page_title: Highway systems by country
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Highway systems by country / United States
caption_attribution_description: Dansk: Downtown Connector, de her kombinerede motorveje Interstate 75 og Interstate 85 i retning mod centrum. English: I-75 co-signed with I-85 in midtown Atlanta. Downtown Connector view of the Downtown skyline. Interstate 75/85 in Atlanta, Georgia, is a typical urban freeway in United States. 한국어: 애틀랜타 도심의 제75호선과 제85호선의 중첩 구간. Simple English: The "Downtown Connector" (I-75 and I-85) in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, during rush hour. Slovenščina: Sedempasovna vpadnica v Atlanti ZDA z intenzivnim kmetovanjem, urbanizacijo in prometnimi sistemi izrazito spreminjajo in obremenjujejo domače, še posebno z industrijo pa tudi svetovno okolje. தமிழ்: அட்லான்டாவில் நடுவாக போகும் நெடுஞ்சாலை "டவுன்டவுன் கனெக்டர்".
context_section_description: In the United States, "highway" is a general term for denoting a public way, including the entire area within the right-of-way, and includes many forms:
  a high-speed, limited-access road like expressways, two-lane expressway, freeways, and large toll highways.
  an important road that connects cities and large towns.
  any road or street, or a travel way of any kind, including pedestrian ways, trails, and navigable waterways, to which the public has a perpetual right of use.
  Note that the phrase "right-of-way" is used differently in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom and certain other places. In the U.S. a highway or road "right-of-way" means the land on which the pavement rests, plus the shoulders beside the pavements, plus any median strip, plus any other adjacent piece of land that is designated for the purposes of the highway or road. In other words, the "right-of-way" is the strip of land for the highway or road, and a sign that says, "No Parking on Right-of-Way" means that drivers may not park on the pavement or on the land adjacent to it.
  Many paved highways for vehicles are part of the official National Highway System of the U.S.. Paved highways in the United States Numbered Highway System (for example, U.S. Highway 53) can vary from two lanes wide (one lane each direction), shoulderless, roads with no access control, to multi-lane high-speed controlled-access highway, such as the Interstate Highways. These roads are usually distinguished by being important, but not always the primary, routes that connect populated areas. (Sometimes, the primary route is a state highway.) Since their inception many decades ago, the construction of U.S. Highways, and their major improvements, have been paid for 50% with federal funds, especially from motor fuel taxes, and 50% with state funds from whatever tax resources that the state has. Thus, the system of U.S. Highways has always been an equal partnership between the federal government and the state governments. This was a plan that changed dramatically with the advent of the Interstate Highway System beginning in the 1950s, but do not forget that the system of U.S. Highways continued to be upgraded under the 50%-50% funding. Highways continue to be widened, old bridges continue to be replaced with newer and better ones, and so forth.
  The term Highways in the U.S. even includes major paved roads that serve purposes similar to those of the U.S. Highways or Interstate Highways, but which are completely designed, paid for, and maintained by state or local governments. An example of this is M-6 (Michigan highway), which is an urban bypass of Grand Rapids, Michigan, that is a multi-lane, controlled-access highway entirely designed and paid for by Michigan. Much of the traffic uses it to bypass downtown Grand Rapids to make connections between Interstate 96, Interstate 196 and U.S. Highway 131.
  When the Act of Congress that authorized the Interstate Highway System was passed and then signed by President  Eisenhower, it was already clear that the Interstate Highways would be far more expensive, mile-for-mile, than the U.S. Highways had been. Because of their great cost, Congress decided to set the standard for federal funding for the Interstate System at 90%, leaving 10% for the states to pay for.
  Another monetary difference came from the fact that the Interstate Highways were to be designed to be high-speed and safe expressways. This meant that they needed to have much wider open strips of land along their sides, because this created safety zones on each side of the highways so that vehicles that were in accidents or simply lost control would have somewhere to go, to slow down gradually, and not crash into trees, boulders, light poles, buildings, parked vehicles, fire hydrants, and other kinds of obstacles. Roadway interchanges for Interstate Highways were also to be very large (and over the decades, they became a lot larger than anyone had anticipated in the 1950s). With so much land being taken away for the highways, the only way to justify it and to make it politicall
caption: Interstate 75/Interstate 85 in Atlanta, Georgia, is a typical urban freeway in United States.
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