Freeway and its Design features

A freeway (is also superhighway, expressway or motorway as further explained below) is a multi-lane public road or highway planned for high-speed travel by great numbers of vehicles, and having no traffic lights, stop signs, or other regulations requiring vehicles to stop for cross-traffic.

Freeways have high speed limits and multiple lanes for travel in every direction. The number of lanes may differ from four or six in rural areas to as high as sixteen or eighteen in definite global cities. Freeway entrances and exits are restricted in number, and are intended with special onramps and off ramps, so as to make sure that vehicles do not disrupt the most important flow of traffic as they enter or leave the freeway. In few countries, the exits are numbered. Exit numbering may perhaps be by mile or kilometer, or in a simple sequential fashion. Where freeways cross, engineers give interchanges with elaborate ramp systems that permit for smooth, uninterrupted transitions connecting all through routes (as funds permit).

For the reason that the high speeds lessen decision time, freeways generally have more traffic signs than the equivalent signs on most highways and roads; the signs are time and again also larger. In most important cities, mainly on freeways six lanes in width or wider, guide signs are mounted on overpasses or overhead gantries so that drivers can see where each lane goes. Another ordinary problem with freeways is that it is almost impossible to keep away from wrong-way drivers, and the subsequent head-on collisions are often fatal. For that reason, special signage and lane markings are used to discourage drivers from going the wrong way. Freeways do not generally have traffic lights, but expressways may, in places where this distinction is made.