highway vs freeway

[tulipflower]

Can we say a highway connects two cities or towns and a freeway connects different places within cities?

 

[GoesStation]

Not in the United States.

 

[probus]

The principal difference between a highway and a freeway is limited access on freeways. A highway may have traffic lights, cross streets, railway crossings, bicycles and stop signs. A freeway has none of those things. Therefore freeways generally have higher speed limits. Freeways also usually have central boulevards separating the lanes for each of the two opposite directions (called dual carriageways, I believe, in the UK.)

By the way, freeway is an American term. In BrE they are called motorways.

 

[Tdol]

Freeways also usually have central boulevards separating the lanes for each of the two opposite directions (called dual carriageways, I believe, in the UK.)

A road does not have to be a freeway/motorway to be a dual carriageway in the UK- dual carriageway means that there are two lanes on each side of the road. Most motorways have three lanes on each side.

 

[Yankee]

The principal difference between a highway and a freeway is limited access on freeways. A highway may have traffic lights, cross streets, railway crossings, bicycles and stop signs. A freeway has none of those things. Therefore freeways generally have higher speed limits. Freeways also usually have central boulevards separating the lanes for each of the two opposite directions (called dual carriageways, I believe, in the UK.)

By the way, freeway is an American term. In BrE they are called motorways.

I think "highway" is the more common term for any high speed, limited access road in the U. S. on which one would never find bicycles, stop signs, railway crossings or "cross streets". But "freeway" and "highway" might frequently be used interchangeably.

 

[Rover_KE]

...and the word 'freeway' is not used at all in the UK.

 

[tzfujimino]

I'd like to ask a question here.

Is 'expressway' American English?
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/expressway#expressway_4

 

[GoesStation]

I'd like to ask a question here.

Is 'expressway' American English?
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/expressway#expressway_4

Yes, but it's only used in some regions.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'd like to ask a question here.

Is 'expressway' American English?

Yes.

This has been discussed here before, but it's been a few years. In the US, a limited-access divided highway with no traffic lights might be called:

- a freeway
- an expressway
- an Interstate
- a highway
- a parkway
- a quickway (rare)
- a turnpike

Some have specialized meanings, which vary from state to state. Interstates are part of the Interstate Highway System and usually managed by the states they're in: Interstate Highways

 

[GoesStation]

Kansas City, Missouri has trafficways.

 

[Yankee]

Yes.

This has been discussed here before, but it's been a few years. In the US, a limited-access divided highway with no traffic lights might be called:

- a freeway
- an expressway
- an Interstate
- a highway
- a parkway
- a quickway (rare)
- a turnpike

Some have specialized meanings, which vary from state to state. Interstates are part of the Interstate Highway System and usually managed by the states they're in: Interstate Highways

And I forgot to include "thruway" in my previous post.