State highway, state road or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road or provincial route) can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states (including the Australia, India, Mexico, and the United States) or provinces (including Canada and China):
- A road numbered by the state or province, falling below numbered national highways in the hierarchy. Route numbers are used to aid navigation, and may or may not indicate ownership or maintenance.
- A road maintained by the state or province, including nationally-numbered highways and un-numbered state highways
Depending on the state, state highway may be used for one meaning and state road or state route for the other. A third meaning, used in some countries such as New Zealand, uses the word "state" in its sense of a nation. By this meaning a state highway is a road maintained and numbered by the national government rather than local authorities.
Read more about State Highway: Terminology
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or highway:
“A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)