Fact #320: May 17, 2004
The National Highway System
The National Highway System (NHS) Designation Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-59) was enacted to specify a network of nationally significant highways. It includes the interstate system and over 100,000 miles of arterial and other roads.
The NHS represents only about 4% of the nation's total public road miles and 6.6% of its lane miles, but carries over 44% of the travel. Most travel on the NHS takes place in urban areas even though there are more NHS miles in rural areas.
Supporting Information
| Public road miles | 3,966,485 |
|---|---|
| NHS miles | 161,131 |
| Share of NHS miles to public road miles | 4.1% |
| Public lane miles | 8,295,168 |
| NHS lane miles | 549,948 |
| Share of NHS lane miles to public lane-miles | 6.6% |
| All vehicle miles of travel | 2,855,756 |
| NHS vehicle miles of travel | 1,269,372 |
| Share of NHS vehicle miles of travel to All vehicle miles of travel | 44.4% |
|
Source: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Highway Statistics 2002, Tables HM-41, HM-20, HM-48, and VM-3. | |
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