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Road network
Motorways impact on the quality of life in several ways. Primarily, they make journeys by passenger cars both safer and easier. On the other hand, motorways may detract from the quality of life of those who live near them, and their construction may have harmful effects on the environment.
Definition
A motorway is defined as a road, specially designed and built for motor traffic, which does not serve properties bordering on it, and which:
- is provided, except at special points or temporarily, with separate carriageways for the two directions of traffic, separated from each other, either by a dividing strip not intended for traffic, or exceptionally by other means ;
- does not cross at level with any road, railway or tramway track, or footpath ;
- is specially sign-posted as a motorway and is reserved for specific categories of road motor vehicles.
In calculating the length of motorways, entry and exit lanes are included irrespectively of the location of the sign-posts. Urban motorways are also included.
Comparability
The data on motorways are regarded as broadly comparable for most countries. However, the figures for Canada are expressed in two-lane equivalent kilometres, the figures for Mexico refer to toll roads only, and Spain classifies some express roads as motorways although they do not exactly meet the definition given above. For some countries, the data are reported for financial rather than calendar years.
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Long-term trends Motorway networks have been growing in all OECD countries for which data are available. OECD countries fall into three groups when the annual growth rates are considered. There are six countries where motorway networks have been growing at 6% or more each year: Finland, Korea, Portugal, Turkey, Ireland and Greece. These countries had relatively small networks at the beginning of the 1990s so that rapid growth was easy to achieve. There is a middle group of ten countries which recorded growth rates of 3 to 6% each year; this group includes Japan, France and the Scandinavian countries. At the lower end, there are ten OECD countries plus Russian Federation with growth rates of less than 2% per year; this group includes Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, where the motorway network was already mature at the beginning of the period, having been built up over several decades. The size of a country’s motorway network is generally correlated with a country’s size, but the United Kingdom and Turkey are exceptions in having relatively small motorway networks, while in Germany, France and Spain the motorway networks are extensive relative to their size, whether size is defined by population or by surface area. |
Source
- ECMT (2005), Trends in the Transport Sector, ECMT, Paris.
Further information
Analytical publications
- ECMT (2006), ECMT Annual Report 2005, ECMT, Paris.
- OECD (2006), Decoupling the Environmental Impacts of Transport from Economic Growth, OECD, Paris.
Methodological publications
- UNECE, ECMT, Eurostat (2003), Glossary for Transport Statistics, ECMT, Paris.
Websites
- European Conference of Ministers of Transport, www.cemt.org.
| Texts | |
| • | Indicator web page |
| • | Indicator in PDF |
| Tables (xls) | |
| • | Length of the motorway network |
| Graphics | |
| • | Growth of the motorway network |
Growth of the motorway network
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