1 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 some countries, the term highway is not generally used at all.

1.1 United States

In the U.S., the terms expressway and freeway are legally defined by federal regulation and under the laws of most states according to civil engineering usage. However, the distinction between these two terms is not universal, and in several states which built freeways very early on (including Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), the terms expressway and freeway have the same meaning with expressway. In those states, expressway, the older usage, is often preferred.

In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, newer roads are often officially styled freeways, where older roads retain the title "expressway". In the rest of the country, freeway is the usual term; however, the distinction between freeways and expressways is not always as clear or well-understood as it is in California, which has many of both kinds of highway. In California, freeways are divided, grade-separated, controlled-access highways where private driveways, pedestrians, and bicyclists are forbidden, and where speed limits range from 55 to 70 miles per hour. Expressways are divided, but may have at-grade or grade-separated intersections as demand requires, private driveways are minimized (but not completely forbidden), bicyclists and pedestrians are sometimes allowed, and the speed limits range from 45 to 55 miles per hour. All interstate highway routes in California are freeways, most important intracity state routes are freeways, and most important intercity state routes are expressways (with sections being upgraded to freeways as necessary).

In the U.S., the term highway technically has the broader meaning given at the beginning of this article (encompassing all state government-maintained roads for cross-city or inter-city traffic), but in colloquial usage is often used to refer only the subset of that category that includes roads less important than a freeway. That subset generally includes roads with 2, 4, or 6 lanes, with or without a center divider, that have at-grade intersections and driveways connecting to adjacent properties. However, even then, such highways are usually built to higher standards (wider lanes and more durable pavement) than the connecting arterial routes, streets, alleys, and driveways.

In Colorado and in the United States, the highest continuous road is Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The term highway is also often used in colloquial speech where the correct term would be "State Route," or "U.S. Route." For example, California residents frequently refer to Highway 101 rather than U.S. 101.

1.2 Canada

In Canada, there does not appear to be a national standard for nomenclature, although freeway appears to be winning out except in Ontario where expressway or 400-Series is used, and in Quebec where they are called autoroutes (borrowing the term from French).

1.3 Australia and New Zealand

in Australia, the word freeway is generally used. The term motorway, in metropolitan Australia is generally reserved for freeways that have been designated a metropolitan route number, and in Sydney, a motorway has a toll, whereas a freeway is free of charge.

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.

1.4 Great Britain and Ireland

In Great Britain and Ireland, 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 previous 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 "carriageway", "footpath", "bridleway" or "byway"

In England and Wales the public are traditionally given a "right of way" by the Crown to a highway in accordance with the status the route carrys. This is distinct from the tradition in most republics, in which the territory of the nation is regarded as belonging to the public at large and there is a presumption that an individual may travel anywhere that they are not lawfully prohibition from do so.

1.5 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.

1.6 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. Autostrasse often have a lower speed limit than autobahns.

1.7 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 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.

1.8 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.

2 Further information

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

• Autopista ( Spain)
• Autoroute ( France)
• Autoroute ( Quebec)
• Autobahn ( Germany)
• Autostrada ( Italy)
• Expressway ( China)
• Freeway, Expressway, and Parkway ( United States)
• Freeway ( Canada)
• Motorway ( United Kingdom)
• Motorway ( Ireland)
• National Trunk Highway System ( Mainland China)

3 See also

• road
• Bypass
• List of roads and highways
• Passing lane
• Ring road
• Road safety
• Toll road
• Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000

Road transport

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