Expressway

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A typical expressway in Santa Clara County, California. California is among those U.S. states which legally distinguish between expressways and freeways. Note the presence of traffic lights.

An expressway is a divided highway for high-speed traffic with at least partial control of access. However, as explained below, the degree of access allowed varies between countries and even between parts of the same country. In some jurisdictions, expressways are divided arterial roads with limits on the frequency of driveways and intersecting cross-streets. In other jurisdictions, access to expressways is limited only to grade-separated interchanges, making them the full equivalent of freeways.

The term “expressway” is currently used in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and the United States (where the term originated).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] United States

Riding a bicycle on the expressway is both legal and popular in California

In the United States, an expressway is defined by the federal government’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as a divided highway with partial control of access.^[1] In contrast, a freeway is defined as a divided highway with full control of access.^[2]. The difference between partial and full access control is that expressways may have a limited number of driveways and at-grade intersections (thus making them a form of high-speed arterial road), while access to freeways is allowed only at grade-separated interchanges. Expressways under this definition do not conform to Interstate highway standards (which ban practically all driveways and at-grade intersections) and are therefore usually numbered as state highways or U.S. highways.

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.^[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,^[4] Mississippi,^[5] Missouri,^[6] Nebraska,^[7] North Dakota,^[8] Ohio,^[9] and Wisconsin.^[10] 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.

However, a minority of states (mainly along the Eastern Seaboard) have refused to conform their terminology to the federal definition. The following states officially prefer the term “expressway” instead of “freeway” to describe what are technically freeways in federal parlance: Connecticut,^[11] Florida,^[12] Illinois,^[13] Indiana,^{[citation needed]} Maryland,^[14] Massachusetts,^{[citation needed]} New Jersey,^{[citation needed]} New York,^{[citation needed]} Pennsylvania,^{[citation needed]} South Carolina,^{[citation needed]} Virginia,^{[citation needed]} and West Virginia.^[15] In those states, the term "freeway" is not in common usage and it is common to find Interstate highways which bear the name “expressway.” Minnesota officially uses "freeway" and "expressway" interchangeably (with both defined as what federal officials call freeways).^[16]

Most expressways under the federal definition 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. Urban expressways are usually free of private driveways, but occasional exceptions include direct driveways to gas stations and shopping centers at major intersections (which would never be allowed on a true freeway).

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

A famous example of a local government getting into the expressway business 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 the county planned to upgrade the expressways into full-fledged freeways, such a project became politically infeasible after the rise of the tax revolt movement in the mid-1970s.

[edit] Canada

In Canada, expressway is synonymous with freeway and is used to mean limited-access divided-highways with no at-grade intersections. One example is the Gardiner Expressway through downtown Toronto. Where the expressway turns into a 6-lane arterial road (Lake Shore Boulevard) east of the Don River there is a sign warning of the end of the expressway.

The new Veterans Memorial Parkway in London, Ontario, has intersections instead of interchanges, thus is not considered a freeway. It was designed to be a limited access highway for the city but the lack of funding for the highway forced it to be built at-grade intersections.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Limited-access highway
• Controlled-access highway

[edit] External links

• http://www.expresswaysite.com/