Whats the difference between highways and freeways/the interstate in the US?
If there are cross streets intersecting with the road directly (no ramps) it’s not limited access. Some use the terms freeway, expressway, and highway to distinguish between limited access, a non-limited access divided highway, and a regular two lane highway, but the usage is completely non-standard throughout the various states. An Interstate is just one specific example of a freeway. A limited access state road or turnpike which is not signed as an Interstate can also be a freeway (and numbered as a state or US highway).
Freeway = Expressway. Always. But ‘freeway’ is more common usage in the west, expressway in the east (or even ‘X-way’). This usage gets a little wishy-washy in places like Long Island, where you have the big lie, L.I.E., Long Island Expressway (a lie because it isn’t very express much of the time) and “Parkways”, which are freeways that don’t allow commercial traffic. The term parkway may be used differently elsewhere. (PLEASE NOTE: In NY, people drive on parkways, and park in driveways). Interstate is nearly always a freeway (limited access), except in special circumstances, usually temporary (temporary could be a long time, as in cases where the real freeway hasn’t been built, but the existing highway still is designated by the interstate number for ease of navigation). The old highway system was made of “US Routes”, as in Route 66, or Route 2 (Secret Canadian highway running through upper Michigan /humor). It is common to find US Routes that are built as freeways (US Rouhte 23 in mu
