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This article has become very confused, especailly as its scope is not properly defined. I have inserted the OECD definition of a motorway into the introductory paragraph, thereby removing the need to discuss what is a motorway, what is a highway, what is an expressway and so on. If this definition is agreed, then agreement should be sought as to what the scope of the article should be, bearing in mind that the scope must be compatible with the OECD definition.
Also, in accepting this definition, we can probably clean out a lot of unneccessary material. Martinvl ( talk) 12:09, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
This article is becoming rather confusing as more is added, because of the differences in laws, customs, regulations etc in the different nations that use the word motorway. For instance, in the UK, although undertaking is discouraged in the Highway Code, it is not actually illegal. In NZ the signs are green, in the UK they are blue and so on. Citations and references are difficult because they tend to apply only to one specific country. I suggest we have an article for each nation named Motorways of the United Kingdom, Motorways of New Zealand, Motorways of the Republic of Ireland etc. brought together under the Motorway article. This could mirror the way the Autoroute article works for the autoroutes of France, Switzerland and Quebec. This way specific prohibitions, speed limits, hard shoulder use, etc. can be properly explained without having to couch it in phrases like "in some countries...". Also history, laws, conventions and social and cultural differences can be more comprehensively discussed. What do others think? -- de Facto ( talk). 15:40, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
That's particularly the case with Ireland and the UK - aside from minor differences (how a road is made a motorway, how they're numbered, and the speed limit) motorways in Ireland and the UK are essentially the same concept with exactly the same restrictions and very similar signage. I don't know whether they need to be split, the articles would be very similar and Roads in Ireland and Road signs in the Republic of Ireland deal with the differences anyway. -- Rdd 22:08, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Nice article, but one comment/correction - contrary to what is claimed, British motorway speed limits (at least for cars) are no higher than those on any other unrestricted dual carriageway (70mph). I didn't edit, since I don't know the situation in Ireland.... Cambyses 06:03, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Thanks, the absolute speed limits here in Ireland are 70mph for motorway, 60mph for National Primary Routes - even if dual-carriageway. (There is some consternation at this). Speed limits will be changing soon to km/h, with slight variations on existing limits, date to be announced sometime in September. All road signs in the country will be updated overnight!!!
I don't know the situation with speed limits in Britain, hence my error. If you can clarify the U.K. situation better, please do. I have amended the phrasing to say "generally" higher than ordinary roads. Also mentioned dual-carriageways being lower speeds in Ireland. Zoney 15:12, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Is it worth mentioning that the restriction of HGVs is nothing to do with the motorway speed limit but rather to do with EU legislation? The speed limit for HGVs on Motorways is 60mph. Also, the default speed for all dual carriageways is 70mph unless otherwise signed, the same as Motorways. 80.169.52.2 ( talk) 17:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
I'm not quite sure why the merge flag was put on here (to merge with Freeway as, SFAICT, there are enough different concepts involved that it seems sensible to keep them apart. Freeway is very much a US-only term, 'motorway' however is translated exactly within Europe (autostrad, autobahn, etc)). Disgree with merge therefore -- VampWillow 22:24, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)
So there is apparently inconsistent usage about whether the near-median lanes are the inside or outside. So, I've avoided using that language in this article entirely, to avoid confusion. -- Beland 21:36, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Standard usage amongst Police, Highways Agency etc is "Lane X". In this terminology, lane 1 is the lane furthest from central reservation, counting up towards the central reservation. Widest motorway in the UK is the M25 around Heathrow, 6 lanes in each direction, so that has a "Lane 6". The "inside" and "outside" are standard use in the UK, where inside is left and outside is right. The "inside" comes from the fact that is the direction of the inside of the car from the driver's seat, the outside is the direction of the outside of the car from the driver's seat (inside = left, outside = right). Additionally, we use nearside and offside, where nearside = inside, offside = outside. This final system is the one you will encounter if dealing with a hirecar company, insurance company or garage. Also when reporting damage to a vehicle at a Police station, they will record it using nearside and offside. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.107.183.201 ( talk) 18:22, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
I've clipped the following for the moment:
I'm not aware of any instances where this is actually the case for something longer than a slip road. The one exception I can think of is the infamous Heathrow spur to the M4 motorway at junction 4, however this doesn't lead inescapably to the motorway - Heathrow Airport is on one side and Hayes is on the other - you could feasibly drive the length of the spur from Hayes to the airport without being forced to join the M4. Chris 01:17, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Besides the Autobahn and autostrada, which are fairly well-known in English-speaking contexts, do the other translations of motorway differ from the average European motorways?
Peter Isotalo 19:17, May 26, 2005 (UTC)
Autoroute is French. Freeway might have more, not sure. -- SPUI ( talk) 23:16, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
Freeway in French is Autoroute sans péage which translates literally "Motorway without toll". The French also have other roads called Voie rapide and Pénétrante which could be roughly translated as "Expressway" and "Spur road" respectively. Apgeraint 20:33, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
In the UK, at least, service stations are a notable feature of motorways. Could someone write about them, please? Andy Mabbett 09:05, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I don't see what is a *MAJOR* move having been discussed anywhere. This article is now *WAY* too long and 'motorway' is not just a european term. Please revert this edit asap and put it up for discussion for a merge before taking such a destructive and major action. -- Vamp: Willow 12:38, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Picking up from the events of earlier today and discussion immediately above, this is as good aplace as any to discuss whether a merge is or may be appropriaate in any way. If you look furhter up this page to the start of 2004 you'll see that there was a complete merge/rewrite/split of all the 'motorway' pages (ie all the national names) in order to rejoin the content that had crept into the different articles back to the correct terminology, (indeed it was done by me but I am quite happy to see any new consensus). Whilst there are a few Europe-wide attributes that may be appropriate most considerations about roads are national, however I felt then and still do that to combine all the national/international content about major fast multi-lane grade-separated-junction central-reservation type roads into one place would create an article way too massive and lead to lots more edit and content conflicts than we already have at present on the individual articles. But ymmv ... so options anyone? -- Vamp: Willow 13:15, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Many of the completion dates are missing for motorways. Could I have help inserting them? Sceptre ( Talk) 20:55, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
I've removed these templates, as ten days have elapsed without a clear consensus.
zoney ♣ talk 16:14, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
In the section about UK-Specifics, it states that in the UK, junctions must have a number. This may be the ideal, but I note that this is not always applied! Good examples: M275, A329(M).
Technically, a UK motorway is not a highway (as stated in the defining paragraph). It is a motor road. In the UK, a "highway" is a right of way, which a motorway is not. I'm not sure how (or whether) to fix this.-- Shantavira| feed me 09:39, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
The following extract from the "Common Criteria" section doesn't quite seem to make sense to me:
The central reservation remains unbroken (an exception being [...] a section of the M40 in Warwickshire, with an unusually wide grass verge separating the carriageways).
I'm not quite sure what this bit is supposed to mean: surely a grassed area separating the carriageways is a central reservation? The fact it's exceptionally wide doesn't imply it's not unbroken. In any event, there are plenty of other places with wide central reservations: M6 close to Shap summit in Cumbria, M62 summit between Manchester and Leeds (that even has a farm on it!). Can anyone discern what's meant here? Casper Gutman ( talk • contributions) 08:29, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
“ | No roundabouts apart from at the start and finish and some motorway interchanges | ” |
This means that roundabouts can be used at the start, finish and as motorway interchanges. In other words, their use is not restricted. Could someone explain this and rewrite the sentence in the article? Also, the explanation of "motorway interchanges" in the context of this would be useful. It seems that most countries in the world and the UK disagree about the definition of an "interchange".
Admiral Norton (
talk) 21:11, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
- M50 Junction 3 - an at grade roundabout on the mainline. If you continue straight ahead for the N32, motorway regulations don't end until the next roundabout for Baskin. At least, this was originally the case, but its harder to see since they resignposted it as part of the Port Tunnel works. (Its now possible to leave the M50 at this junction via the N32 without ever hitting any "end of motorway" signs). -M1 Junction 3 - this roundabout isn't on the mainline, but you'll hit it if you join the M1 at the Dublin Airport roundabout. The entire roundabout (and the 1km or so spur motorway leading to it)is nonetheless under motorway regulations, as the only places you can get to from it are the M1 northbound or southbound. Rdd ( talk) 19:24, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Perhaps the writer when the writer said 'as motorway interchanges', he was referring to the fact you can have slip roads leading to a roundabout (as is often the case in the UK and Ireland), with the mainline passing underneath. I wouldn't imagine an at-grade roundabout would be acceptable for a motorway. Trans5999 ( talk) 19:58, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
I find the paragraphs on Irish motorways as way too detailed and esoteric. CFCF ( talk) 22:37, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
I have been adding information regarding driver location signs. The work is still in progress, but is taking shape. Currently I have written an article Highway route markers which has a section on driver location signs. I might hive that off at a later date if appropriate. Meanwhile I have also made additions to the exit lists for the M3, M25 and M26 motorways. My own feeling is that the M25 addition is fine - it is totally verifiable. I am not too happy about the M26 addition (identification of carriageways) as it is not verified. I have taken a slightly different approach to the M3 addition of carriageway identifiers - I have recorded the date on which I actually viewed the markers - I believe that this is a verifiable source rather than original research since anybody can likewise go to the M3 and verify what I saw in the same way as they would do if it were a book. Any comments? Martinvl ( talk) 19:40, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
To me this whole section seems out of place and its inclusion is in my mind (slightly) POV, the environmental effects of road transport are VERY well covered in numerous other articles. We don't need them going over again on every road related article in existence. Midlandstoday ( talk) 18:53, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
Is there any benefit of moving the junction lists (at any rate of the major motorways - criteria still to be decided) onto their own pages - this will assist any readers who might like to print the junction list off. In such cases, there would be a note at the top of the article to this effect. Martinvl ( talk) 11:38, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
This posting appears on the Talk pages of Motorway, Expressway and Freeway. Please respond on the Motorway talk page.
An install-delete battle is breaking out on the Motorways article regarding the description of Pakistan’s motorways. I do not want to take sides, but I would like to resolve this problem and also, at the same time resolve the larger problem of Motorway, Freeways and Expressways.
My proposal is as follows:
Any comments? Martinvl ( talk) 12:35, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
I strongly oppose such a merger, it completely goes against common sense. A motorway and a freeway are completely different things, generally standards are different (though in the UK, a motorway isn't a standard of road, though there are generally accepted "unofficial" minimum standards). To even suggest that these two articles be merged just shows lack of understanding of the subject in hand. The suggestion by Coolcaesar that Freeway is a more common term is equally pathetic, and another example of Americanism's trying to take over Wikipedia. Jeni ( talk) 15:45, 21 November 2009 (UTC
I revoked the changes for a number of reasons:
I've moved this in based on Talk:Semi-highway. -- Joy [shallot] ( talk) 17:05, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
The use of dual units in the section on speed limits makes for disruptive reading. I have inserted a conversion table which I hope will remedy this problem. Are people happy for me to remove the dual units from the text and to place the statement The units used for speed limits in this section are those displayed on the roads concerned at the start of the section? Martinvl ( talk) 11:11, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
My removal of the pseudo-hatnote/disclaimer regarding why units are not converted on this article was reverted. I don't understand the rationale behind why we're not converting units anyway, but even if that's what's been decided we should not be inventing new ways of telling these things to users. Hatnotes have a specific styling and a specific purpose: that should not be co-opted for random editorial comments. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 19:47, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
What is happening with the merge proposal that seemed to have been agreed?
As it is, this article is a mess. It appears to be at its core a "Motorways in the United Kingdom" article with information about sundry other countries tacked on. The other countries appear to have been chosen either solely because they use the term "motorway" rather than another word (ie is there anything inherently similar about an Irish and a Pakistani motorway that belongs here, but not say a Japanese expressway, other than the actual name used) or for no reason at all (eg Spain, Germany, Hungary etc, which could equally well go under "freeway" under this arbitrary division between motorway and freeway)
We need a single article that covers grade-separated limited access roads on a world scale and all the country-specific stuff can go into separate articles such as Motorways in the United Kingdom, Freeways in the USA, Expressways in Japan etc.
Lets not get too hung up about the precise definitions, which differ slightly from country to country or jurisdiction to jurisdiction, or exceptions to the general rules such as bicycles being allowed on US freeways in some states etc. There are lots of concepts that do not have absolutely hard and fast definitions that apply in all cases, yet it doesn't stop us from having articles about them. No-one can come up with a definition of railway/railroad that draws a precise line between them, metros, subways and trams. The dividing line between tree and shrub can be a little hazy, but everyone still knows what a tree is. Booshank ( talk) 17:50, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Controlled-access highway which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. — RMCD bot 06:02, 21 January 2021 (UTC)
This redirect does not require a rating on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||
|
This article has become very confused, especailly as its scope is not properly defined. I have inserted the OECD definition of a motorway into the introductory paragraph, thereby removing the need to discuss what is a motorway, what is a highway, what is an expressway and so on. If this definition is agreed, then agreement should be sought as to what the scope of the article should be, bearing in mind that the scope must be compatible with the OECD definition.
Also, in accepting this definition, we can probably clean out a lot of unneccessary material. Martinvl ( talk) 12:09, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
This article is becoming rather confusing as more is added, because of the differences in laws, customs, regulations etc in the different nations that use the word motorway. For instance, in the UK, although undertaking is discouraged in the Highway Code, it is not actually illegal. In NZ the signs are green, in the UK they are blue and so on. Citations and references are difficult because they tend to apply only to one specific country. I suggest we have an article for each nation named Motorways of the United Kingdom, Motorways of New Zealand, Motorways of the Republic of Ireland etc. brought together under the Motorway article. This could mirror the way the Autoroute article works for the autoroutes of France, Switzerland and Quebec. This way specific prohibitions, speed limits, hard shoulder use, etc. can be properly explained without having to couch it in phrases like "in some countries...". Also history, laws, conventions and social and cultural differences can be more comprehensively discussed. What do others think? -- de Facto ( talk). 15:40, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
That's particularly the case with Ireland and the UK - aside from minor differences (how a road is made a motorway, how they're numbered, and the speed limit) motorways in Ireland and the UK are essentially the same concept with exactly the same restrictions and very similar signage. I don't know whether they need to be split, the articles would be very similar and Roads in Ireland and Road signs in the Republic of Ireland deal with the differences anyway. -- Rdd 22:08, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Nice article, but one comment/correction - contrary to what is claimed, British motorway speed limits (at least for cars) are no higher than those on any other unrestricted dual carriageway (70mph). I didn't edit, since I don't know the situation in Ireland.... Cambyses 06:03, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Thanks, the absolute speed limits here in Ireland are 70mph for motorway, 60mph for National Primary Routes - even if dual-carriageway. (There is some consternation at this). Speed limits will be changing soon to km/h, with slight variations on existing limits, date to be announced sometime in September. All road signs in the country will be updated overnight!!!
I don't know the situation with speed limits in Britain, hence my error. If you can clarify the U.K. situation better, please do. I have amended the phrasing to say "generally" higher than ordinary roads. Also mentioned dual-carriageways being lower speeds in Ireland. Zoney 15:12, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Is it worth mentioning that the restriction of HGVs is nothing to do with the motorway speed limit but rather to do with EU legislation? The speed limit for HGVs on Motorways is 60mph. Also, the default speed for all dual carriageways is 70mph unless otherwise signed, the same as Motorways. 80.169.52.2 ( talk) 17:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
I'm not quite sure why the merge flag was put on here (to merge with Freeway as, SFAICT, there are enough different concepts involved that it seems sensible to keep them apart. Freeway is very much a US-only term, 'motorway' however is translated exactly within Europe (autostrad, autobahn, etc)). Disgree with merge therefore -- VampWillow 22:24, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)
So there is apparently inconsistent usage about whether the near-median lanes are the inside or outside. So, I've avoided using that language in this article entirely, to avoid confusion. -- Beland 21:36, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Standard usage amongst Police, Highways Agency etc is "Lane X". In this terminology, lane 1 is the lane furthest from central reservation, counting up towards the central reservation. Widest motorway in the UK is the M25 around Heathrow, 6 lanes in each direction, so that has a "Lane 6". The "inside" and "outside" are standard use in the UK, where inside is left and outside is right. The "inside" comes from the fact that is the direction of the inside of the car from the driver's seat, the outside is the direction of the outside of the car from the driver's seat (inside = left, outside = right). Additionally, we use nearside and offside, where nearside = inside, offside = outside. This final system is the one you will encounter if dealing with a hirecar company, insurance company or garage. Also when reporting damage to a vehicle at a Police station, they will record it using nearside and offside. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.107.183.201 ( talk) 18:22, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
I've clipped the following for the moment:
I'm not aware of any instances where this is actually the case for something longer than a slip road. The one exception I can think of is the infamous Heathrow spur to the M4 motorway at junction 4, however this doesn't lead inescapably to the motorway - Heathrow Airport is on one side and Hayes is on the other - you could feasibly drive the length of the spur from Hayes to the airport without being forced to join the M4. Chris 01:17, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Besides the Autobahn and autostrada, which are fairly well-known in English-speaking contexts, do the other translations of motorway differ from the average European motorways?
Peter Isotalo 19:17, May 26, 2005 (UTC)
Autoroute is French. Freeway might have more, not sure. -- SPUI ( talk) 23:16, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
Freeway in French is Autoroute sans péage which translates literally "Motorway without toll". The French also have other roads called Voie rapide and Pénétrante which could be roughly translated as "Expressway" and "Spur road" respectively. Apgeraint 20:33, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
In the UK, at least, service stations are a notable feature of motorways. Could someone write about them, please? Andy Mabbett 09:05, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I don't see what is a *MAJOR* move having been discussed anywhere. This article is now *WAY* too long and 'motorway' is not just a european term. Please revert this edit asap and put it up for discussion for a merge before taking such a destructive and major action. -- Vamp: Willow 12:38, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Picking up from the events of earlier today and discussion immediately above, this is as good aplace as any to discuss whether a merge is or may be appropriaate in any way. If you look furhter up this page to the start of 2004 you'll see that there was a complete merge/rewrite/split of all the 'motorway' pages (ie all the national names) in order to rejoin the content that had crept into the different articles back to the correct terminology, (indeed it was done by me but I am quite happy to see any new consensus). Whilst there are a few Europe-wide attributes that may be appropriate most considerations about roads are national, however I felt then and still do that to combine all the national/international content about major fast multi-lane grade-separated-junction central-reservation type roads into one place would create an article way too massive and lead to lots more edit and content conflicts than we already have at present on the individual articles. But ymmv ... so options anyone? -- Vamp: Willow 13:15, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Many of the completion dates are missing for motorways. Could I have help inserting them? Sceptre ( Talk) 20:55, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
I've removed these templates, as ten days have elapsed without a clear consensus.
zoney ♣ talk 16:14, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
In the section about UK-Specifics, it states that in the UK, junctions must have a number. This may be the ideal, but I note that this is not always applied! Good examples: M275, A329(M).
Technically, a UK motorway is not a highway (as stated in the defining paragraph). It is a motor road. In the UK, a "highway" is a right of way, which a motorway is not. I'm not sure how (or whether) to fix this.-- Shantavira| feed me 09:39, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
The following extract from the "Common Criteria" section doesn't quite seem to make sense to me:
The central reservation remains unbroken (an exception being [...] a section of the M40 in Warwickshire, with an unusually wide grass verge separating the carriageways).
I'm not quite sure what this bit is supposed to mean: surely a grassed area separating the carriageways is a central reservation? The fact it's exceptionally wide doesn't imply it's not unbroken. In any event, there are plenty of other places with wide central reservations: M6 close to Shap summit in Cumbria, M62 summit between Manchester and Leeds (that even has a farm on it!). Can anyone discern what's meant here? Casper Gutman ( talk • contributions) 08:29, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
“ | No roundabouts apart from at the start and finish and some motorway interchanges | ” |
This means that roundabouts can be used at the start, finish and as motorway interchanges. In other words, their use is not restricted. Could someone explain this and rewrite the sentence in the article? Also, the explanation of "motorway interchanges" in the context of this would be useful. It seems that most countries in the world and the UK disagree about the definition of an "interchange".
Admiral Norton (
talk) 21:11, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
- M50 Junction 3 - an at grade roundabout on the mainline. If you continue straight ahead for the N32, motorway regulations don't end until the next roundabout for Baskin. At least, this was originally the case, but its harder to see since they resignposted it as part of the Port Tunnel works. (Its now possible to leave the M50 at this junction via the N32 without ever hitting any "end of motorway" signs). -M1 Junction 3 - this roundabout isn't on the mainline, but you'll hit it if you join the M1 at the Dublin Airport roundabout. The entire roundabout (and the 1km or so spur motorway leading to it)is nonetheless under motorway regulations, as the only places you can get to from it are the M1 northbound or southbound. Rdd ( talk) 19:24, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Perhaps the writer when the writer said 'as motorway interchanges', he was referring to the fact you can have slip roads leading to a roundabout (as is often the case in the UK and Ireland), with the mainline passing underneath. I wouldn't imagine an at-grade roundabout would be acceptable for a motorway. Trans5999 ( talk) 19:58, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
I find the paragraphs on Irish motorways as way too detailed and esoteric. CFCF ( talk) 22:37, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
I have been adding information regarding driver location signs. The work is still in progress, but is taking shape. Currently I have written an article Highway route markers which has a section on driver location signs. I might hive that off at a later date if appropriate. Meanwhile I have also made additions to the exit lists for the M3, M25 and M26 motorways. My own feeling is that the M25 addition is fine - it is totally verifiable. I am not too happy about the M26 addition (identification of carriageways) as it is not verified. I have taken a slightly different approach to the M3 addition of carriageway identifiers - I have recorded the date on which I actually viewed the markers - I believe that this is a verifiable source rather than original research since anybody can likewise go to the M3 and verify what I saw in the same way as they would do if it were a book. Any comments? Martinvl ( talk) 19:40, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
To me this whole section seems out of place and its inclusion is in my mind (slightly) POV, the environmental effects of road transport are VERY well covered in numerous other articles. We don't need them going over again on every road related article in existence. Midlandstoday ( talk) 18:53, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
Is there any benefit of moving the junction lists (at any rate of the major motorways - criteria still to be decided) onto their own pages - this will assist any readers who might like to print the junction list off. In such cases, there would be a note at the top of the article to this effect. Martinvl ( talk) 11:38, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
This posting appears on the Talk pages of Motorway, Expressway and Freeway. Please respond on the Motorway talk page.
An install-delete battle is breaking out on the Motorways article regarding the description of Pakistan’s motorways. I do not want to take sides, but I would like to resolve this problem and also, at the same time resolve the larger problem of Motorway, Freeways and Expressways.
My proposal is as follows:
Any comments? Martinvl ( talk) 12:35, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
I strongly oppose such a merger, it completely goes against common sense. A motorway and a freeway are completely different things, generally standards are different (though in the UK, a motorway isn't a standard of road, though there are generally accepted "unofficial" minimum standards). To even suggest that these two articles be merged just shows lack of understanding of the subject in hand. The suggestion by Coolcaesar that Freeway is a more common term is equally pathetic, and another example of Americanism's trying to take over Wikipedia. Jeni ( talk) 15:45, 21 November 2009 (UTC
I revoked the changes for a number of reasons:
I've moved this in based on Talk:Semi-highway. -- Joy [shallot] ( talk) 17:05, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
The use of dual units in the section on speed limits makes for disruptive reading. I have inserted a conversion table which I hope will remedy this problem. Are people happy for me to remove the dual units from the text and to place the statement The units used for speed limits in this section are those displayed on the roads concerned at the start of the section? Martinvl ( talk) 11:11, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
My removal of the pseudo-hatnote/disclaimer regarding why units are not converted on this article was reverted. I don't understand the rationale behind why we're not converting units anyway, but even if that's what's been decided we should not be inventing new ways of telling these things to users. Hatnotes have a specific styling and a specific purpose: that should not be co-opted for random editorial comments. Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward: not at work) - talk 19:47, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
What is happening with the merge proposal that seemed to have been agreed?
As it is, this article is a mess. It appears to be at its core a "Motorways in the United Kingdom" article with information about sundry other countries tacked on. The other countries appear to have been chosen either solely because they use the term "motorway" rather than another word (ie is there anything inherently similar about an Irish and a Pakistani motorway that belongs here, but not say a Japanese expressway, other than the actual name used) or for no reason at all (eg Spain, Germany, Hungary etc, which could equally well go under "freeway" under this arbitrary division between motorway and freeway)
We need a single article that covers grade-separated limited access roads on a world scale and all the country-specific stuff can go into separate articles such as Motorways in the United Kingdom, Freeways in the USA, Expressways in Japan etc.
Lets not get too hung up about the precise definitions, which differ slightly from country to country or jurisdiction to jurisdiction, or exceptions to the general rules such as bicycles being allowed on US freeways in some states etc. There are lots of concepts that do not have absolutely hard and fast definitions that apply in all cases, yet it doesn't stop us from having articles about them. No-one can come up with a definition of railway/railroad that draws a precise line between them, metros, subways and trams. The dividing line between tree and shrub can be a little hazy, but everyone still knows what a tree is. Booshank ( talk) 17:50, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Controlled-access highway which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. — RMCD bot 06:02, 21 January 2021 (UTC)