What exactly is a "freeway" ... a term invented in the 1950's?

Answer 1

A freeway is a type of highway designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. The word "freeway" first surfaced in the mid-1930s in proposals for the improvement of the New York City parkway network.[1] It is currently in regular use in the United States, as well as parts of Canada and Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway

Answer 2

The term has been popularized in California, but the first use of the word seems to have been in Tennessee. The term seems to be defined as a road at grade level with no intersections. Usually four lanes or more but not always. There is place in the OC where there are 17 lanes.

Interstate System, first proposed by President Eisenhower, was built after General Eisenhower saw the Autobahn system built by Nazi Germany.

Free does not refer to be free of cost. The term is used as to be free of cross traffic.

Answer 3

Freeways were built primarily as a concept for the military so that troops and equipment could be moved efficiently across the nation if needed. The term "freeway" meant unencumbered by intersections.

Answer 4

A "freeway" is just that a highway that is free. In the 50's and beyond some roads were toll roads; you had to pay to use them. When the interstate highway system became established, more "freeways" were evidenced.

Answer 5

A freeway is a type of highway designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and interchanges; railroad crossings are also removed. Such highways are usually divided with at least two lanes 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.[1] It is currently in regular use in the United States, as well as parts of Canada and Australia

Freeways, 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 are occasionally present on freeways which require drivers to yield to river traffic.

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 ideal cases, sophisticated interchanges allow for smooth, uninterrupted transitions between intersecting freeways. However, sometimes it is necessary to exit onto a surface road to transfer from one freeway to another.[2] Exits are sometimes numbered to help drivers identify their desired exit.


Highway 401 through the Greater Toronto Area in Toronto, Ontario, Canada uses collector and express lanes to divide traffic.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 16 lanes[3] or up to 18 for short distances.[4] 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.

Freeways 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.[citation needed]

Except on some two-lane freeways (and very rarely on wider freeways), a median 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 to prevent head-on collisions.[5] 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.

Speed 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 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 postmile system where markers indicate mileage through the state's individual counties. Until the 1980s, New York used reference markers (locally known as "little green signs") 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.