No matter day or night, a constant flow of traffic can be observed on highways around the world.

Expressways are an essential part of modern transportation infrastructure, resulting from the high development of industrialization, technology, and civilization. Most of us in front of the screen have driven through a highway, but how much do we know about them?

In 1931, the world's first highway was built between Cologne and Bonn in Germany. It is about 30 kilometers long and has a speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour. Soon after, the German government recognized the strong transportation value of highways and vigorously promoted their construction.

The construction standards and basic configuration of expressways were also established at this time. As social transportation demand continued to grow and the popularity of automobiles increased, expressways entered a period of rapid construction.

Currently, more than 80 countries and regions around the world have expressways, with a total mileage opened to traffic exceeding 230,000 kilometers.

The United States has the most highways and the most developed road network in the world. In 1937, the Pennsylvania State Taxation Highway, which is 257 kilometers long, was the first highway to be built in the US.

The total length of highways in the United States is now 88,000 kilometers, with the highway network that connects all towns with more than 50,000 people completed, making up around half of the total mileage of highways in the world. The highway system in the United States is responsible for more than 21% of the national road transportation tasks.

Germany is the earliest country to build highways, with the Bonn-Cologne highway built in 1931-1942 being the first highway in the world.

Germany now has the world's most developed motorway network after the United States, China, and Canada. Germany's road system consists of federal long-distance roads, state roads, county-level roads, and township-level roads.

The total highway mileage is about 650,000 kilometers, and the highway area accounts for about 4.8% of the country's land area, with approximately 1.8% of them being expressways, and the total mileage of expressways being more than 11,000 kilometers.

In the management of German highways, many advanced technical means are used, such as intelligent traffic guidance systems, emergency communication systems, tunnel safety monitoring systems, GPS global positioning systems, and GIS geographic information systems.

These advanced traffic communication information technology means provide effective and reliable technical guarantees for traffic management.

French highway construction started in 1948 and currently has a first-class highway network. As of 2000, the total mileage of expressways reached 11,500 kilometers, ranking second in Europe and responsible for 25.6% of traffic turnover.

The rapid development and remarkable achievements of French highways are inseparable from France's unique construction mode.

Since the construction of highways in France, the government has made it clear that intercity highways should be invested in and built by chartered companies, and history has proven the correctness of this policy.