¿Cuál es la diferencia entre Highway, Motorway, Freeway?

A "Highway" is basically any long road with high-speed traffic, intersections and street lights, it's not "controlled" nor does it have strict rules, and it allows a large range of traffic. Now, for the other two, rules are a bit different: A "Freeway" is the kind of highway you see that's going over the traffic, high up in the air and with buildings around you, you feel like you're driving above the city. Whereas a "Motorway" is a road specifically designed for faster traffic with controlled access, no intersections, pedestrians, bicycles, or slow vehicles, and with higher speed limits than highways. A "Freeway" is defined as a "Controlled-access Highway", you have to go onto a ramp in order to access there, it has no traffic signals and nowhere to stop safely, just free traffic; and a Motorway has a safer design but you have to go fast, no walkers or bikes allowed, also has controlled access. Hope that cleared your doubts. ¡Que tengas un buen día allá en España!

Thank you Miguel! Yes, you have definitely help me. But I must admit that, in spite of your wonderful clarifications, I'm still unclear when it comes to give a synonym to AUTOVÍA and AUTTOPISTA , the two main words we use here in Spain. Thanks again!

All freeways and motorways are "controlled-access highways" but the term "freeway" is only used in the US and only when it's "free" (gratis) -- i.e. it's not a toll road (ruta de peaje). In Canada a freeway/motorway is called a highway (the Trans-Canada Highway, for example). "Highway" is a general concept and can be almost any kind of principal road, from a city street to a freeway/motorway. In a technical/legal sense, even a residential street is a kind of public highway. For instance, I'd say all of the B-10/Ronda Litoral in Barcelona is a highway because it's a principal road, but it's only a freeway/motorway south of Zona Franca and north of Diagonal. I'd call it an "expressway" when it's parallel to Pg. Colom because it's controlled-access but not high-speed. The AP-7, A-2, C-58 etc. are all freeways/motorways.

Dear John, Thank you so much for all your clarifications. They have been extraordinarily helpful!

They are almost all the same. A highway refers to about 2-3 lanes in each direction running close to a city centre (40 mph); a motorway is the English way of saying Freeway (USA) where cars can travel at high speed (70 mph) away from a city centre.

Cheers Joseph!

technically speaking they all are the same. roads where the speed limit is fast(65 miles per hour) some people can say that; highway is a road with multiple lines (up to 5) motorway is he road exclusive for cars and motorcicles (no bicycles) freeway is the one that you don't have to pay a fee at a toll booth to ride on it