History Main / FuturisticSuperhighway

* ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'' had the strips, localways and Expressway, the first being a series of progressively faster (or slower, depending on which direction you're going) moving walkways and the latter two being sort of a cross between high-speed moving walkways and perpetually moving and unending trams or trains. Interestingly there were also more conventional underground motorways but given the near total lack of cars they're largely abandoned and used only by the emergency services.

[[folder: Real Life]]
* Japan's highways are a prime example of this.
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** All cars, including trucks, also drive on spheres instead of wheels, allowing them to move in a direction different from where the vehicle is facing. Makes parallel parking a lot easier. That is, if they parked their cars, which they don't. They put cars in garages that look like the dry cleaners coat rack. Better home all your items are secured.

** In "The Roads Must Roll", cars have become obsolete altogether. People and goods are carried on vast rolling belts that travel from one city to the next.

* One of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's books, ''To Sail Beyond The Sunset'', mentioned in passing a network of high-speed superhighways where all of the cars were computer controlled to avoid human-error-induced accidents. At one point, a couple of characters mention the computer in their car was on the fritz, so they had to drive the old fashioned way, causing the trip to take far far longer.
** And let's not forget the classic Heinlein short story ''The Roads Must Roll'' where cars have become obsolete altogether. People and goods are carried on vast rolling belts that travel from one city to the next.

[[folder: RealLife]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit Personal Rapid Transit]] is the poor man's version of this. It achieves "cars that can drive themselves to their destination" by having them on rails, making it a hybrid of this trope and a light rail system.
* The now-abandoned [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Texas_Corridor Trans-Texas Corridor]] would have been something like this: up to 1,200 feet (360 m) wide and accommodating not only roads but rail and utility lines as well.
* A certain Megastructures episode presents the German Autobahn as one.
** In general, of course, most modern motorways would have been this by c. 1930s standards (when the first Autobahnen were constructed), when most older roads were only single-carriageway if not single-track and not designed for high volumes of motor traffic. By comparison, motorways provide fast direct routes with plenty of overtaking potential, as well as being generally forbidden from carrying non-motorized or otherwise slow-moving vehicles which might provide an impediment. Upon their first introduction they were nothing short of revolutionary, and the Autobahnen were a key Nazi propaganda success ([[GladIThoughtOfIt even though the idea had been around since the 1920s]]).
* The United States Interstate System. When UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower was a young officer with the 1919 Motor Transport convoy, a crossing of the continental United States took 56 days. Realizing that the change in the way wars were fought following WWII and the critical need to mobilize troops in the event of WorldWarIII, Eisenhower championed the Interstate System (It's full name, according to the other Wiki is the ''Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways'', to give you an idea how important the man was to getting it made). It's the American Answer to the Autobahn and was built to specs that would accommodate the United State's heaviest military vehicles at the time (all modern vehicles are built to specs for driving on the Interstates). While it was critical to national defense, most Americans use it to get to and from work and it's controlled access allowed America to move to the suburbs. Oh, and it's still under initial construction. I-95, the longest North/South route in the system is expected to be fully completed in 2017. Should also be pointed out, that despite it's name, not all routes cross a state line. I-97 (the shortest primary route in the system) originates in Baltimore and Terminates 20 minutes later in Annapolis. Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico all have Highways that are part of the Interstate System, despite the fact that they cannot take you to any other part of the United States (Hawaii is the only one that was built to code and they all connect important military installations on Oahu. Alaska and PR are built to expected local traffic concerns).
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* 23rd Century UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' has flying cars driving in lanes.

* 23rd Century New York City in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' has flying cars driving in lanes.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' featured the 1956 General Motors promotional film "[[http://youtu.be/crlSs4wP6TM Design for Dreaming]]" that ends with the happy couple riding their turbine-engine car through the Highway of Tomorrow - "Look, Dead Raccoon of Tomorrow!"

* The sections of ''Film/TotalRecall2012'' set in the United Federation of Britain show London with an additional metropolis built on stilts above it, with a multi-layered system of roads threaded around. Ascending and descending between tiers seems to be via special elevators. Oh, and the cars can either float slightly above the surface of the roadways, or hover suspended from the underside, doubling the capacity. This is in addition to the normal roads below and {{FutureCopter}}s around.

* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Spectrum'', the main character goes to a planet of technologically-advanced HumanAliens and notes their {{Flying Car}}s and how one "highway" goes right through a big hole in a skyscraper. He shudders of humans one day trusting building supports and drivers that much.

** All cars, including trucks, also drive on spheres instead of wheels, allowing them to move in a direction different from where the vehicle is facing. Makes parallel parking a lot easier. That is, if they parked their cars, which they don't. They put cars in garages that look like the dry cleaners coat rack.

* 23rd Century [[BigApplesauce New York City]] in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' has flying cars driving in lanes.

** Ditto for 23rd Century [[BigApplesauce New York City]] in ''Film/TheFifthElement''.

* There's a decades-long traffic jam on New Earth in ''Series/DoctorWho''. It's revealed to have been [[spoiler:deliberate in order to save people from a plague]].

* WesternAnimation/TheJetsons had to deal with traffic jams in their FlyingCar in at least one episode.

* The sections of ''Film/TotalRecall2012'' set in the United Federation of Britain show London with an additional metropolis built on stilts above it, with a multi-layered system of roads threaded around. Ascending and descending between tiers seems to be via special elevators. Oh, and the cars can either float slightly above the surface of the roadways, or hover suspended from the underside, doubling the capacity. This is in addition to the normal roads below and {{FutureCopter}}s around...

* There has been research in turning the United States Highway system into a gigantic solar panel road. It works by having a layer glass stronger than steel and coated in a friction enabling agent over a photo voltaic cells. As a bonus prototypes of the roadway also feature lights used to spell out messages, because we wouldn't want the project to be too green.

* ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' allows you to build "magtubes" once you finish the Magnetic Monopole research. They function like ''{{Civilization}}'''s railroads, allowing instant travel between locations with a continuous magtube path.

!Examples

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part II'' begins with Doc, Marty, and Jennifer arriving in the year 2015 inadvertently flying against traffic on a highway specifically designed for {{Flying Car}}s.

** In general, of course, most modern motorways would have been this by c. 1930s standards (when the first Autobahnen were constructed), when most older roads were only single-carriageway if not single-track and not designed for high volumes of motor traffic. By comparison, motorways provide fast direct routes with plenty of overtaking potential, as well as being generally forbidden from carrying non-motorized or otherwise slow-moving vehicles which might provide an impediment. Upon their first introduction they were nothing short of revolutionary, and the Autobahnen were a key Nazi propaganda success (even though the idea had been around since the 1920s).

** In general, of course, most modern motorways would have been this by c. 1930s standards (when the first Autobahnen were constructed), when most older roads were only single-carriageway if not single-track and not designed for high volumes of motor traffic. By comparison, motorways provide fast direct routes with plenty of overtaking potential, as well as being generally forbidden from carrying non-motorized or otherwise slow-moving vehicles which might provide an impediment.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnz-igxlEH4 This Megastructures episode]] presents the German Autobahn as one.
* There has been research in turning the United State's Highway system into a gigantic solar panel road. It works by having a layer glass stronger than steel and coated in a friction enabling agent over a photo voltaic cells. As a bonus prototypes of the roadway also feature lights used to spell out messages, because we wouldn't want the project to be too green.

->''"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."''
-->-- '''Dr. Emmett Brown''', ''Film/BackToTheFuture''