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World Map » usa » usa-road-map

US Road Map




About US Road Network


The  US Road Map  shows national capital, state capitals and highway numbers along with extensive road and highway networks. The USA Road Map essentially combines two extensive road and highway networks of US, namely the Federal Interstate Highway and the regional US Highway Map.

These two main road-highway networks are central to the overall American surface transportation network, which, however, also includes two other road-highway systems, namely the State Highways and the County Highways.

However, the differences in the four levels in the entire US road-highway transportation network are more on administrative and operational lines than functional. For instance, some roads or highway in the State Highway network may be so heavily traveled that they match the Federal Interstate Expressways in their standards of quality and maintenance.

Road map of USA  sketches the Interstate System, the backbone of the American road and highway network. Interstate System is also known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways. The Interstate System of US is funded and administered by the US Federal Government but largely maintained by the individual states where they are located or pass through. These Expressways form a 45,000 mile long network that serves as the lifeline of the nation and connects nine in every ten US cities with a population of 50,000 or more.

First started in the 1950s, these highways are built to meet the highest standards of quality and maintenance in order to facilitate ease, safety, speed and efficiency of travel for millions of daily automobile commuters and freight transport traffic. In fact, the Interstate System carries about one-fifth of the whole automobile traffic in the United States of America.

The older US Highways, which are more regional networks, however, do not receive any Federal funding and are built, operated and maintained completely by the states. Some roads and highways in these networks have fallen into disuse and some have even been decommissioned in the face of the increasing utility of the faster and freer Expressways of the Interstate System. On the other hand, the State Highway systems within individual States in some areas include heavily traveled roads and highways that conform to standards matching those of the Interstate System.

While the Interstate System has facilitated easy and faster travel across the length and breath of America, the real romance of the American landscape could perhaps only be experienced by traveling on the smaller county roads that passes through the rural parts of America. A county road map of the USA carries details of roads in various counties.

Click here to view  Road Maps of other Countries.