Information AboutExpressway |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EXPRESSWAY | |
| road infrastructure | |
| limited-access roads | |
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In many places, the word "expressway" is so loosely defined that it can describe roads such as:
, expressway. Note the presence of traffic lights.]] Other places, like the U.S. State of California , draw a strong legal distinction between freeways and expressways. Section 257 of the California Streets and Highway Code is as follows: For the purpose of this article only, and to distinguish between the terms "freeway" and "expressway," the word "freeway" shall mean a divided Arterial highway for through traffic with full control of access and with grade separations at Intersection s, while the word "expressway" shall mean an arterial highway for through traffic which may have partial control of access, but which may or may not be divided or have grade separations at intersections. Under this definition, many famous expressways are technically "freeways" instead of "expressways," such as the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto and the Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia . The point of Section 257 is that California expressways can have at-grade intersections, a design that is usually less safe than grade-separated interchanges. A similar distinction has been adopted by the American federal government in its Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices . Several U.S. states besides California have also enacted a similar distinction into their statutory law. See the article on Freeway s for more information, including a full list of jurisdictions which use the term ''expressway'' to describe what are actually ''freeways''. The vast majority of expressways in either sense are built by state or provincial governments, or by private companies which then operate them as Toll Road s pursuant to a license from the government. However, the most famous exception to the above rule 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 there were some plans to upgrade the county expressways into full-fledged freeways, those became politically infeasible after the rise of the Tax Revolt movement in the mid-1970s. Most at-grade expressways have Speed Limit s of 45-55 mph (70-90 km/h) in urban areas and 55-70 mph (90-110 km/h) in rural areas. REFERENCES |
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