001, they have been numbered in a scheme somewhat similar to that of the Interstate Highway System in the United States:

• Arterial routes are designated by two-digit route numbers, with north-south routes having odd numbers, and east-west routes having even numbers. Primary routes (i.e. major thoroughfares) have five and zero as their last digits respectively, while lesser (secondary) routes have various final digits.
• Branch routes have three-digit route numbers, where the first two digits match the route number of an arterial route.
• Belt lines have three-digit route numbers where the first digit matches the respective city's postal code.
• Route numbers in the range 70-99 are not used in South Korea and are reserved for designations in the event of Korean reunification.
• The Gyeongbu Expressway kept its Route 1 designation, as it is South Korea's first and most important expressway.

Spain

Spain's national highway system dates back to the era of King Carlos III. The roads built at this time, radiating from Madrid, form the basis for the carreteras nacionales radiales, numbered clockwise from I to VI, which radiate from Madrid to major ports or border crossings. In the 1960s Spain constructed autopistas (toll highways) and autovias, and nowadays (2005) has 15,000 km of highways.

Sweden

The first freeway in Sweden was built between the cities of Malmö and Lund in the Skåne County in southern Sweden. The Swedish roads are divided in three classes; Motorväg, which is a 4-8 lane freeway with the speed limit of 110-120 km/h. Riksväg, which is a state highway with 2-4 lanes. The Riksväg has a speed limit of 70-100 km/h. The last road is the Länsväg, which is a "county route" with 2 lanes and 70–90 km/h in speed limit. The authority which is responsible for the roads in Sweden is Vägverket.

Switzerland

The term Autobahn (German) / Autoroute (French) / Autostrada (Italian) 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 / Semi-autoroute / Semi-autostrada, translated into English as a motorroad. Those often have a lower speed limit than motorways.

Taiwan

The construction of Taiwan's national highways began in 1971 and the design is heavily based on the American Interstate Highway System. The Northern section between Keelung City and Zhongli City was completed in 1974. The construction of the first freeway (No. 1) was completed in 1978. The freeway runs from the northern harbor Keelung to the southern harbor Kaohsiung. There was an 8.6 km branch (No. 1A) connecting the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Construction on the other freeways began in the late 1980s. The north section of the second north-south freeway (No. 3) between Xizhi City and Hsinchu City was completed in 1997. The No. 1A Branch was extended to link No. 3 Freeway at Yingge, and renamed as No. 2 Freeway. Three other short freeways (No. 4, No. 8, and No. 10) were built to link the two north-south freeways in Taichung County, Tainan County, and Kaohsiung County, respectively. The entire No. 3 Freeway was completed in January, 2004.

To ease the congestion of No. 1 Freeway in the Taipei metropolitan area, a 20 km elevated bridge was built in 1997 on top of the original freeway between Xizhi City and Wugu, to serve as a bypass for traffic not exiting/entering the freeway within the city limits of Taipei.

The construction of a freeway connecting the Taipei metropolitan area and Yilan County began in 1991 and was completed in June 2006. It includes a 12.9 km tunnel (Hsuehshan Tunnel), which is the fifth longest road tunnel in the world. An extension from Yilan County to Hualian County is planned. However, its construction is being delayed due to environmental concerns.

Turkey

Turkey's main highway is E80 (former E5) runs from Edirne to the capital Ankara.

The United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, unless a route is classified as a motorway, the term which is used for a vehicular highway may be main road, trunk road, 'A' road/'B' road, "'C' road", "unclassified road", or, where appropriate, dual carriageway. However, in the law of England and Wales the term public highway includes all public rights of way regardless of the kind or amount of traffic they allow, including streets and public footpaths for pedestrians. The term also includes bridleways, which are for pedestrians, equestrians, and cyclists, as well as by-ways open to all traffic (for all of those users, plus vehicular traffic).

In England and Wales, the public is said to have a "right of way" over a highway. This means that, subject to statutory restrictions, the route (or "way") must be kept clear to allow travel by anyone who wishes to it. At common law, it is unlawful to obstruct a highway or to interfere with its lawful use. However, many statutory provisions provide powers to do so (for instance. to carry out roadwork).

Many public highways in the U.K. have a private owner. That is, someone can prove "title" to them, either by being the registered owner or by having conveyances showing exactly how the land has been bought and sold over a long period of time. Such ownership in no way affects the public highway rights, since the relevant "highway authority" (usually a local authority or the Highways Agency in England and Wales, or Amey Highways in Scotland) is deemed to own the surface of the highway, despite someone else's ownership of the land it passes over or under.

However, the understanding in some places is that if the road or highway is ever permanently closed and demolished, then complete control of the strip of land on which it lies reverts to the actual owner of the land. In other places, the word "easement" is used. The governmental authority has an indefinitely-long easement to use the strip of land for a road, but if the road vanishes, so does the easement that goes with it. It is possible that sometime in the far future, roads and highways will become obsolete, with people and cargo getting from here to there by some other means. Thus, some of the statements below are short-sighted and questionable.

Rights-of-way exist over all highways maintained at the public expense (the majority of roads) and also over some other ways which are not so maintained, on the principle of "once a highway, always a highway". In such cases, landowners must allow public use for "passing and repassing".

A right-of-way may be created by custom (by the way being used for a long period of time) or under the relevant Sections of the Highways Act of 1980. A right-of-way may be extinguished or diverted in a number of ways, such as by an Act of Parliament, by a magistrates' stopping-up or diversion order, or by powers given to principal local authorities. For instance, under the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act of 1996, authority was given for the builder of this railway link to stop up certain highways that are mentioned in Schedule 3 of the act.

The opposite of a highway is a private road or pathway over which no rights-of-way exist. Any use of such private ways is subject to the consent of the owner of the land.

The 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:

1. a high-speed, limited-access road like expressways, freeways, and large toll highways.
2. an important road that connects cities and large towns.
3. any road or street, or a travel way of any kind, including pedestrian ways, trails, and navigable waterways, to which the public has a perpetual right of use.

Note that the phrase "right-of-way" is used differently in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom and certain other places. In the U.S. a highway or road "right-of-way" means the land on which the pavement rests, plus the shoulders beside the pavements, plus any median strip, plus any other adjacent piece of land that is designated for the purposes of the highway or road. In other words, the "right-of-way" is the strip of land for the highway or road, and a sign that say, "No Parking on Right-of-Way" means just that: don't park on the pavement or on the land adjacent to it.

Many paved highways for vehicles are part of the official National Highway System of the U.S.. Paved highways in the "U.S. Highway" system (for example, U.S. Highway 50) can vary from two lanes wide (one lane each direction), shoulderless, roads with no access control, to multi-lane high-speed controlled-access highway, such as the Interstate Highways. These roads are usually distinguished by being important, but not always the primary, routes that connect populated areas. (Sometimes, the primary route is a State Highway.) Since their inception many decades ago, the construction of "U.S. Highways", and their major imporvements, have been paid for 50% with Federal funds, especially from motor fuel taxes, and 50% with State funds from whatever tax resources that the state has. Thus, the the system of "U.S. Highways" has always been an equal partnership between the Federal Government and the State governments. This was a plan that changed dramatically with the advent of the Interstate Highway system beginning in the 1950s, but do not forget that the system of "U.S. Highways" continued to be upgraded under the 50%-50% funding. Highways continue to be widened, old bridges continue to be replaces with newer and better ones, and so forth.

The term "Highways" in the U.S. even includes major paved roads that serve purposes similar to those of the U.S. Highways or Interstate Highways, but which are completely designed, paid for, and maintained by state or local governments. An example of this is Tennessee Highway 840, which is a long, partially-completed bypass of Nashville, Tenn. that is a multi-lane, controlled-access highway entirely designed and paid for by Tennessee. Much of the traffic on it will eventually come from Interstate 40, completely avoid the big city, and then return to Interstate 40. Incidentally, Tennessee-840 also has connections with Interstate 24 and Interstate 65, where both of the freeway interchanges are already finished, as well as the eastern interchange with Interstate 40.

When the Act of Congress that authorized the Interstate Highway System was passed and then signed by President Eisenhower, it was already clear that the Interstate Highways would be far more expensive, mile-for-mile, than the U.S. Highways had been. Also, the Interstate Highways were to be built largely, for the purposes of constitutionality, for Federal purposes which were,A. To promote and enable the National Defense by being able to move very large numbers of troops, and their equipment and supplies from place to place, rapidly, by truck and bus. Also, long stretches of the expressway would have the capability of functioning as emergency take-off and landing strips for Air Force planes in wartime.B. To promote and enable commerce between the 48 states that existed then, under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the ConstitutionWith these being the stated purposes of the Interstate Highways (and also the source of the name "Interstate Highway", from the Commerce Clause), and because of their great cost, Congress decided to set the standard for Federal funding for the Interstate System at 90%, leaving 10% for the States to pay for.

Another monetary difference came from the fact that the Interstate Highways were to be designed to be high-speed and safe expressways. This meant that they needed to have much wider open strips of land along their sides, because this created safety zones on each side of the highways so that vehicles that were in accidents or simply lost control would have somewhere to go, to slow down gradually, and not crash into trees, boulders, light poles, buildings, parked vehicles, fire hydrants, and other kinds of obstacles that you can think of. Roadway interchanges for Interstate Highways were also to be very large (and over the decades, they became a lot larger than anyone had anticipated in the 1950s). With so much land being taken away for the highways, the only way to justify it and to make it politically palatable was for the Federal and State governments to outright purchase all of the land. There could be no question of just having an easement for the highway and its right-of-way. All of the land within the right-of-way would be permanently owned by the governments, until such time that they decided to get rid of the highway and sell the land.

In some places, "highway" is a synonym for "road" or "street", and in some cases, the word "highway" is simply used in cases of carelessness and laziness on the part of the speaker, who believes that "street", "road", and "highway" are all synonomous and uses them accordingly. On the other hand, in another example, the California Motor Vehicle 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." The California Supreme Court has held that "the definition of 'highway' in the Vehicle Code is used for special purposes of that act," and that canals of the town of Venice, California, are "highways" also entitled to be maintained with state highway funds.

The Federal and State governments are trying to improve their national highway systems by repaving highways, widening highways, replacing bridges, and reconstructing some interchanges. Many cloverleaf interchanges are being converted to parclo interchanges. Busy Diamond interchanges are also being converted to SPUIs (single-point-urban interchange) or to parclos to reduce interchange congestion.

Arguably, the most famous United States highway is U.S. Route 66. It is immortalized in the song Route 66, and by the legendary TV series Route 66. Other famous highways in songs include Highway 61 (Bob Dylan, 1965), Carefree Highway in Arizona (Gordon Lightfoot, 1974), Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California (Jan & Dean, also Beach Boys, 1964), the song Ventura Highway, named for a highway in Southern California ("America", 1972), and Blues Highway in Mississippi (Fred McDowell, 1959).

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe uses two types of highway, which are called autofamba and autoruwendo. Zimbabwe has an excellent road network, but it is poorly maintained.

Further information

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

• List of highways in Israel
• Motorways of Pakistan
• Autobahns of Austria (Austria)
• Autobahns of Germany (Germany)
• Autobahns of Switzerland (Switzerland)
• Autocesta (Croatia)
• Auto-Estrada (Portugal, notable for the introduction of the world's first electronic toll collection system, the Via Verde.)
• Autofamba (Zimbabwe)
• Autópálya (Hungary)
• Autopista (Spain)
• Autoput (Serbia)
• Autoput or Autocesta (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Autoroute (France)
• Autoroute (Quebec)
• Autostrada (Italy, Poland, Romania, Egypt)
• Avtocesta (Slovenia)
• Avtomagistrala (Bulgaria), (Ukraine)
• Expressway (Mainland China)
• Expressway (Malaysia)
• Freeway, Expressway, and Parkway (United States)
• Freeway (Canada)
• Freeway (Taiwan)
• Kōsokudōro (Japan)
• Manitoba's Primary Routes (Manitoba) (Canada)
• Motorväg (Sweden)
• Motorvei (Norway)
• Motorway (United Kingdom)
• Motorway (Ireland)
• National Highways (India)
• National Trunk Highway System (Mainland China)
• Rodovia (Brazil)
• Rijksweg Snelweg (The Netherlands)
• Trans-Canada Highway (Canada)
• Transportation of Israel Israeli Expressways, named "Kvish Mahir" (expressway in Hebrew)
• 100-series Highways / 100-Series Highways (Nova Scotia) (Canada)
• 200-Series Highways (Alberta) (Canada)
• 400-Series Highways (Ontario) (Canada)

See also

• Air pollution
• American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE)
• Bypass route
• Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
• Earthquake engineering
• FHWA Series fonts, the standard typeface for highway signs in the United States and Canada
• Highway advisory radio
• Highwayman
• Infrastructure
• List of roads and highways
• List of OECD countries by highway network size
• NAFTA superhighway
• Roadway noise
• Roadway air dispersion modeling
• Passing lane
• Ring road
• Road
• Road junction
• Road safety
• Toll road

References

1. Black's Law Dictionary
2. Whereas the California Vehicle Code, Sections 360, 590, define a "highway" as only a way open for use of motor vehicles, the California Supreme Court has held that "the definition of 'highway' in the Vehicle Code is used for special purposes of that act," and that canals in the town of Venice, California, are "highways" that are entitled to be maintained with state highway funds.
3. In England and Wales, a "Public Highway" is an road or footpath over which the public has the right of access, i.e. the opposite of a "private road".
4. [1]
5. Chinese highways & Expressways ( 中国高速 ) - Page 2 - SkyscraperCity
6. DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY_ Expressways Being Built at Frenetic Pace
7. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-01/16/content_7403145.htm
8. John Shadely, Acoustical analysis of the New Jersey Turnpike widening project between Raritan and East Brunswick, Bolt Beranek and Newman, 1973
9. Michael Hogan, Highway Noise, 3rd Environmental Pollution Symposium, sponsored by AIAA, ACS, ASME,SAE, held at SRI International, Menlo Park, Ca. April 17-18, 1973
10. [2]
11. Footways and Footpaths - what's the difference in law? at omgili.com: "A footway is part of the highway set aside for foot use whereas a footpath is a highway for use only on foot."

External links

• Legal definition in Canada
• Legal opinion, Kansas, U.S.A.
• U.S. Highways: From US 1 to (US 830)
• Full list of Euroroutes with distances
• Euroroutes with distances
• Proposed Trans-Global Highway
• The Greenroads Rating System