Highway
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A highway, also spelled "hi-way", is a road made for travel by the public between important places, such as cities, towns and landmarks. The word "highway" can be different between countries and also mean a road, freeway, superhighway, autoroute, autobahn, parkway, expressway, autostrasse, autostrada, byway or motorway.
Highways come in many different designs. They can include many lanes of traffic, a median (strip of lane or barrier) between lanes of opposing traffic, and access control (ramps and bridges). Highways can also be as simple as a two-lane road.
In many countries, these roads are numbered to easily tell them apart. These numbered highways are usually called routes. The United States includes a system called the Interstate Highway system, controlled by AASHTO, where major north/south routes are odd numbered and east/west are even numbered. In Canada, routes that are in the 400s are freeways. In China, types of routes are separated by the first letter of the route; "G" for national road, "S" for provincial road and "Y" for rural roads.
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Highways are sometimes criticised because of the pollution cars make when driving highways. When too many cars travel along a highway, traffic slows down; this is known as a traffic jam. Public transportation (such as buses) and special lanes for those who have a given number of people in a car are used to help stop these problems.