Highway - what is it? The longest highways in the world

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

The first roads, as you know, began to build in ancient Rome. This article will focus on modern means of communication, called highways. These are paved roads with markings that allow cars to reach high speeds. What are the characteristics of a highway? And what is meant by this word in Russia? You will find answers to these questions below.

The highway is…

The term itself comes from the French word chaussée. Around the middle of the 19th century, it migrated to the Russian language and became synonymous with the concept of "horse-drawn road". Today, a highway is a multi-lane paved highway that runs between settlements.

One should distinguish between the concepts of "street" and "highway". The latter differs in that it is intended exclusively for cars. There is a roadside here, but there are usually no sidewalks for pedestrians. As well as unregulated pedestrian crossings (only underground or elevated crossings are allowed). Highways usually pass outside the city, and residential developments do not adjoin them.

The longest highway onplanet

The Pan American Highway is considered the longest in the world. This is a grandiose automobile route, stretching for 24 thousand kilometers and connecting twelve states of North, Central and South America. The highway starts in Alaska and ends in Chile. Passes by the famous Nazca Desert in Peru. However, this route cannot be called continuous. A hundred-kilometer gap remains on the border between Panama and Colombia - the so-called Darien Gap.

In Eurasia, the longest is considered to be the Trans-Siberian Highway in Russia. It connects St. Petersburg with Vladivostok, passing through Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk and Khabarovsk. The length of the route is about 11,000 km. Although, in fact, the Trans-Siberian Highway consists of seven federal highways (according to the Russian road classification). Many sections of the track require major repairs.

Highway in Russia

In Russia there is no unambiguous use of the term "highway". According to the official classification of roads in the country, ordinary roads, express roads and motorways are distinguished. By highway, as a rule, we mean federal highways (see the map below). Their total number, today, is 123. Each of these routes has its own number (for example, Moscow highway - M10, Ilyinskoe highway - A109, etc.).

The word "highway" in Russia is also often referred to as the main streets in big cities leading from the city center to the outskirts. A striking example here isWarsaw highway in Moscow. It starts from Bolshaya Tulskaya Street and leads to the southern border of the city, connecting such Moscow districts as Chertanovo, Northern Butovo, Nagorny and Donskoy. In some cases, the name "highway" has developed historically (as, for example, Lanskoye Highway in St. Petersburg).

One of the busiest roads in the country is the M10 "Russia" highway (in Soviet times - E95, in the 19th century - Moscow highway, even earlier - Petersburg tract). It passes through the territories of four regions of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad), connecting the current capital of the state with the historical one. The road was laid at the beginning of the 18th century by decree of Peter the Great. Today, its total length reaches 700 kilometers.