Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Freeway shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Freeway offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Freeway at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Freeway? Wrong! If the Freeway is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Freeway then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Freeway? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Freeway and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Freeway wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Freeway then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Freeway site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Freeway, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Freeway, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
(
Eastshore Freeway) in Berkeley, California: a typical American freeway (MUTCD definition)A
freeway — also known as a highway,
superhighway, autoroute, autobahn,
autopista,
autovía,
autostrada, dual carriageway,
expressway, or motorway — is a type of road designed for
Road safety#Motorway high-speed operation of
motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all
cross traffic through the use of grade separations and
interchange (road)s;
railroad crossings are also removed. Such highways are usually
divided highway with at least two lane (road)s in each direction. Because traffic never crosses at-grade, there are generally no
traffic lights or
stop signs.
The word "freeway" first surfaced in the mid-1930s in proposals for the improvement of the
New York City parkway network.E.L. Yordan, "The 'Freeway' System Expands: Broader Roads With Grade Crossings Eliminated Are Built And Latest Designs Envision Still Greater Speed And Safety",
New York Times,
24 February 1935, p. 21. It is currently in regular use in the United States, as well as parts of
Australia. Other countries refer to a freeway as a grade-separated
highway or a superhighway. In the United States the term "freeway" is frequently used in the western part of the country. Other terms are predominant in other regions, such as "
interstate" in the South (and particularly in Florida) and "highway", "expressway", or "turnpike" in the Northeast and Midwest. While some people use these terms interchangeably, "turnpikes" and "
thruways" have specific associations with some toll roads and other limited access highways such as the West Virginia Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike,
Florida's Turnpike, and
New York State Thruway.
General characteristics
in
Los Angeles, California, USAFreeways, by definition, have no cross traffic in the form of other roads,
railroads or multi-use trails. Elimination of cross traffic is typically achieved with grade separation in the form of
underpasses and
overpasses. In addition to
sidewalks (footpaths) attached to roads that cross a freeway, specialized pedestrian bridges or
tunnels may also be provided. These structures enable
pedestrians and cyclists to cross the freeway without a long detour to the nearest motor vehicle crossing. Movable bridges (such as
drawbridges) are occasionally present on freeways which require drivers to yield to river traffic, such as the
Interstate Bridge on Interstate 5 between
Oregon and Washington. However, not all roads bearing the name of freeway are in fact freeways by definition; for example, the
William L. Wilson Freeway (U.S. Route 340) by
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is designated as being a freeway, although it is a two-lane undivided roadway featuring at-grade intersections.
Access is typically provided only at
interchanges, though lower-standard right-in/right-out access can be used for direct connections to side roads. In many cases, sophisticated interchanges allow for smooth, uninterrupted transitions between intersecting freeways and busy
arterial roads. However, sometimes it is necessary to exit onto a surface road to transfer from one freeway to another. An example of this would be
Interstate 70 in the town of
Breezewood, Pennsylvania.Manuel Roig-Franzia, "The Town That Stops Traffic: Travelers Encounter Way Station as Way of Life in Breezewood,"
Washington Post, 22 November 2001, B1. Exits are sometimes
exit number to help drivers identify their desired exit, and to determine distance traveled so far, and how far to go to their destinations (if the distances are mileage-based).
in
Toronto, Ontario: An example of an urban freeway with an
express-collector setup
Two-lane freeways, often undivided, are sometimes built when traffic volumes are low or right-of-way is limited; they may be designed for easy conversion to one side of a four-lane freeway. Otherwise, freeways typically have at least two lanes in each direction; some busy ones can have as many as 16Portions of the
Downtown Connector in
Atlanta, Georgia has eight lanes in each direction. or more lanes.In
Mississauga, Ontario, Highway 401 (Ontario) uses
local-express lanes for a total of 18 lanes through its intersection with Highway 403 (Ontario)/
Highway 410 (Ontario) and
Highway 427 (Ontario). These wide freeways may use separate
collector and express lanes to separate through traffic from local traffic, or special
high-occupancy vehicle lanes, either as a special restriction on the innermost lane or a separate roadway, to encourage
carpooling. These HOV lanes, or roadways open to all traffic, can be reversible lanes, providing more capacity in the direction of heavy traffic, and reversing direction before traffic switches. Sometimes a
collector/distributor road, a shorter version of a local lane, shifts weaving between closely-spaced interchanges to a separate roadway or altogether eliminates it.
(I-105) and the Harbor Freeway (I-110) in Los Angeles, CaliforniaFreeways can have
frontage roads, normal surface roads parallel to and on either side of the freeway, to provide access to adjacent properties. Frontage roads typically have
one-way traffic flow in urban areas and two-way traffic flow in
rural areas.
Slip ramps at regularly-spaced intervals allow access between the freeway and adjacent frontage road.
Except on some
two-lane freeways (and very rarely on wider freeways), a median (road) separates the opposite directions of traffic. This strip may be as simple as a grassy area, or may include a
crash barrier such as a "Jersey barrier" or a "Ontario Tall Wall"" to prevent
head-on collisions.Anonymous, "Median barriers prove their worth",
Public Works 123, no. 3 (March 1992): 72-73. On some freeways, the two carriageways are built on different alignments; this may be done to make use of available corridors in a mountainous area or to provide narrower corridors through dense urban areas.
in the United Kingdom, has freeway characteristics but is generally referred to as a
motorwaySpeed limits are generally higher than on similar non-freeways, and are sometimes nonexistent (for instance on several
German Autobahns). Because the high speeds reduce decision time, freeways are usually equipped with a larger number of
guide signs than other roads, and the signs themselves are physically larger. In major cities, guide signs are often mounted on overpasses or overhead gantries so that drivers can see where each lane goes.
In most areas, there are public
rest areas or service areas on freeways, as well as
emergency phones on the
hard shoulder at regular intervals. In most places exits numbered using a distance-based sequence, where the exit number corresponds to the distance in miles or kilometres from the start of the freeway. In the United States,
mileposts start at the southern or westernmost point on the freeway (either its terminus or state line) and increase incrementally.
California uses a California postmile system where markers indicate mileage through the state's individual counties. Until the 1980s, New York used
New York State Reference Markers (locally known as "New York State Reference Markers") which, like California, indicated mileage through individual counties. The New York State Department of Transportation has since supplemented their reference marker system with mileposts indicating a freeway's mileage through the state.
Access restrictions
looking north, in
Sydney,
New South WalesTo reduce the probability that high-speed freeway traffic will have to slow down for slower same-direction traffic, access to freeways is usually limited to classes of
motor vehicles that are powerful enough to maintain a certain minimum speed. Some East Asian countries partially restrict the use of motorcycles or ban them completely from freeways (or expressways in countries where that term is used) (see
restrictions on motorcycle use on freeways).
In many areas, travelers using low-powered modes of transportation (such as
pedestrians,
cyclist, Equestrianisms, and moped drivers) are banned at all times from freeways by default. These users are allowed on freeways in some jurisdictions, usually where freeways too often replaced (rather than supplemented) existing roads (see non-motorized vehicle access on freeways).
Legal definitions
United States
(Montague Expressway), an American expressway under the MUTCD definitionIn the United States, a
freeway is defined by the federal government’s
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as a divided highway with full control of access.Section 1A.13, Paragraph 29,
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2003 ed., rev. 1.. See also 23 CFR 750.153(k). This means two things. First, adjoining property owners do not have a legal right of access, meaning that they cannot connect their lands to the highway by constructing driveways, although
frontage roads provide access to properties adjacent to a freeway in many places.This part of the word's meaning was codified in 1939 at Section 23.5 of the California Streets and Highways Code. See also
People v. Scheinman, 248 Cal. App. 2d 180, 182, 56 Cal. Rptr. 168, 168-169 (1967) (interpreting Section 23.5 to find that a property owner had deeded to the State just the access from the side of his property directly abutting a future freeway but not the access through a connecting road which the state wished to close in order to upgrade an expressway to a freeway). When an existing road is converted into a freeway, all existing driveways must be removed and access to adjacent private lands must be blocked with fences or walls. Second, traffic on the highway is "free-flowing", although many non-engineers misinterpret the "free" in "freeway" to mean that such a highway must be free of charge to use. All cross-traffic (and left-turning traffic) has been relegated to overpasses or underpasses, so that there are no traffic conflicts on the main line of the highway which must be regulated by a traffic light, stop signs, or other traffic control devices. Achieving such free flow requires the construction of many bridges, tunnels, and ramp systems. The advantage of grade-separated interchanges is that freeway drivers can almost always maintain their speed at junctions since they do not need to yield to crossing traffic.
In contrast, an
expressway is defined as a divided highway with partial control of access.Section 1A.13, Paragraph 27,
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2003 ed., rev. 1. Expressways may have driveways and at-grade intersections, though these are usually less numerous than on ordinary arterial roads. Some states prefer to use the term "expressway" for what the federal government calls "freeways"; see the
expressway article for further information.
This distinction was apparently first developed in 1949 by the Special Committee on Nomenclature of what is now the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.American Association of State Highway Officials,
AASHO Highway Definitions (Washington D.C., American Association of State Highway Officials, 1962), 1-3. In turn, the definitions were incorporated into AASHTO's official standards book, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which would become the national standards book of the
U.S. Department of Transportation under a 1966 federal statute. The same distinction has also been codified into the statutory law of seven states: California,Cal. Sts. & High. Code § 257.
Mississippi,Miss. Code Ann., § 65-5-3, subds. (b) and (c). Missouri,Mo. Rev. Stat., § 304.010.
Nebraska,Neb. Rev. Stat., §§ 60-618.01 and 60-621. North Dakota,N.D. Cent. Code, § 24-01-01.1 (2006). Ohio, Ohio Rev. Code Ann., § 4511.01, subds. (YY) and (ZZ). and Wisconsin.Wis. Stat., §§ 59.84(1)(b) and 346.57(1)(am). However, each state codified the federal distinction slightly differently. California expressways do not necessarily have to be divided, though they must have at least partial access control. For both terms to apply, in Wisconsin, a divided highway must be at least four lanes wide; and in Missouri, both terms apply only to divided highways at least 10 miles long that are not part of the Interstate Highway System. In North Dakota and Mississippi, an expressway may have "full or partial" access control and "generally" has grade separations at intersections; a freeway is then defined as an expressway with full access control. Ohio's statute is similar, but instead of the vague word "generally", it imposes a requirement that 50% of an expressway's intersections must be grade-separated for the term to apply. Ohio Rev. Code Ann., § 4511.01, subd. (ZZ).
One way to summarize the difference is that all freeways can be considered expressways, but not all expressways are freeways.
Effects and controversy
on I-45, downtown Houston, USA.Freeways have been constructed both between urban centers and within them, leading to the sprawling
suburban development found near most modern cities. Freeways reduced travel times and
Traffic safety#Motorway, though the higher speeds have increased the severity and death rates of the
collisions that do occur.
Freeways have been heavily criticized by environmentalists, urbanists, and preservationists for the noise,Hugo Martin, "Sounding Off On Noise: Freeways' Neighbors Struggle To Drown Out Road Racket, Experts Say The Din Creates Mental And Physical Hazards", Los Angeles Times,
20 April 2003, B1. pollution, and economic shifts they bring. Additionally, they have also been criticized by the driving public for the inefficiency with which they handle peak hour traffic.Sandy McCreery, "Don't just sit there, enjoy it!"
New Statesman,
23 July 2001, 23.Martha Smilgis, "Trapped behind the wheel; clever commuters learn to live in the slow lane",
Time (magazine), 20 July
1987, p. 64-65.Gerard Coulombe, "Doing The Turnpike Crawl",
New York Times,
6 July 1986, sec. CN, p. 16.
Often, rural freeways open up vast areas to economic development, generally raising property values. In contrast to this, above ground freeways in urban areas are often a source of lowered property values, contributing to
urban decay. Even with overpasses and underpasses, above ground freeways divide neighborhoods — especially impoverished ones where residents are less likely to own a car, or to have the political and economic influence to resist construction efforts.Jeffrey Spivak, "Today's road opening represents progress, pain",
Kansas City Star, 27 July 1999, sec. A, p. 1. Beginning in the early 1970s the U.S. Congress identified freeways and other urban highways as responsible for most of the noise exposure of the U.S. population.>Senate Public Works Committee, Noise Pollution and Abatement Act of 1972, S. Rep. No. 1160, 92nd Cong. 2nd session Subsequently, computer models were developed to analyze freeway noise and aid in their siting and design to minimize noise exposure. C. Michael Hogan and Gary L. Latshaw,
The relationship between highway planning and urban noise , :Proceedings of the ASCE, Urban Transportation Division specialty conference, May 21-23, 1973, Chicago, Illinois.by American Society of Civil Engineers. Urban Transportation Division
Some freeways have even been demolished and reclaimed as
boulevards, notably in
Portland (OR) (
Harbor Drive (Portland)),
New York City (West Side Highway), Boston (Central Artery),
San Francisco (
Embarcadero Freeway) and
Milwaukee (
Park East Freeway).
An alternative to surface or above ground freeway construction has been the construction of underground urban freeways using tunnelling technologies. This has been extremely successful in the Australian cities of Sydney (which has five such freeways) and
Melbourne (which has one such freeway). This has had the benefit of removing traffic from surface roads and has led to urban renewal due to a significant decrease in surface road traffic congestion, noise and pollution. Public transport has been improved in these areas through the provisioning of dedicated bus lanes where previously traffic congestion prevented such lane allocations from being made.
Other Australian cities with similar problems (lack of available land, cost of home acquisition, aesthetic problems, and community opposition) like Brisbane, which also faces issues relating to physical boundaries (river), and heavy population increases have completely embraced underground tunnel freeways. There are currently 3 under active development, including 1 under construction (North_South_Bypass_Tunnel). All of the planned tunnels include provisions for public transport, whether underground or in reclaimed space on the surface. TransApex (Brisbane City Council)
Freeway opponents have found that freeway expansion is often self-defeating: expansion simply generates more traffic. That is, even if traffic congestion is initially shifted from local streets to a new or widened freeway, people will begin to run errands and commute to more remote locations. Over time, the freeway and its environs become congested again as both the average number and distance of trips increases. This idea is known as induced demand.Robert Cervero, "Road expansion, urban growth, and induced travel: a path analysis",
Journal of the American Planning Association 69, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 145-164.Hugo Martin, "Will More Freeways Bring More Traffic?"
Los Angeles Times,
10 April 2002, sec. B, p. 1. Urban planning experts such as Drusilla Van Hengel, Joseph DiMento, and Sherry Ryan, argue that although properly designed and maintained freeways may be convenient and safe, at least in comparison to uncontrolled roads, they may not expand recreation, employment and education opportunities equally for different ethnic groups, or for people located in certain neighborhoods of a given city.Drusilla Van Hengel, Joseph DiMento, and Sherry Ryan,
Equal Access? Travel Behaviour Change in the Century Freeway Corridor, Los Angeles,
Urban Studies 36, no. 1 (March 1999): 547. Still, they may open new markets to some
small businesses.Christy Borth,
Mankind on the Move: The Story of Highways (Washington, D.C.: The Automobile Safety Foundation, 1969), 248 and 264.
At present, freeway expansion has largely stalled in the
United States, due to a multitude of factors that converged in the 1970s: higher
due process requirements prior to taking of private property, increasing land values, increasing costs for construction materials, local opposition to new freeways in urban cores, the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (which imposed the requirement that each new federally-funded project must have an
environmental impact statement or report), and falling gas tax revenues as a result of the nature of the flat-cent tax (it is not automatically adjusted for inflation) and the tax revolt movement.Brian D. Taylor, "Public perceptions, fiscal realities, and freeway planning: the California case",
Journal of the American Planning Association 61, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 43-59.
History
The concept of limited-access automobile highways dates back to the New York City area
Parkway system, whose construction began in 1907–1908; but parkways are traditionally distinguished from freeways by lower design speeds and a ban on commercial traffic. Some parkways, notably the
Taconic Parkway,
Sprain Brook Parkway, and Saw Mill Parkway have at-grade intersections, although direct access to property adjacent to the parkways is prohibited. Designers elsewhere also researched similar ideas, especially in Germany, where the Autobahn would become the first national freeway system.
However, in 1925,
Italy was technically the first country to build a freeway-like road, which linked
Milan to Lake Como.Paul Hofmann, "Taking to the Highway in Italy",
New York Times, 26 April 1987, 23. It is known in Italy as the Autostrada dei Laghi.
Meanwhile, in
Great Britain, the related concept of the motorway was first proposed by Sidney Webb in a 1910 book,
The King's Highway, but was not formally embraced by the government until the passage of the
Special Roads Act 1949.Geoffrey Hindley,
A History of Roads (London: Peter Davies, 1971), 142. In 1926, the English intellectual
Hilaire Belloc recognized the necessity of grade-separated roads for "rapid and heavy traffic", but thought they would be the exception rather than the rule:
The creation of a great network of local highways suitable for rapid and heavy traffic is impossible. Even if the wealth of the community increases, the thing would be impossible, because it would mean the destruction of such a proportion of buildings as would dislocate all social life.Hilaire Belloc,
The Highway and Its Vehicles (London: The Studio Limited, 1926), 39.
While Connecticut's Merritt Parkway was the first fully controlled-access highway in America when it opened on June 29,
1938, it does not qualify as the country's first freeway, since low bridge heights, tight curve radii, and short interchange ramps fell well below freeway standards. The first long-distance rural freeway in the United States is generally considered to be the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened on
October 1,
1940.Phil Patton,
The Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 77. The Turnpike was so advanced for its time that tourists even had picnics in the median (that is, after it was already open to traffic) and local entrepreneurs did a brisk business in souvenirs.Phil Patton, "A quick way from here to there was also a frolic", Smithsonian
21, no. 7 (October 1990): 96-108. It was designed so that straightaways could handle maximum speeds of 102 miles per hour, and curves could be taken as fast as 90.What may be the world's first long-distance intercity freeway is the Queen Elizabeth Way in
Southern Ontario Ontario in
Canada, initially linking the large cities of
Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario together by 1939.
Shortly thereafter, on December 30, 1940,
California opened its first freeway, the
Arroyo Seco Parkway (now called the
Pasadena Freeway) which connected Pasadena, California with Los Angeles, California.Cecilia Rasmussen, "Behind the Wheel: Harrowing Drive on State's Oldest Freeway — Curvy, quirky 110 carries motorists between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena",
Los Angeles Times,
6 November 2001, 2. And in 1942,
Detroit, Michigan opened the world's first urban depressed freeway, the Davison Freeway.http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Environment/E_Casestudy/Davison.htmPortions of the first freeway in Texas and the Southern United States, the Gulf Freeway in Houston, opened in 1948. http://www.texasfreeway.com Meanwhile, traffic in Los Angeles continued to deteriorate and local officials began planning the huge freeway network for which the city is now famous.Gladwin Hill, "Traffic Chaos Spurs Los Angeles To Plan 'Freeways' On Mass Scale: Coast Metropolis, Lacking Rapid Transit System Such as New York Possesses, Maps $300,000,000 Highway Set-Up",
New York Times,
13 January 1947, p. 12.
Today, many freeways in the United States belong to the extensive Interstate highway system (most of which was completed between 1960 and 1990). Starting in the 1970s freeways began to consider environmental factors, particularly noise and air quality in their location and design. Nearly all Interstate highways are freeways. The earlier United States highway system and the highway systems of
U.S. states also have many sections that are built to controlled-access standards (though these systems are mostly composed of uncontrolled roads). Only a handful of sections of the Interstate system are not freeways, such as Interstate 81 as it crosses the American span of the 2-lane Thousand Islands Bridge and a segment of Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch, New Hampshire that is a 2-lane road with partial access control.
Recent developments
in Adelaide, South Australia, is the world's longest reversible freeway.Besides the U.S., some provinces of
Canada have adopted the term "
freeway" or "
superhighway" to describe comparable roads (instead of or alongside the term
expressway) and they continue to extend their freeway networks. In Australia, some states such as Victoria (Australia) use the term
freeway, and others such as Queensland and
New South Wales use both terms.
Australia has been innovative in using the newest tunneling technologies to bring freeways into its high-density central business districts (
Sydney and
Melbourne). In Australia, the city of Adelaide pioneered the concept of a dedicated reversible freeway. The M2 expressway runs toward the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening. Its ramps are designed so that they can double as on- or off-ramps, depending upon the time of day. Gates and electronic signage prevent motorists from driving in the wrong direction. Brisbane currently has 3 major freeway tunnels under development, incorporating state of the art traffic, congestion, incident and accident management technology.
Major progress has been made in making existing U.S. freeways and expressways more efficient. Innovations include the addition of
high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes) to discourage driving solo, and building new roads with train tracks down the
Central reservation (or overhead). California's
Caltrans has been very innovative in squeezing HOVs into limited right-of-way (by elevating them), and in building special HOV-only ramps so that HOVs can switch freeways or exit the freeway without having to merge across regular traffic. Many states have added truck-only ramps or lanes on heavily congested routes, so that cars need not weave around slow-moving big rigs.
Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are also increasingly used, with cameras to monitor and direct traffic, so that
police, fire brigade,
ambulance,
tow truck, or other assistance
vehicles can be dispatched as soon as there is a problem, and to warn
driving via variable message signs, radio, television, and World Wide Web to avoid problem areas. Research has been underway for many years on how to partly automate cars by making
smart roads with such things as buried magnets to guide sensor-equipped vehicles, with on-board
Global Positioning System to determine location, direction, and destination. While these systems may eventually be used on surface streets as well, they are most practical in a freeway setting.
Public-private partnerships in the United States
Until the late 1990s, funding of construction and maintenance of the Interstate Highway System was by the national gasoline tax. Originally, revenues generated by the national gasoline tax were intended solely for the maintenance and expansion of the country's highway system. During the Clinton Administration, federal legislation was passed allowing the use of gasoline tax revenues to fund other government programs and projects not related to highways or transportation. Since this reduced the amount of money available for the intended purpose of maintaining America's road network, many projects were either delayed, canceled, or scaled back.
Additionally, the original Highway Act of 1956 prohibited states from collecting tolls on Interstate-funded freeways. As more miles of freeways were completed, the cost of maintaining the infrastructure increased dramatically. A major issue that has slowed new freeway construction in America has been the application of highway funds to maintaining and repairing existing infrastructure. Most of the freeways in America are near or have exceeded their designed life span, which necessitates replacing of bridges and overpasses and reconstruction of the driving surfaces on many freeways nationwide.
To address the issue of lack of funding for new freeways and maintenance of existing roads, legislation enacted in 1998 gives states greater flexibility in funding major highway projects. Specifically the legislation, known as TEA-21 in official documents, authorizes states to add tolls to Interstate-funded freeways. Additionally, it gave states the latitude to enter into public-private partnership
P3 arrangements to facilitate expansion and maintenance of the freeway network.
Texas, Florida, Virginia, and
California quickly took advantage of the TEA-21 legislation and began on massive projects to expand their respective states' freeway networks, complementing existing Interstate freeways with privately funded and operated tollways. In 2004, Illinois sealed a $1.8 billion deal with Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Cintras to operate the Chicago Skyway for 99 years. In a similar P3 arrangement in Indiana, the Cintras-Macquarie joint venture assumed responsibility for the Indiana East-West Toll Road for 75 years on June 30, 2006 in a very controversial $3.8 billion deal, which for political purposes was dubbed
Major Moves. As of late 2006,
Pennsylvania is actively pursuing the P3 toll road concept, but still has to clear challenges in the state legislature before such an arrangement can be implemented on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Also in late 2006
Delaware has plans to enter into an agreement with a private firm to design, build, and operate a planned 17-mile (27 km) bypass of U.S. Route 301 between
Delaware Route 1 and the Maryland state line. Meanwhile in New York and
Massachusetts, the respective state public authorities that operate the New York State Thruway and
Massachusetts Turnpike have generated enough revenue to assume maintenance of other freeways beyond the roads on which tolls are collected. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority provided more than 50 percent of the funding to complete the Big Dig (Boston, Massachusetts) project in Boston, and later assumed responsibility for operating the Central Artery, the Sumner Tunnel, and the
Callahan Tunnel following the project's completion in 2005.
As federal funding dries up for expanding and maintaining America's freeway network, states are looking to innovative solutions using a combination of state and federal funding, toll collection through public authorities, and private sector investment.
Gallery of freeways around the world
Image:TullamarineFwy.jpg|The "Sound Tube",
CityLink Tollway, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia),
Australia.Image:Autopista-Central-2.jpg].Image:AutopistaLibertadores.JPG|Autopista Los Libertadores, (International Freeway) Santiago, ChileImage:Queensway east of Riverside Drive Ottawa.jpg] (The Queensway (Ottawa)) in
Ottawa, Ontario,
Ontario,
Canada.Image:376 east.jpg] eastbound in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA.Image:Motorvag - bild.jpg]
European route E6 European route E20 in southwest Sweden in VarbergImage:Old_Autobahn_DE.jpg]
Autobahn without an emergency laneImage:Lowry_Hill_Tunnel.jpg] entering the Lowry Hill Tunnel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minnesota.
USA.Image:Near Kamshet 2 tunnel on Mumbai Pune Expressway.JPG],
India.Image:Highway1-cassiar-southbound.jpg] in Vancouver,
British Columbia.Image:Alessandria-L'autostrada_A-26-tratto_appenninico.jpg] Autostrada A26 while it enters a tunnel crossing northern
Apennine MountainsImage:Atlanta 75.85.jpg|The "
Downtown Connector" (I-75 and I-85) in Atlanta, Georgia,
United States of America, during rush hour. in
Malaysia in Gweru.jpg in Zimbabwe
References
(
Eastshore Freeway) in
Berkeley, California: a typical American freeway (MUTCD definition)A
freeway — also known as a
highway, superhighway, autoroute,
autobahn, autopista, autovía,
autostrada, dual carriageway,
expressway, or motorway — is a type of road designed for
Road safety#Motorway high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of
at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all
cross traffic through the use of grade separations and
interchange (road)s; railroad crossings are also removed. Such highways are usually
divided highway with at least two
lane (road)s in each direction. Because traffic never crosses at-grade, there are generally no
traffic lights or
stop signs.
The word "freeway" first surfaced in the mid-1930s in proposals for the improvement of the
New York City parkway network.E.L. Yordan, "The 'Freeway' System Expands: Broader Roads With Grade Crossings Eliminated Are Built And Latest Designs Envision Still Greater Speed And Safety",
New York Times, 24 February 1935, p. 21. It is currently in regular use in the
United States, as well as parts of
Australia. Other countries refer to a freeway as a grade-separated
highway or a
superhighway. In the United States the term "freeway" is frequently used in the western part of the country. Other terms are predominant in other regions, such as "interstate" in the South (and particularly in
Florida) and "
highway", "expressway", or "turnpike" in the Northeast and Midwest. While some people use these terms interchangeably, "turnpikes" and "thruways" have specific associations with some toll roads and other limited access highways such as the
West Virginia Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike, Florida's Turnpike, and
New York State Thruway.
General characteristics
in Los Angeles, California, USAFreeways, by definition, have no cross traffic in the form of other roads, railroads or
multi-use trails. Elimination of cross traffic is typically achieved with grade separation in the form of
underpasses and
overpasses. In addition to sidewalks (footpaths) attached to roads that cross a freeway, specialized pedestrian bridges or
tunnels may also be provided. These structures enable pedestrians and
cyclists to cross the freeway without a long detour to the nearest motor vehicle crossing. Movable bridges (such as drawbridges) are occasionally present on freeways which require drivers to yield to river traffic, such as the Interstate Bridge on Interstate 5 between Oregon and
Washington. However, not all roads bearing the name of freeway are in fact freeways by definition; for example, the William L. Wilson Freeway (U.S. Route 340) by Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is designated as being a freeway, although it is a two-lane undivided roadway featuring at-grade intersections.
Access is typically provided only at
interchanges, though lower-standard right-in/right-out access can be used for direct connections to side roads. In many cases, sophisticated interchanges allow for smooth, uninterrupted transitions between intersecting freeways and busy arterial roads. However, sometimes it is necessary to exit onto a surface road to transfer from one freeway to another. An example of this would be
Interstate 70 in the town of Breezewood, Pennsylvania.Manuel Roig-Franzia, "The Town That Stops Traffic: Travelers Encounter Way Station as Way of Life in Breezewood,"
Washington Post, 22 November 2001, B1. Exits are sometimes exit number to help drivers identify their desired exit, and to determine distance traveled so far, and how far to go to their destinations (if the distances are mileage-based).
in
Toronto,
Ontario: An example of an urban freeway with an express-collector setupTwo-lane freeways, often undivided, are sometimes built when traffic volumes are low or right-of-way is limited; they may be designed for easy conversion to one side of a four-lane freeway. Otherwise, freeways typically have at least two lanes in each direction; some busy ones can have as many as 16Portions of the
Downtown Connector in Atlanta, Georgia has eight lanes in each direction. or more lanes.In
Mississauga, Ontario, Highway 401 (Ontario) uses local-express lanes for a total of 18 lanes through its intersection with
Highway 403 (Ontario)/
Highway 410 (Ontario) and Highway 427 (Ontario). These wide freeways may use separate collector and express lanes to separate through traffic from local traffic, or special
high-occupancy vehicle lanes, either as a special restriction on the innermost lane or a separate roadway, to encourage carpooling. These HOV lanes, or roadways open to all traffic, can be reversible lanes, providing more capacity in the direction of heavy traffic, and reversing direction before traffic switches. Sometimes a collector/distributor road, a shorter version of a local lane, shifts weaving between closely-spaced interchanges to a separate roadway or altogether eliminates it.
(I-105) and the
Harbor Freeway (I-110) in Los Angeles, CaliforniaFreeways can have frontage roads, normal surface roads parallel to and on either side of the freeway, to provide access to adjacent properties. Frontage roads typically have
one-way traffic flow in
urban areas and two-way traffic flow in
rural areas. Slip ramps at regularly-spaced intervals allow access between the freeway and adjacent frontage road.
Except on some
two-lane freeways (and very rarely on wider freeways), a
median (road) separates the opposite directions of traffic. This strip may be as simple as a grassy area, or may include a crash barrier such as a "
Jersey barrier" or a "Ontario Tall Wall"" to prevent head-on collisions.Anonymous, "Median barriers prove their worth",
Public Works 123, no. 3 (March 1992): 72-73. On some freeways, the two carriageways are built on different alignments; this may be done to make use of available corridors in a mountainous area or to provide narrower corridors through dense
urban areas.
in the
United Kingdom, has freeway characteristics but is generally referred to as a
motorwaySpeed limits are generally higher than on similar non-freeways, and are sometimes nonexistent (for instance on several German Autobahns). Because the high speeds reduce decision time, freeways are usually equipped with a larger number of
guide signs than other roads, and the signs themselves are physically larger. In major cities, guide signs are often mounted on overpasses or overhead gantries so that drivers can see where each lane goes.
In most areas, there are public rest areas or service areas on freeways, as well as
emergency phones on the
hard shoulder at regular intervals. In most places exits numbered using a distance-based sequence, where the exit number corresponds to the distance in miles or kilometres from the start of the freeway. In the United States,
mileposts start at the southern or westernmost point on the freeway (either its terminus or state line) and increase incrementally.
California uses a
California postmile system where markers indicate mileage through the state's individual counties. Until the 1980s,
New York used New York State Reference Markers (locally known as "New York State Reference Markers") which, like California, indicated mileage through individual counties. The
New York State Department of Transportation has since supplemented their reference marker system with mileposts indicating a freeway's mileage through the state.
Access restrictions
looking north, in Sydney,
New South WalesTo reduce the probability that high-speed freeway traffic will have to slow down for slower same-direction traffic, access to freeways is usually limited to classes of
motor vehicles that are powerful enough to maintain a certain minimum speed. Some
East Asian countries partially restrict the use of motorcycles or ban them completely from freeways (or expressways in countries where that term is used) (see
restrictions on motorcycle use on freeways).
In many areas, travelers using low-powered modes of transportation (such as pedestrians,
cyclist,
Equestrianisms, and
moped drivers) are banned at all times from freeways by default. These users are allowed on freeways in some jurisdictions, usually where freeways too often replaced (rather than supplemented) existing roads (see non-motorized vehicle access on freeways).
Legal definitions
United States
(Montague Expressway), an American expressway under the MUTCD definitionIn the United States, a
freeway is defined by the federal government’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as a divided highway with full control of access.Section 1A.13, Paragraph 29,
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2003 ed., rev. 1.. See also 23 CFR 750.153(k). This means two things. First, adjoining property owners do not have a legal right of access, meaning that they cannot connect their lands to the highway by constructing driveways, although frontage roads provide access to properties adjacent to a freeway in many places.This part of the word's meaning was codified in 1939 at Section 23.5 of the California Streets and Highways Code. See also
People v. Scheinman, 248 Cal. App. 2d 180, 182, 56 Cal. Rptr. 168, 168-169 (1967) (interpreting Section 23.5 to find that a property owner had deeded to the State just the access from the side of his property directly abutting a future freeway but not the access through a connecting road which the state wished to close in order to upgrade an expressway to a freeway). When an existing road is converted into a freeway, all existing driveways must be removed and access to adjacent private lands must be blocked with fences or walls. Second, traffic on the highway is "free-flowing", although many non-engineers misinterpret the "free" in "freeway" to mean that such a highway must be free of charge to use. All cross-traffic (and left-turning traffic) has been relegated to overpasses or underpasses, so that there are no traffic conflicts on the main line of the highway which must be regulated by a traffic light, stop signs, or other traffic control devices. Achieving such free flow requires the construction of many bridges, tunnels, and ramp systems. The advantage of grade-separated interchanges is that freeway drivers can almost always maintain their speed at junctions since they do not need to yield to crossing traffic.
In contrast, an
expressway is defined as a divided highway with partial control of access.Section 1A.13, Paragraph 27,
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2003 ed., rev. 1. Expressways may have driveways and at-grade intersections, though these are usually less numerous than on ordinary arterial roads. Some states prefer to use the term "expressway" for what the federal government calls "freeways"; see the expressway article for further information.
This distinction was apparently first developed in 1949 by the Special Committee on Nomenclature of what is now the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.American Association of State Highway Officials,
AASHO Highway Definitions (Washington D.C., American Association of State Highway Officials, 1962), 1-3. In turn, the definitions were incorporated into AASHTO's official standards book, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which would become the national standards book of the
U.S. Department of Transportation under a 1966 federal statute. The same distinction has also been codified into the statutory law of seven states: California,Cal. Sts. & High. Code § 257. Mississippi,Miss. Code Ann., § 65-5-3, subds. (b) and (c). Missouri,Mo. Rev. Stat., § 304.010. Nebraska,Neb. Rev. Stat., §§ 60-618.01 and 60-621. North Dakota,N.D. Cent. Code, § 24-01-01.1 (2006).
Ohio, Ohio Rev. Code Ann., § 4511.01, subds. (YY) and (ZZ). and
Wisconsin.Wis. Stat., §§ 59.84(1)(b) and 346.57(1)(am). However, each state codified the federal distinction slightly differently. California expressways do not necessarily have to be divided, though they must have at least partial access control. For both terms to apply, in Wisconsin, a divided highway must be at least four lanes wide; and in Missouri, both terms apply only to divided highways at least 10 miles long that are not part of the Interstate Highway System. In North Dakota and Mississippi, an expressway may have "full or partial" access control and "generally" has grade separations at intersections; a freeway is then defined as an expressway with full access control. Ohio's statute is similar, but instead of the vague word "generally", it imposes a requirement that 50% of an expressway's intersections must be grade-separated for the term to apply. Ohio Rev. Code Ann., § 4511.01, subd. (ZZ).
One way to summarize the difference is that all freeways can be considered expressways, but not all expressways are freeways.
Effects and controversy
on
I-45, downtown Houston, USA.Freeways have been constructed both between urban centers and within them, leading to the sprawling
suburban development found near most modern cities. Freeways reduced travel times and Traffic safety#Motorway, though the higher speeds have increased the severity and death rates of the collisions that do occur.
Freeways have been heavily criticized by environmentalists, urbanists, and preservationists for the noise,Hugo Martin, "Sounding Off On Noise: Freeways' Neighbors Struggle To Drown Out Road Racket, Experts Say The Din Creates Mental And Physical Hazards", Los Angeles Times,
20 April 2003, B1. pollution, and economic shifts they bring. Additionally, they have also been criticized by the driving public for the inefficiency with which they handle peak hour traffic.Sandy McCreery, "Don't just sit there, enjoy it!"
New Statesman, 23 July 2001, 23.Martha Smilgis, "Trapped behind the wheel; clever commuters learn to live in the slow lane",
Time (magazine), 20 July 1987, p. 64-65.Gerard Coulombe, "Doing The Turnpike Crawl",
New York Times,
6 July 1986, sec. CN, p. 16.
Often, rural freeways open up vast areas to economic development, generally raising property values. In contrast to this, above ground freeways in urban areas are often a source of lowered property values, contributing to urban decay. Even with overpasses and underpasses, above ground freeways divide neighborhoods — especially impoverished ones where residents are less likely to own a car, or to have the political and economic influence to resist construction efforts.Jeffrey Spivak, "Today's road opening represents progress, pain",
Kansas City Star, 27 July
1999, sec. A, p. 1. Beginning in the early 1970s the U.S. Congress identified freeways and other urban highways as responsible for most of the noise exposure of the U.S. population.>Senate Public Works Committee, Noise Pollution and Abatement Act of 1972, S. Rep. No. 1160, 92nd Cong. 2nd session Subsequently, computer models were developed to analyze freeway noise and aid in their siting and design to minimize noise exposure. C. Michael Hogan and Gary L. Latshaw,
The relationship between highway planning and urban noise , :Proceedings of the ASCE, Urban Transportation Division specialty conference,
May 21-23, 1973, Chicago, Illinois.by American Society of Civil Engineers. Urban Transportation Division
Some freeways have even been demolished and reclaimed as boulevards, notably in Portland (OR) (
Harbor Drive (Portland)),
New York City (West Side Highway),
Boston (Central Artery), San Francisco (Embarcadero Freeway) and
Milwaukee (
Park East Freeway).
An alternative to surface or above ground freeway construction has been the construction of underground urban freeways using tunnelling technologies. This has been extremely successful in the Australian cities of
Sydney (which has five such freeways) and
Melbourne (which has one such freeway). This has had the benefit of removing traffic from surface roads and has led to urban renewal due to a significant decrease in surface road traffic congestion, noise and pollution. Public transport has been improved in these areas through the provisioning of dedicated bus lanes where previously traffic congestion prevented such lane allocations from being made.
Other Australian cities with similar problems (lack of available land, cost of home acquisition, aesthetic problems, and community opposition) like Brisbane, which also faces issues relating to physical boundaries (river), and heavy population increases have completely embraced underground tunnel freeways. There are currently 3 under active development, including 1 under construction (North_South_Bypass_Tunnel). All of the planned tunnels include provisions for public transport, whether underground or in reclaimed space on the surface. TransApex (Brisbane City Council)
Freeway opponents have found that freeway expansion is often self-defeating: expansion simply generates more traffic. That is, even if traffic congestion is initially shifted from local streets to a new or widened freeway, people will begin to run errands and commute to more remote locations. Over time, the freeway and its environs become congested again as both the average number and distance of trips increases. This idea is known as
induced demand.Robert Cervero, "Road expansion, urban growth, and induced travel: a path analysis",
Journal of the American Planning Association 69, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 145-164.Hugo Martin, "Will More Freeways Bring More Traffic?"
Los Angeles Times,
10 April 2002, sec. B, p. 1. Urban planning experts such as Drusilla Van Hengel, Joseph DiMento, and Sherry Ryan, argue that although properly designed and maintained freeways may be convenient and safe, at least in comparison to uncontrolled roads, they may not expand recreation, employment and education opportunities equally for different ethnic groups, or for people located in certain neighborhoods of a given city.Drusilla Van Hengel, Joseph DiMento, and Sherry Ryan,
Equal Access? Travel Behaviour Change in the Century Freeway Corridor, Los Angeles,
Urban Studies 36, no. 1 (March 1999): 547. Still, they may open new markets to some
small businesses.Christy Borth,
Mankind on the Move: The Story of Highways (Washington, D.C.: The Automobile Safety Foundation, 1969), 248 and 264.
At present, freeway expansion has largely stalled in the
United States, due to a multitude of factors that converged in the 1970s: higher
due process requirements prior to taking of private property, increasing land values, increasing costs for construction materials, local opposition to new freeways in urban cores, the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (which imposed the requirement that each new federally-funded project must have an environmental impact statement or report), and falling gas tax revenues as a result of the nature of the flat-cent tax (it is not automatically adjusted for inflation) and the tax revolt movement.Brian D. Taylor, "Public perceptions, fiscal realities, and freeway planning: the California case",
Journal of the American Planning Association 61, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 43-59.
History
The concept of limited-access automobile highways dates back to the
New York City area
Parkway system, whose construction began in 1907–1908; but parkways are traditionally distinguished from freeways by lower design speeds and a ban on commercial traffic. Some parkways, notably the Taconic Parkway, Sprain Brook Parkway, and
Saw Mill Parkway have at-grade intersections, although direct access to property adjacent to the parkways is prohibited. Designers elsewhere also researched similar ideas, especially in Germany, where the
Autobahn would become the first national freeway system.
However, in 1925,
Italy was technically the first country to build a freeway-like road, which linked
Milan to
Lake Como.Paul Hofmann, "Taking to the Highway in Italy",
New York Times,
26 April 1987, 23. It is known in Italy as the Autostrada dei Laghi.
Meanwhile, in
Great Britain, the related concept of the
motorway was first proposed by Sidney Webb in a 1910 book,
The King's Highway, but was not formally embraced by the government until the passage of the
Special Roads Act 1949.Geoffrey Hindley,
A History of Roads (London: Peter Davies, 1971), 142. In 1926, the English intellectual Hilaire Belloc recognized the necessity of grade-separated roads for "rapid and heavy traffic", but thought they would be the exception rather than the rule:
The creation of a great network of local highways suitable for rapid and heavy traffic is impossible. Even if the wealth of the community increases, the thing would be impossible, because it would mean the destruction of such a proportion of buildings as would dislocate all social life.Hilaire Belloc,
The Highway and Its Vehicles (London: The Studio Limited, 1926), 39.
While Connecticut's
Merritt Parkway was the first fully controlled-access highway in America when it opened on
June 29, 1938, it does not qualify as the country's first freeway, since low bridge heights, tight curve radii, and short interchange ramps fell well below freeway standards. The first long-distance rural freeway in the United States is generally considered to be the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which opened on October 1,
1940.Phil Patton,
The Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 77. The Turnpike was so advanced for its time that tourists even had picnics in the median (that is, after it was already open to traffic) and local entrepreneurs did a brisk business in souvenirs.Phil Patton, "A quick way from here to there was also a frolic", Smithsonian
21, no. 7 (October 1990): 96-108. It was designed so that straightaways could handle maximum speeds of 102 miles per hour, and curves could be taken as fast as 90.What may be the world's first long-distance
intercity freeway is the
Queen Elizabeth Way in
Southern Ontario Ontario in
Canada, initially linking the large cities of
Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario together by 1939.
Shortly thereafter, on December 30, 1940, California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway (now called the Pasadena Freeway) which connected
Pasadena, California with
Los Angeles, California.Cecilia Rasmussen, "Behind the Wheel: Harrowing Drive on State's Oldest Freeway — Curvy, quirky 110 carries motorists between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena",
Los Angeles Times, 6 November 2001, 2. And in 1942,
Detroit, Michigan opened the world's first urban depressed freeway, the Davison Freeway.http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Environment/E_Casestudy/Davison.htmPortions of the first freeway in Texas and the
Southern United States, the
Gulf Freeway in Houston, opened in 1948. http://www.texasfreeway.com Meanwhile, traffic in Los Angeles continued to deteriorate and local officials began planning the huge freeway network for which the city is now famous.Gladwin Hill, "Traffic Chaos Spurs Los Angeles To Plan 'Freeways' On Mass Scale: Coast Metropolis, Lacking Rapid Transit System Such as New York Possesses, Maps $300,000,000 Highway Set-Up",
New York Times, 13 January 1947, p. 12.
Today, many freeways in the United States belong to the extensive Interstate highway system (most of which was completed between 1960 and 1990). Starting in the 1970s freeways began to consider environmental factors, particularly noise and air quality in their location and design. Nearly all Interstate highways are freeways. The earlier
United States highway system and the highway systems of U.S. states also have many sections that are built to controlled-access standards (though these systems are mostly composed of uncontrolled roads). Only a handful of sections of the Interstate system are not freeways, such as
Interstate 81 as it crosses the American span of the 2-lane Thousand Islands Bridge and a segment of Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch, New Hampshire that is a 2-lane road with partial access control.
Recent developments
in Adelaide, South Australia, is the world's longest reversible freeway.Besides the U.S., some provinces of
Canada have adopted the term "
freeway" or "
superhighway" to describe comparable roads (instead of or alongside the term
expressway) and they continue to extend their freeway networks. In Australia, some states such as
Victoria (Australia) use the term
freeway, and others such as
Queensland and New South Wales use both terms.
Australia has been innovative in using the newest tunneling technologies to bring freeways into its high-density central business districts (
Sydney and Melbourne). In Australia, the city of
Adelaide pioneered the concept of a dedicated reversible freeway. The M2 expressway runs toward the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening. Its ramps are designed so that they can double as on- or off-ramps, depending upon the time of day. Gates and electronic signage prevent motorists from driving in the wrong direction.
Brisbane currently has 3 major freeway tunnels under development, incorporating state of the art traffic, congestion, incident and accident management technology.
Major progress has been made in making existing U.S. freeways and expressways more efficient. Innovations include the addition of
high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes) to discourage driving solo, and building new roads with train tracks down the Central reservation (or overhead). California's
Caltrans has been very innovative in squeezing HOVs into limited right-of-way (by elevating them), and in building special HOV-only ramps so that HOVs can switch freeways or exit the freeway without having to merge across regular traffic. Many states have added truck-only ramps or lanes on heavily congested routes, so that cars need not weave around slow-moving big rigs.
Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are also increasingly used, with
cameras to monitor and direct traffic, so that police,
fire brigade,
ambulance,
tow truck, or other assistance
vehicles can be
dispatched as soon as there is a problem, and to warn driving via variable message signs, radio, television, and World Wide Web to avoid problem areas. Research has been underway for many years on how to partly automate cars by making smart roads with such things as buried magnets to guide sensor-equipped vehicles, with on-board Global Positioning System to determine location, direction, and destination. While these systems may eventually be used on surface streets as well, they are most practical in a freeway setting.
Public-private partnerships in the United States
Until the late 1990s, funding of construction and maintenance of the Interstate Highway System was by the national gasoline tax. Originally, revenues generated by the national gasoline tax were intended solely for the maintenance and expansion of the country's highway system. During the Clinton Administration, federal legislation was passed allowing the use of gasoline tax revenues to fund other government programs and projects not related to highways or transportation. Since this reduced the amount of money available for the intended purpose of maintaining America's road network, many projects were either delayed, canceled, or scaled back.
Additionally, the original Highway Act of 1956 prohibited states from collecting tolls on Interstate-funded freeways. As more miles of freeways were completed, the cost of maintaining the infrastructure increased dramatically. A major issue that has slowed new freeway construction in America has been the application of highway funds to maintaining and repairing existing infrastructure. Most of the freeways in America are near or have exceeded their designed life span, which necessitates replacing of bridges and overpasses and reconstruction of the driving surfaces on many freeways nationwide.
To address the issue of lack of funding for new freeways and maintenance of existing roads, legislation enacted in 1998 gives states greater flexibility in funding major highway projects. Specifically the legislation, known as TEA-21 in official documents, authorizes states to add tolls to Interstate-funded freeways. Additionally, it gave states the latitude to enter into public-private partnership P3 arrangements to facilitate expansion and maintenance of the freeway network.
Texas, Florida,
Virginia, and
California quickly took advantage of the TEA-21 legislation and began on massive projects to expand their respective states' freeway networks, complementing existing Interstate freeways with privately funded and operated tollways. In 2004,
Illinois sealed a $1.8 billion deal with
Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Cintras to operate the
Chicago Skyway for 99 years. In a similar P3 arrangement in Indiana, the Cintras-Macquarie joint venture assumed responsibility for the Indiana East-West Toll Road for 75 years on June 30,
2006 in a very controversial $3.8 billion deal, which for political purposes was dubbed
Major Moves. As of late 2006,
Pennsylvania is actively pursuing the P3 toll road concept, but still has to clear challenges in the state legislature before such an arrangement can be implemented on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike. Also in late 2006
Delaware has plans to enter into an agreement with a private firm to design, build, and operate a planned 17-mile (27 km) bypass of U.S. Route 301 between Delaware Route 1 and the Maryland state line. Meanwhile in New York and Massachusetts, the respective state public authorities that operate the New York State Thruway and Massachusetts Turnpike have generated enough revenue to assume maintenance of other freeways beyond the roads on which tolls are collected. The
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority provided more than 50 percent of the funding to complete the
Big Dig (Boston, Massachusetts) project in Boston, and later assumed responsibility for operating the Central Artery, the
Sumner Tunnel, and the
Callahan Tunnel following the project's completion in 2005.
As federal funding dries up for expanding and maintaining America's freeway network, states are looking to innovative solutions using a combination of state and federal funding, toll collection through public authorities, and private sector investment.
Gallery of freeways around the world
Image:TullamarineFwy.jpg|The "Sound Tube",
CityLink Tollway, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia),
Australia.Image:Autopista-Central-2.jpg].Image:AutopistaLibertadores.JPG|Autopista Los Libertadores, (International Freeway)
Santiago, ChileImage:Queensway east of Riverside Drive Ottawa.jpg] (The Queensway (Ottawa)) in
Ottawa, Ontario,
Ontario,
Canada.Image:376 east.jpg] eastbound in downtown
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania,
USA.Image:Motorvag - bild.jpg] European route E6
European route E20 in southwest
Sweden in
VarbergImage:Old_Autobahn_DE.jpg] Autobahn without an emergency laneImage:Lowry_Hill_Tunnel.jpg] entering the Lowry Hill Tunnel in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minnesota.
USA.Image:Near Kamshet 2 tunnel on Mumbai Pune Expressway.JPG],
India.Image:Highway1-cassiar-southbound.jpg] in
Vancouver, British Columbia.Image:Alessandria-L'autostrada_A-26-tratto_appenninico.jpg] Autostrada A26 while it enters a tunnel crossing northern Apennine MountainsImage:Atlanta 75.85.jpg|The "Downtown Connector" (I-75 and I-85) in
Atlanta, Georgia,
United States of America, during rush hour. in Malaysia in Gweru.jpg in Zimbabwe
References
