For a road free of cross traffic, see freeway.

An expressway is a divided highway, usually 4 lanes or wider. Beyond that basic requirement, the specific meaning of expressway depends upon the locality.

In many places, the word "expressway" is so loosely defined that it can describe roads such as:

• freeways with full access controls, grade separations, and high design speeds, such as the newer part of the North Central Expressway in Dallas, Texas, USA;
• arterial roads with partial control of access; and
• major surface streets with little or no access controls such as the older part of the North Central Expressway that passes through downtown Dallas.

Other places, like the U.S. state of California, draw a strong legal distinction between freeways and expressways. Section 257 of the California Streets and Highway Code is as follows:

For the purpose of this article only, and to distinguish between the terms "freeway" and "expressway," the word "freeway" shall mean a divided arterial highway for through traffic with full control of access and with grade separations at intersections, while the word "expressway" shall mean an arterial highway for through traffic which may have partial control of access, but which may or may not be divided or have grade separations at intersections.

Under this definition, many famous expressways are technically "freeways" instead of "expressways," such as the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto , the Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia, and the Palmetto Expressway in Miami, Florida

The point of Section 257 is that California expressways can have at-grade intersections, a design that is usually less safe than grade-separated interchanges. A similar distinction has been adopted by the American federal government in its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control DevicesSection 1A.13, Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2003 ed. ^*. Several U.S. states besides California have also enacted a similar distinction into their statutory law. See the article on freeways for more information, including a full list of jurisdictions which use the term expressway to describe what are actually freeways.

The vast majority of expressways in either sense are built by state or provincial governments, or by private companies which then operate them as toll roads pursuant to a license from the government.

However, the most famous exception to the above rule is Santa Clara County in California, which deliberately built its own expressway system in the 1960s to supplement the freeway system then planned by Caltrans. Although there were some plans to upgrade the county expressways into full-fledged freeways, those became politically infeasible after the rise of the tax revolt movement in the mid-1970s.

Most at-grade expressways have speed limits of 45-55 mph (70-90 km/h) in urban areas and 55-70 mph (90-110 km/h) in rural areas.

References

See also

• Expressways of India
• Interstate Highway System
• Expressways of China
• Autobahn (Germany)
• Expressways of Japan
• Expressways of Canada
• Expressways of Singapore
• Motorways of Great Britain
• North Central Expressway, Dallas, Texas, USA
• Mumbai-Pune Expressway
• RIRO expressway
• Illinois Tollway System, USA
• New York State Thruway, USA
• Indiana East-West Toll Road, USA
• North Luzon Expressway, Philippines
• South Luzon Expressway, Philippines
• Southern Tier Expressway, New York, USA
• Southern Indiana Toll Road, USA
• Roads and expressways in South Korea
• Malaysian expressway system
• List of slang terms for freeways and expressways
• Limited-access highway
• Controlled-access highway

External links

• http://www.expresswaysite.com/
• Pictures of Mumbai Pune Expressway

Road infrastructure | Limited-access roads | expressweg