horizontal photo of traffic on m4 motorway in Wiltshire on wet rainy day
horizontal photo of traffic on m4 motorway in Wiltshire on wet rainy day. A motorway (in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, some other Commonwealth nations and the Republic of Ireland) is both a type of road and a classification or designation. Motorways are highways designed to carry a large volume of traffic where a normal road would not suffice or would be unsafe, usually between cities. In the UK they are predominantly dual-carriageway roads, usually with three lanes in each direction, although four-lane and two-lane carriageways are also common, and all have grade-separated access. Equivalent terms in other countries include autoroute, auto-estrada, autobahn, freeway, autostrada, autopista, motorvej, autopalya, motorväg, avtopat, autoput, avtokinitodromos and diaľnica. In North America, the English terms freeway and expressway (including autoroutes) are used as a type of road, not necessarily as a classification type. Many highways are maintained throughout the United States as part of the Interstate Highway System. These highways are generally similar to motorways in purpose and quality. A motorway in the UK, whether by design or inheritance, must have a Statutory Instrument (SI) defining a stretch of road and sliproads as a special road under the Highways Act 1980. Speed limits are generally higher than on ordinary roads. Some types of vehicle may be subject to a lower limit, while often sections of motorway are subject to lower speed limits due to local driving conditions. In the UK the majority of motorways and dual carriageways have a maximum speed limit of 70 mph (113 km/h) for cars. However, a DfT study at several sites in 2006 revealed that over half of all motorway traffic was travelling in excess of this limit M6 preston bypass
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Photo credit: © Michael Sayles / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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