Beltway, orbital motorway and similar terms refer to an expressway/motorway/freeway style standard road that often originally enclosed the built up area and was later encroached upon by developed areas.

Ring road may sometimes refer to a beltway-style road, but more commonly indicates a road or series of roads within a city or town that have been joined together by town planners to form an orbital distributor style road, but where the standard of road could be anything from an ordinary city street up to an expressway level. The principal difference is that a ring road is an orbital distributor road system designed from already existing roads, as opposed to a beltway which is designed from new as such a road system. A ring road designation also implies a more inner-city road designed to route traffic around a city centre, as opposed to routing traffic around a larger conurbation.

Some cities have proposed or built multiple concentric beltways and/or ring roads.

Many beltway-style roads are part of a wider highway system, for example in the United States beltways are commonly a part of an interstate highway system.

In the US, the slang word Beltway occasionally refers to politics conducted inside the Beltway in Washington, DC.

World List

Africa

South Africa

• Johannesburg Ring Road
• Durban Outer Ring Road
• Peninsula Expressway, Cape Town
• Pretoria Bypass

Americas (North and South)

Canada

• Alberta Highway 201, Calgary, Alberta
• Alberta Highway 216, Edmonton, Alberta
• Perimeter Highway, Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Outer Ring Road, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Nova Scotia Highway 111, Halifax, Nova Scotia/Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
• Nova Scotia Highway 125, Sydney, Nova Scotia
• Ring Road, Regina, Saskatchewan
• Circle Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Mexico

• Periférico Manuel Gómez Morín, Guadalajara, Jalisco. The ring has a gap: it starts at the Autopista México 44, circles around the city as a 3+3 lane highway, becomes a 2+2 lane road in the Tonalá municipality, and ends abruptly in the Río Nilo avenue.
• Anillo Periférico, Mexico City. The beltway gained major media attention when the Mexico City mayor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, started a project to turn the ring into a two-story highway. As of 2005, the second floor is currently under construction.

United States

=Colorado

• Interstate 225, Aurora
• E-470, Aurora

=Florida

• Interstate 295, Jacksonville

=Georgia

• Interstate 285 (The Perimeter), Atlanta
• Georgia Loop 120 (S./N. Marietta Parkway), Marietta

=Kentucky

• Ring Road, Elizabethtown (a regular surface street)
• Interstate 264 (Henry Watterson Expressway), Louisville
• Interstate 265 (Gene Snyder Freeway), Louisville
• Man o' War Boulevard, Lexington
• New Circle Road, Lexington (mostly freeway, partly surface street)

=Illinois

• Interstate 294, Chicago

=Indiana

• Interstate 465, Indianapolis

=Louisiana

• Interstate 220, Shreveport

=Maryland

• Interstate 695 (Baltimore Beltway), Baltimore
• Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)

=Massachusetts

• Massachusetts State Highway 128, Boston
• Interstate 495, Boston

=Minnesota

• Interstate 494/Interstate 694, Minneapolis-St. Paul
• Minnesota State Highway 100, Minneapols-St. Paul (now truncated, never all-expressway)

=Missouri

• Interstate 435, Kansas City
• Interstate 255/Interstate 270, St. Louis

=Nebraska

• Interstate 480, Omaha

=Nevada

• Interstate 215 (Bruce Woodbury Expressway), Las Vegas
• McCarran Blvd. (State Route 650 / 651), Reno, Nevada

=New Jersey/New York

• Interstate 287, New York City

=North Carolina

• Interstate 440, Raleigh
• Interstate 485, Charlotte (under construction)
• Interstate 540, Wake County (unfinished)
• Interstate 840, Greensboro (under construction)

=Ohio

• Interstate 270, Columbus
• Interstate 271/480, Cleveland- Not a true beltway, but the two highways do form a circumferential highway around Cleveland as limited by geography.
• Interstate 275, Cincinnati

=Pennsylvania

• Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Belt System, Pittsburgh (set of six color-coded non-highway beltways)
• Interstate 576 (proposed), a proposed toll beltway route around Pittsburgh.

=Rhode Island

• Interstate 295, Providence
• Downtown Ring Roads, Providence
• Downtown Circulator, Pawtucket

=South Carolina

• I-526, (Mark Clark Expressway/James Island Expressway), Charleston (unfinshed)

=Tennessee

• Tennessee State Route 840, Nashville (unfinished)

=Texas

• Interstate 410 (Loop 410), San Antonio
• Interstate 610 (The 610 Loop), Houston
• Interstate 635/I20 (LBJ), Dallas
• Interstate 820 (Loop 820), Fort Worth
• Texas State Highway Beltway 8 (Sam Houston Tollway), Houston
• Texas State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway), Houston (unfinished)
• Texas State Highway Loop 12, Dallas
• Texas State Highway Loop 323, Tyler
• Texas State Highway Loop 336, Conroe
• Texas State Highway Loop 1604, San Antonio

=Utah

• Interstate 215 Salt Lake City

=Virginia

• Interstate 64/Interstate 664 (Hampton Roads Beltway)
• Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)
• Interstate 295, Richmond

=Washington, DC

• Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)

=Wisconsin

• West Beltline Highway - U.S. 12/18 (Madison, Wisconsin)

Asia

China

• 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Ring Roads, Beijing
• 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ring Roads, Chengdu
• Shenyang Round City Expressway, Shenyang
• Tangshan Round City Expressway, Tangshan
• Inner, Middle and Outer Ring Roads, Tianjin

Hong Kong

• Route 9, a ring road linking most of the suburbs in Hong Kong together

Philippines

=Metro Manila

• C-1, Metro Manila
• C-2, Metro Manila
• C-3, Metro Manila
• EDSA(C-4), Metro Manila
• C-5, Metro Manila
• Proposed C-6, Metro Manila

India

• Inner and Outer Ring Roads, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• Central, Intermediate, and Outer Ring Roads, Bangalore, Karnataka
• Delhi Ring Road, Delhi Outer Ring Road and the proposed Western Peripheral Expressway, National Capital Region
• Bandra-Worli Sea Link and the proposed Western Freeway Sea Link, Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Ring Road comprising Rajarhat Expressway (feeds the ring road), Barasat Bypass (northwestern orbital) and Eastern Expressway, ^* (Eastern orbital, not a motorway), Calcutta, West Bengal
• Ahmedabad Bypass, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
• Jaipur Bypass, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Japan

=Tokyo

• Tokyo Expressway
• Shuto Expressway C1 Inner Circular Route
• Shuto Expressway C2 Central Circular Route
• Tokyo-Gaikan Expressway
• Ken-O Expressway

=Osaka

• Hanshin Expressway Loop route
• Kinki Expressway

South Korea

=Seoul

• Seoul Ring Expressway

=Daejeon

• Daejeon Southern Beltway

Malaysia

=Johor Bahru

• Johor Bahru Inner Ring Road
• Johor Bahru Middle Ring Road, comprising:
  • Pasir Gudang Highway
  • Johor Bahru Parkway
  • Tuas Second Link

=Kuala Lumpur

• Kuala Lumpur Inner Ring Road
• Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 1
• Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2

Australia

New South Wales

• Sydney Orbital Motorway, Sydney

Queensland

• Brisbane Orbital, comprising:
  • Gateway Motorway (eastern orbital)
  • Logan Motorway (southern orbital)
  • Western Bypass Motorway (proposed western orbital)
• Inner City Bypass (inner north ring road)

Victoria

• Metropolitan Ring Road, Melbourne
• Geelong Ring Road, Geelong

Western Australia

• Perth Inner Orbital:
  • Reid Highway (northern)
  • Tonkin Highway (eastern)
  • Leach Highway (southern)
• Perth Outer Orbital:
  • Roe Highway (eastern)
  • Roe Freeway (southern)
• Bunbury Ring Road (proposed outer bypass), Bunbury

Europe

Austria

• Gürtel (Outer Ring), Vienna
• Ringstraße (Inner Ring), Vienna

Belgium

• R0 (Brussels Ring), Brussels
• R1 (Antwerpse Ring), Antwerp

Finland

• Kehä I (Ring 1), encircling Helsinki while also passing through Espoo, for local traffic
• Kehä II (Ring 2), traffic loadout highway through Espoo, for local traffic (Kehä II is not an actual ring road but only a stub - the complete ring is not yet even planned)
• Kehä III (Ring 3), bypass of Helsinki, part of E18, encircling Helsinki through Vantaa, Espoo and Kirkkonummi, for local traffic and long distance traffic

France

• Périphérique, Paris
• Périphérique de Toulouse (A620, A612), Toulouse
• Périphérique de Lyon (A7, N383), Lyon. West segment is still under construction.
• Périphérique de Bordeaux : (A630, N230), Bordeaux
• Périphérique de Caen ( N814), Caen
• Périphérique de Lille (A22, A25, N352) Lille
• Périphérique de Nantes (N8444, N249), Nantes. Longest beltway of France.
• Périphérique de Rennes (N136), Rennes

Germany

• Berliner Ring (A 10), Berlin
• Kölner Ring (A 1, A 3, A 4), Cologne
• Münchener Ring (A 99), Munich

Greece

• Attiki Odos, Athens
• Greece Interstate 4 (Thessaloniki Beltway), Thessaloníki
• Greece Interstate 8A (Patras Beltway), Patras (Roitika to near University of Patras)

Hungary

• Motorway M0 (Budapest)
• Section of Motorway M35 bypassing Debrecen

Iceland

• Route 1, which circles the entire country

Italy

• Grande Raccordo Anulare, Rome
• Tangenziale, Milan

Netherlands

• Ring A10 Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Ring A20 Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Poland

• Obwodnica Trójmiejska, Tricity

Republic of Ireland

• M50 motorway, Dublin

Russia

• Garden Ring, Moscow
• Third Ring, Moscow
• MKAD, Moscow

Spain

• M30 motorway, Madrid, Spain
• M40 motorway, Madrid, Spain

United Kingdom

• M25 motorway, London, England
• M60 motorway, Manchester, England
• M42 motorway - M6 motorway - M5 motorway, Birmingham, England

source: http://kartta.hel.fi/opas/en/

See also

• Downtown circulator

Road infrastructure | Road transport | Orbital roads

Ringautobahn | Périphérique (route) | Tangenziale | Ringweg | Obwodnica | Кольцевая автодорога | Kehätie