what's the difference between Freeway and Expressway?

[Ali]

Hi,

Would anyone from the team kindly define "Freeway" and "Expressway"?

It's been a while since the priorities have been changed but the help section has not been updated!

Thank you,

Ali

[Kaushik Sridharan]

Hi Ali,

Freeway is the equivalent of what used to be called "Controlled Access Roads". These are roads that can only be accessed by ramps (no traffic lights), and are free from slow-moving traffic.

Expressway is the equivalent of what used to be called "Limited Access Roads". These roads may have some interchanges or stop signs where local roads connect to it.

You are right that the help pages have not yet been updated. We are still working out descriptions for these road priorities that make sense in different countries.

Kaushik

(Google Map Maker team)

[Ali]

Thank you.

So based on the current help and what you've states: 

"Expressways are different from the Freeways in the sense that a toll is not charged to access them"

Freeways: toll

Expressways: Toll-free

Ali

[Kaushik Sridharan]

No. That is not the crucial difference, and indeed I did not mention toll at all in my earlier message.

The main difference is in terms of how controlled access to these roads is. Access to freeways is more controlled -- you may access freeways only via on-ramps and off-ramps. Any roads that "cross" a freeway will be at a different grade/elevation, so that traffic on the freeway is not affected. On the other hand, access to expressways is less controlled -- it could be via a driveway or by a local road that connects to the expressway at a stop-light or a traffic interchange.

It is often the case that a toll is charged for freeways in some countries, but that is not the distinguishing aspect. I know that the help documentation does mention toll vs non-toll, but you should consider access to the road while determining priority and not whether toll is charged. As I mentioned earlier, we are re-working the descriptions on the help pages to make it clearer.

Regards,

-K

[Ali]

Thank you for the clarification. Indeed the help section should be updated!

Can I say following rules of thumb?

Freeways have neither a stop-light nor a traffic interchange.

Expressways may [or usually?] have stop-lights or traffic interchanges.

Thanks,

Ali

[sabre23t]

Hi Ali,
I agree with your rule of thumb.

* Controlled-Access == Freeways (US) == Motorways (UK) == Expressways, usually closed tolled, U6/R6 (MY)
* Limited-Access == Expressways (US) == Motorways (UK) == Expressways, usually open tolled,  U6/R6 (MY)
* Primary-Highway == National-Highway (US) == Primary routes/Trunk Roads (UK) == Federal Route/Highway, U5/R5 (MY)

The access control criteria (full control vs partial/limited control) is the more universal criteria, though not the names the roads usually known as. AFAIK, both UK/MY does not differentiate Freeways/Expressways in common usage.

I note MapMaker's current order of road priorities clearly shows Freeways/Expressways is higher quality than Highways, versus the old order of road priorities.

Current                 Old
1 No Auto Traffic    8 Non Traffic
2 Private Road    9 Terminal
3 Local Road      7 Local
4 Minor Artery     6 Minor Arterial
5 Major Artery     5 Major Arterial
6 Regional Highway    2 Secondary Road
7 National Highway    1 Primary Highway
8 Expressway    4 Limited Access Roads (corrected)
9 Freeway         3 Controlled Access Roads (corrected)


Ref:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/fcsec2_1.htm
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_Functional_Classification_System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Road_Numbering_Scheme
http://keselamatanjalan.jkr.gov.my/roadsafety/editor/files/File/Arahan%20Teknik%20Jalan/ATJ%208_86%20A%20Guide%20On%20Geometric%20Design%20Of%20Road.pdf (page 16)
http://sites.google.com/site/mapyourworldcommunity/map-your-world/discuss?place=msg%2Fgoogle-mapmaker%2FKp14x_G58SM%2FjZBaB_LSuVcJ (my earlier post)


--
regards,
sabre23t =^.^=

[Kaushik Sridharan]

Hi Ali,

Yes, I think that's a good rule-of-thumb to follow.

-K

 

Thanks,

Ali

[Ali]

Thank you sabre23t and Kaushik.

Ali

[Mike Atnip]

Hi,
Here in the US (Where the terms probably came from) a FREEway is a road that is totally FREE of any stops: lights, crossroads, stop signs, railroad tracks, slow vehicles, etc. This should help anyone to remember what a FREEway is.  :-)   Mike

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Ali <myemaila...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you sabre23t and Kaushik.

Ali

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[Ali]

Good tip:)

Thank you,

Ali

[deltafox]

unfortunately freeways, if equivalent to old "controled access" are not free, but subject to toll, whereas expressways ("limited access") are the same "autoroutes" but are tollfree... (at least in France)

once again this is a gigantic googlic mess, and as help pages are not kept up-to-date when such contra-intuitive changes are introduced (without any warning not even an announcement from our too clever Google team). Don't be suprprised if once again most data is wrong :-(

[deltafox]

Help pages will be welcome - what about thinking about changing help pages at the same time you change anything ?

You pretend that toll is not the distinguishing aspect - with all our respect, who are you, and why should we believe you, and not what official help pages say (or used to say) ? And if there is no way to distinguish toll sections, how will the Google map direction option "avoid toll road" work ???

[Kaushik]

Hi deltafox,

You are right of course. The help pages are a bit out of date and we are aware of it. Unfortunately, it's taking a while to get it all fixed. I'll make sure that at least ambiguous terms like these are clarified as soon as possible.

Regards,

-K

[rjhintz]

The difficulties here are similar to the issues associated with airfield (see "tarmac" discussion) and hydrologic (dfferences among rivers, streams, channels, canal, and so on) features, which we've discussed.  One solution proposed would be to align feature naming with international naming conventions, such as ICAO for airfield features.

I agree that the process of changing a feature should include a revision of the associated help.  I created Issue 992 to track this.
--
Rich