California distinguishes between a Freeway and an Expressway. There are places where you see a sign that says ‘End Freeway’. After that is one of those intersections. then there is another sign that says ‘Begin Freeway’. Stretches of US 101 are like that.
On a real rural freeway like I-5, any road that crosses has a bridge. Most of them have exits and entrances. Oh, they also tend to have areas with gas stations, fast food outlets, and chain restaurants.
Way back when it first opened, there would be signs that said something like ‘Next gas on Freeway 36 miles’.
You keep saying “freeways and highways” as if those are synonymous. A two-lane blacktop road with no curbs and narrow dirt shoulders running across farmland or wilderness can be a designated state or county highway.
Those are exactly the kinds of highways that may have long distances between any way to depart the highway onto a different road of any sort. Which is the canonical definition of an “exit”: a way to depart one thing or area for another thing or area.
But the connection between the highway and the other road where one does their exiting looks a lot like an ordinary residential intersection; two strips of asphalt crossing at an angle. Often at 90 degrees but not necessarily.
If you mean only limited access roads with on and off ramps and no grade crossings, say “limited access roads with on and off ramps and no grade crossings”. “Highway” is not a synonym for that.
I never said they were synonymous. As far as exits are concerned, I have described what I mean by exits more than enough, and I have no plans whatsoever to change said description just to make whatever it is you have in mind fit the question actually being asked. An official freeway or highway is an official freeway or highway, and for the purpose of this query an exit sign is put up by officials and, at the very least, has the word “EXIT” on it.
Do you happen to have an example of a freeway OR a highway with an exceptionally long distance between two exits on that particular freeway or highway that you would like to mention here?
Going to Mammoth Lake from the south, US-395 has nothing marked as an “Exit” from SR-178 to SR-203, about 165 miles. There are plenty of unmarked intersections. This is very usual for rural highways in California.
I disagree. I think makes lots of sense to refer to a road leading off a roundabout as an exit. Instructions to “go straight” at a roundabout could be misundertstood to either keep going around the circle indefinitely or to take the first exit. Or consider if the desired route would be to turn left at what would be an ordinary intersection. All the exits from a roundabout are right turns, so telling a driver to turn left could be very confusing.
While it’s not super common, some people do use “exit” to refer to the way to get off a roundabout. I’ve seen it in various places and I don’t have a navigation system.
For the most part, non-limited access highways don’t have exits. They have intersections and those aren’t marked as being exits. I expect there’s a highway somewhere that does not have any limited access sections that may be a couple thousand miles long. It’ll have hundreds of intersections and none are marked with an “EXIT” sign.
One possible answer is US 2. According to my road atlas there’s no limited access section between Spokane and Bemidji. I estimate that’s in the neighborhood of 1500 miles. Of course, my atlas is somewhat on the old side, so it’s possible that some section was converted to limited access in the last dozen years.
US-395 along the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains is absolutely beautiful country! From Bridgeport in the north down to Lone Pine in the south, that’s God’s Country out there. I’ve been through and to it many times. My in-laws used to live in Bishop.
I assume you want to ignore highways that have zero marked exits.
The answer will certainly be a US highway or a state highway in a large state that is limited access in urban areas (or at a major interchange) with long stretches of grade-level access in between. I don’t know if a definitive answer can be made. I’m guessing an east/west highway in Texas or a north/south highway in California.
It will certainly not be an interstate or other highway that is exclusively limited access.
Yes it is. The “free” part of that word does not refer to money, but rather “no cross roads interfering with traffic”.
My suggestion of US 2 between Spokane and Bimidji is a likely answer. I’ve looked on GoogleMaps at a few likely spots where it may have been converted to limited access, and none of them have. It does have Exits at the two end points. I don’t know how long that is, but longer than Texas or California.