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Comment by mimixco | Hacker News Reader

What's unique about the US system is its scale. It's 48,000 miles of graded, standardized highways with safety features, exits, services, etc. There's just nothing like that anywhere and it helped our country develop in the unique way that it did.

The idea definitely germinated in the Autobahn. The proof is in the pudding. (I just love that expression.) The US used its scaled interstate system to achieve a range of product and population distribution that was unprecedented. It also clobbered passenger rail in the process. Conversely, Europe, not having a well developed interstate (would need to be inter-country to even scale to a few US states), did not develop or extend its road system in the way the US has. Instead, it built trains.

It's not a matter of one is better than the other. Each one is better for the countries involved because of their size and geography.

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This link[0] says that Europe had 77000km = 47845 miles of motorway in 2018. It's probably not quite as standardised as the US system, but it seems broadly comparable. See the second link[1] for a picture.

[0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/449781/europe-eu-28-time...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road_network#/...

You're comparing all European motorways to the largest category of motorways in the US. Not all motorways in the US are classified as part of the Interstate Highway System, even though they're connected to them. The US also has many motorways that are part of State Highway systems[0], and the Federal Numbered Highway system[1].

If we're talking about all motorway style roads, there's some additional roads in the US that qualify: 67,353 miles or 108,394km[2].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbered_highways_in_the_Unite...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway...

[2]: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2017/h...

What makes you think that European highways don’t connect between countries? You can cross the continent without leaving a motorway.

It’s even standardized: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road_network

> The roads should preferably be motorways or express roads (unless traffic density is low so that there is no congestion on an ordinary road).

That sounds more similar to the US Numbered Highway system than it is to the Interstate Highway System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway...

The Interstate Highway System is a different system - entirely controlled-access motorways, with a minimum of 4 lanes, divided, and no at-grade crossings.

I don't think the parent is saying the whole E-road network is the equivalent; just that it provides examples of moving country to country without leaving motorways.

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