road

Introduction
History
- Roads of antiquity
  - Ancient roads of the Mediterranean and Middle East
    - Cretan stone roads
    - Roads of Persia and Babylon
    - Egypt
    - Greece
  - Ancient roads of Europe
    - The Amber Routes
    - The Roman roads
  - Ancient roads of South and East Asia
    - India
    - China’s Imperial Highway
    - The Silk Road
- The Middle Ages
  - Europe and Asia
  - Inca roads of South America
- The birth of the modern road
  - The master road builders
    - Trésaguet
    - Telford
    - McAdam
  - Early U.S. road systems
    - The Lancaster Turnpike
    - The Cumberland Road
- Roads in the age of the automobile
  - New paving materials
  - Changes in finance
    - From corvée to toll
    - From local to national funding
  - New highways
    - The parkway
    - The freeway
  - National and international highway systems
    - The United Kingdom
    - The United States and Canada
The modern road
- Road engineering
  - Planning
  - Road design
    - Alignment and profile
    - Pavement
    - Drainage
  - Financing
  - Construction
  - Maintenance
- Road operation
  - Traffic management
    - Traffic control
    - Legal control
  - Safety

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Sheikh Zayed Road

Cross-sectional diagram of an ancient Roman road, showing layers including large stone slabs on top, cemented sand and gravel, gravel in cement mortar, and crushed rock, with drainage ditches on either side.

cross sections of three 18th-century European roads

Two pages from the 1905 Photo-Auto Guide by H. Sargent Michaels show four black-and-white road photographs with arrows and printed driving directions between Chicago and Rockford, Illinois.

U.S. Sen. Bulkley with a precursor to the U.S. Interstate Highway System

schematic cross section of a modern roadway

cross sections of modern pavements

road construction

The Trans–Kalahari Highway.

How does road salt work in the winter?

At a Glance

default image

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Sheikh Zayed Road — Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Sheikh Zayed Road Sheikh Zayed Road at night, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

road

transportation

Also known as: street

Written by

Fred J. BensonAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 17, 2026 •History

road, traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. In modern usage the term road describes a rural, lesser traveled way, while the word street denotes an urban roadway. Highway refers to a major rural traveled way; more recently it has been used for a road, in either a rural or urban area, where points of entrance and exit for traffic are limited and controlled. The most ancient name for these arteries of...

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