A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places that has been surfaced or otherwise improved to allow travel by foot or some form of conveyance, including a motor vehicle, cart, bicycle, or horse. Roads have been adapted to a large range of structures and types in order to achieve a common goal of transportation under a large and wide range of conditions. The specific purpose, mode of transport, material and location of a road determine the characteristics it must have in order to maximize its usefulness. Following is one classification scheme.

Taxonomy of Road

Marohn distinguishes between roads that are designed for mobility which he terms "roads" and those that function to "build a place", build community wealth and provide access to land. He argues the value of a road in terms of both community wealth and mobility is maximised when the road speed is either low or high, but not at midpoints such as 45mph. He refers to this low-value midpoint of speed and land access as a stroad.

Types of roads

Lower capacity roads

• Alley • Street • Avenue • B road (disambiguation) • Brick Road • Boulevard • Bundesstraße • Byway • Causeway • Circle • Collector road • Corniche • Close • Crescent • Court • Cul-de-sac / Dead end (street) • Drive • Frontage road • Gemeindestraße • Highway • Kreisstraße • Lane • Landesstraße • Living street • Loop • One-way street • Path (disambiguation) • Place • Plaza • Road • Roundabout (Also see intersecting roadways) • Route • Side road • Single carriageway • Stravenue • Terrace • Tree tunnel • Way • Woonerf

Street

Primitive roads

Large roads

• Higher capacity roads, sometimes with medians • 2+1 road • 2+2 road • Arterial road • Autostrasse • Dual carriageway • Expressway • Local-express lanes • Farm to Market Road • Parkway • Beltway • Reversible lane • Trunk road • Turnpike • Expressways (Limited-access roads and grade-separated highways) • Autobahn • Auto-estrada • Autopista • Autostrada • Controlled-access highway • Freeway • High-quality dual carriageway (HQDC) • Interstate Highway • Limited-access highway • Motorway • Super two

Private roads

Intersecting roads

Material type

Roads also may be classified based on their pavement material types. For instance, the Long-Term Pavement Performance database includes more than 30 types of pavement types for roads in the US and Canada. However, a more generic classification of roads based on material type is as follows.

Other thoroughfares

• Bascule bridge • Bus lane • Canal • Carpool lane • Cycle track • Cycling infrastructure • Flight deck • Footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) • Free-market roads • National roads • (Native American) Indian route • Paper street • Race track • Runway • Stroad • Shunpike • Wildlife crossing

Road types by features

In this list, roads names are used in different areas and the features of the roads varies. So this table address the differences in that usage when needed.