World Record Highways

An International motorway sign, found mainly in Europe denoting the start of special motorway restrictions to a section of highway.

• Longest international highway: the Pan-American Highway, which connects many countries in the Americas, is nearly 25,000 kilometres (15,534 mi) long as of 2005. The Pan-American Highway is discontinuous because there is a significant gap in it in southeastern Panama, where the rainfall is immense and the terrain is entirely unsuitable for highway constuction. The entire area is covered with swamps and rain forests. Central Panama and Colombia are connected by ferries and by airline transportation.

• Longest national highway: Australia's Highway 1 at over 20,000 km (12,427 mi). It runs almost the entire way around the continent's coastline. With the exception of the Federal Capital of Canberra, which is far inland, Highway 1 links all of Australia's capital cities, although Brisbane and Darwin are not directly connected, but rather are bypassed short distances away. Also, there is a ferry connection to the island state of Tasmania, and then a stretch of Highway 1 that links the major towns and cities of Tasmania, including Launceston and Hobart (this state’s capital city).

• Longest national highway (Point to point): The Trans-Canada Highway (the T.C.H.) (known as TCH 1 in western Canada) is 7,821 km (4,857 mi) long as of 2006. The T.C.H. runs east-west across southern Canada, the populated portion of the country, and it connects many of the major urban centers along its route crossing almost all of the provinces, and reaching almost all of the capital cities.^[9] The T.C.H. begins on the east in eastern Newfoundland, traversed that island, and crosses to the mainland by ferry. It reaches most of the Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada, and a side route using ferries traverses the province of Prince Edward Island. After crossing the two most populous provinces of Quebec and Ontario, the T.C.H. continues westward across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Colombia. Besides reaching the metropolis ofVancouver, B.C., on the Pacific Coast, there is also a ferry route west to Vancouver Island and the provncial capital city of Victoria, B.C..

• Largest national highway system: The United States of America has approximately 6,430,366 kilometres (3,995,644 mi) of highway within its borders as of 2008.^[10]

• Busiest highway: Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada, has volumes surpassing an average of 500,000 vehicles per day in some sections of Toronto as of 2006.^[11][12]

• Widest highway (maximum number of lanes): The Katy Freeway (part of Interstate 10) in Houston, Texas, has a total of 26 lanes in some sections as of 2007. However, they are divided up into general use/frontage roads/ HOV lanes, restricting the traverse traffic flow.

• Widest highway (number of maximum through lanes): Highway 401 through Mississauga, Ontario, has the most unrestricted free-flow lanes, at 22 (26 including restricted) as of 2008.

• Highest international highway: The Karakoram Highway between Pakistan and China.