Whats the difference between highways and freeways/the interstate in the US?
Interstate highways are built with a combo of federal and state money, and have to meet certain standards (no stoplights, for example). U.S. highways existed before that (back into the 1920s at least). They *may* be divided, limited access highways built to Interstate standards in some areas, but they don’t have to be. Rural U.S. highways are often two-lanes, not divided. Each state has its own highway or transportation department, and funds its own roads as well. How the road is signed will give you some clue as to who funded the road or highway and what standards it was supposed to be built to. “Freeway” usually means a divided highway with limited access, but that’s just colloquial. “Highway” could colloquially mean any road bigger than the one you’re on: if you’re on a small back road and get on U.S. 2 in northern Minnesota, you might say you were “getting on the highway” even though it’s just a two-lane strip of pavement you’re getting on. To the bureaucracy, I think they’re all “
The interstates were designed to be wider and straighter than many of the old state roads. They were originally developed not just for commerce but also for defence, and their width and relative straightness was designed to allow things like missiles and large equipment to be transferred from place to place. (There’s an urban legend out there that every fifth mile of the interstate had to be straight so it could act as a runway in certain circumstances. That was part of one proposal in the 30s but the idea didn’t make it into the postwar era.) The importance of the interstates to national defence allowed the federal government to give the states federal grants for their development and upkeep. This meant that the interstates in each state were roughly equivalent – with state roads, the money comes from state coffers, and there’s no way to (for instance) make sure that the roads in Alabama were as well kept up as those in Georgia.
In that question, I think the main thing that forced everyone to make the distinction is the difference between limited-access roads and, um, non-limited-access roads. (General-access roads?) I could argue with that somewhat, because my hometown in the Pacific Northwest is served a state highway that’s limited-access. I note, however, that its access is via stoplight at major crossroads, and by two-way stop at lesser ones, but not by ramp. Now, in the East, there were highways for donkeys’ ages before the interstate system came into being. In the Southwest, settlement didn’t run so far ahead of the automobile era. There were certainly highways before the interstate&mdashsometimes by other names, such as ‘the Pony Express road’ early on, or ‘US Route 66’ later. (‘You’ll see Amarillo; Gallup, New Mexico; Flagstaff, Arizona; don’t forget Wynona; Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.’) In many cases the interstates were laid out along earlier motor routes, there being no good reason to put the
The answers would make it seem like a highway is a road that does not require you to enter via an entry ramp, that it may have intersections or pedestrian traffic, and that it is an alternative to taking the interstate That’s exactly what it is, though with the modern interstate system in place it’s just hard to imagine taking one out of state or across the country for most people. Wikipedia has a great article on the numbered highway system that should explain it for you.
