What are the differences between a freeway and expressway, arterial and boulevard, etc.?
A surface street is any street in an urban area that travels at-grade with intersections and or driveways and business entrances. This term is frequently used in traffic reports when there are traffic delays on the freeway system. Surface streets may be called street, avenue, boulevard, road, place, or an assortment of other names.
A Super Two roadway has the design features of a conventional four-lane expressway or freeway, but with only two lanes separated by striping instead of a median. A Super Two might have interchanges; an example is the Ridgecrest, California, bypass along U.S. 395.
This term is used interchangeably with ghost ramp where the pavement prematurely ends as a stub of the main roadway. The southern terminus of Interstate 310 in Louisiana and the north end of Interstate 990 near Lockport, New York both conclude with stub ends. The final interchanges for both freeways included provisions for once planned extensions.
Most states offer some kind of tourist information map, and the state tourism office, the state department of transportation (DOT), or a contracted private vendor may produce these maps. Normally, these maps are available at state tourist information (welcome) centers found near state lines or are available by request on line or as part of a tourist packet. The quality of official state maps varies by state, depending upon the [...]
A concrete wall that separates a highway from the associated environs to dampen the noise pollution to surrounding areas. These are found in urban and suburban areas where a freeway or other highway travels through a residential zone. They also provide a function of security to prevent pedestrians from entering the freeway right-of-way. In some cases, a sound barrier may only consist of a wooden stockade fence. Most new sound [...]
A short connector ramp that is generally situated between a freeway mainline and adjacent frontage road or c/d roadway. These ramps allow motorists to "slip" from one roadway to another. Slip ramps also exist on freeways that are split between a local and express configuration. One such example of this configuration exists along the dual freeway portion of Interstate 270 in Montgomery County, Maryland.
A sign bridge is any structure that supports overhead guide signs independent of an overpass or flyover ramp.
A shield is a numbered route marker. Shields come in many varieties, but the most common shields are for Interstates, U.S. routes, state routes, and county routes. A uniform standard exists for Interstates, U.S. routes, and most county routes across the country, while state route shields vary by state. Other shields found include those for toll roads (turnpikes), parkways, cultural and historic auto trail routes.
A service road, or frontage road, parallels a freeway and provides access to the highway at each interchange. Businesses, such as gas stations, restaurants, and motels, may be located along the service road. On occasion, a service road in rural areas may actually be the original alignment of the highway prior to the construction of the freeway. A service road might be called into service as the main route whenever [...]
A roundabout replaces a conventional intersection managed by traffic signals or stop signs with a one or more lane wide rotary around a center island median. Roundabout construction has accelerated nationwide, especially in neighborhood areas and with new developments. States such as Wisconsin converted a number of intersections to roundabouts to reduce crash rate numbers. The state also uses roundabouts routinely for interchange redesign, implementing the dumbbell and dog bone [...]