Conquering kilometers of roads is an exciting experience. Especially if the route has a modern surface and allows you to travel along the longest route without interference.
Today we offer the Top 10, which includes the longest highways in the world. Any of them is of particular importance for those countries through whose territory it runs.
In terms of the total length of the road network, China ranks second in the world after the United States. The length of the main highway National Highway 010 is 5,700 km. The route begins in the northeast of the mainland and ends on Hainan Island, where cars are transported by ferry.
9. Route in the Tarim Desert, China
This highway is the longest road in the desert. The road is important for oil producers, who several years ago began to develop a large oil and gas field in the desert.
8. Interstate 90, USA
The American road network is the longest and most extensive on the planet. Interstate 90 starts at the Canadian border and ends in Boston. It is noteworthy that the highway passes through the longest pontoon bridge in the world. Most of the highway is toll.
7. US Route 20, USA
The longest highway in the USA is 5,500 km long. The road connects the East Coast of the United States with the West. US Route 20 passes through the main area of Yellowstone National Park.
6. Karakoram Highway, Pakistan-China
The route almost completely follows the route of the ancient Great Silk Road. The highway is the highest in the world. Almost 1,000 workers died while building the road due to the dangers in the cliffs.
5. Trans-Siberian Highway, Russia
Such a highway simply does not exist on official maps. However, if you combine several routes from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan into a single whole, you will get a single federal road with a length of 11,000 km.
4. Trans-Canada Highway, Canada
This highway connects 10 Canadian provinces. The length of the route is 8030 km. Having traveled the entire route, you can get from the Pacific coast directly to the Atlantic coast. The road was built over 20 years.
3. Highway 1, Australia
Australia's main national highway stretches for a record 14,500 km. The route does not go deep into the continent, but always stretches along the coast. More than a million vehicles travel on Highway 1 every day.
2. Highway AH1, Japan - Türkiye
Asian Highway No. 1 is a special UN project for which billions of dollars have been allocated. The length of the route connecting Japan, both Koreas, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey is 20,557 km. Today, cars are transported from the Japanese part of the highway to the mainland by ferry, but an underwater tunnel project is being developed.
1. Pan American Highway, North and South America
The world's longest highway is included in the Guinness Book of Records. The length of the road is 48,000 km, it passes through the territory of 15 countries. Construction of the Pan-American Highway began in 1889. It is noteworthy that on the official maps of the USA and Canada there is no route called the “Pan-American Highway”, although in fact the road passes through the territory of these countries.
1. Roads. Available only in Germany. Countrywide. Real, good, fast. Constructed by chords intersecting each other. Recommended speed 130 km/h. The maximum speed on highways is not limited. In Russia there are no roads, there are directions with potholes, potholes and traffic jams. The recommended speed on highways in Russia is 100 km/h. The maximum speed is 110 km/h, which it is better not to exceed for your own safety. The European Road Atlas considers only Novorizhskoye Highway and parts of the M4 Don toll highway to be motorways in Russia. All other roads do not match the quality of highways. The vast majority of roads pass through populated areas with the impossibility of bypassing them, which leads to numerous traffic jams and gas pollution. Total length of roads in Germany: 12,645 km of motorways out of 644,480 km of paved roads. The total length of roads in Russia: according to the website autotraveler.ru, there are no highways at all; 755,000 paved roads, 178,000 km of dirt (!) roads, a total of 933,000 km of “roads”. In Germany, unpaved roads are only available in fields. Compare the territory of Germany and Russia, the number of cars and the number of inhabitants, and it will immediately become clear why there are continuous traffic jams in Moscow.
2. Organization of traffic in case of repairs. In Germany, at least a kilometer away from the start of a repair section with a narrowing road, bollards with reflective elements are placed, allowing you to change lanes smoothly. Drivers are accompanied not only by speed limit signs and detour directions, but also by emoticons: with a sad smile - at 6 km of repair, with a neutral smile - at 4 km of repair, and with a joyful smile when there are only 2 km left until the end of the emergency section. There are also traffic lights powered by solar panels in emergency areas and electronic displays indicating that when the road narrows, you need to change lanes one at a time - one car from each lane. In Russia, most often the start of repairs is indicated by a KamAZ truck parked at night without lights right on the lane being repaired. Sometimes this KamAZ is marked with a sign with a blue arrow indicating the detour direction. In rare cases, this sign is luminous and can be seen from afar. Reflective elements are installed only on highways; I saw them in New Riga and again during the repair of the Don highway.
3. Road construction. In Germany, roads are built with cranes and other construction equipment; at a repair site of 2-3 kilometers you can meet 2-3 people monitoring the progress of construction and issuing instructions. In Russia, instead of one normal skating rink, they traditionally use 30 Tajiks, of which 27 look at each other and only three pretend to dig. I’m not even talking about the thickness of the concrete base on the highway. In Germany - 30 cm of a mixture of concrete and crushed stone over asphalt or concrete slabs. In Russia, asphalt is laid on a thin layer of sand. And then everyone is surprised - where does the track come from?
4. Cars. Probably all BMV X5 and Audi A8 are assembled in Moscow. The vast majority of German roads do not have expensive cars. These are ordinary middle-class cars that are far from fresh and have been driving on the roads for several years. I was amazed by the large number of Fiats from foreign cars for Germany. Of course, there are also expensive cars on the autobahn, but most often they are open-top convertibles or mini-Coopers. The most important thing is that a car for Germans is a means of transportation! How many people travel in station wagons or minivans with bicycles attached to the roof or back of the car! For Russians, a car is a show-off and an opportunity to stand out on the road.
5. Driving culture. For a week in Germany, not a single bastard expensive and/or fast car honked or blinked its headlights from behind. When the road narrowed, we were stuck in a traffic jam for about 20 minutes on the autobahn when three lanes turned into one. Not a single (!!!) car was driving along the side of the road on the right beyond the solid line! No one honked or cut anyone else off. Everyone drove slowly, but wedged one after another into the bottleneck. There is nothing to write about the driving culture in Russia, because there isn’t much of it. Only yesterday in one right lane they managed to line up in three rows! Land Rover always and everywhere goes where it wants and how it wants, without even turning on the turn signals, lumps on tinted “fives”, “tens” and “gazelles” drive without any rules at all, since in the car they talk with their hands to each other and on a mobile phone , buses always leave the stops without looking. Driving according to the rules in Germany is considered the norm, but in Russia it is considered normal to drive without any rules at all.
Information for the conference call on measures to improve the condition of regional and municipal roads.
Currently, the network of public roads in the Russian Federation has a total length of 1,452.2 thousand km, of which 51.9 thousand km are roads of federal importance, 515.8 thousand km are roads of regional importance, 884.5 thousand. km – local roads. There is no hard surface on 8.1% of regional roads and 43.6% of local roads. 64.4% of regional roads and 29% of local roads have improved road pavement capable of passing flows of trucks regardless of weather and climatic conditions.
63.6% of the length of federal roads, 38.8% of the total length of regional roads and 31.6% of the length of local roads meet regulatory requirements.
Currently, nine agreements worth 3.827 billion rubles have been signed (Bryansk Region, Lipetsk Region, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Republic of Chuvashia, Republic of Buryatia, Omsk Region, Amur Region, Primorsky Territory, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)).
The provision of subsidies and interbudgetary transfers for the implementation of road activities in relation to regional and local roads is currently carried out both targeted - for specific road objects, and in aggregate - for the implementation of activities provided for by regional programs.