Statistics
The United States has the largest network of roads of any country with 4,050,717 miles (6,518,997 km) as of 2009. The People's Republic of China is second with 3,583,715 kilometres (2,226,817 mi) of road (2007) See List of countries by road network size. The Republic of India has the third largest road system in the world with 3,383,344 kilometres (2,102,312 mi) (2002). When looking only at expressways the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) in China has a total length of 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi) at the end of 2006, and 60,300 km at the end of 2008, second only to the United States with 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) in 2005.
Many settlements are not reachable by road alone. Road vehicles must be carried by boat or ferry to islands, and some locations are intentionally car-free. Even on the mainland, some settlements have no roads connecting with the main continental network, due to natural obstacles like mountains or wetlands, remoteness, or general expense. Unpaved roads or lack of roads are more common in developing countries, though even large cities like Iquitos, Peru and Juneau, Alaska are disconnected.
Read more about this topic: Road
Famous quotes containing the word statistics:
“July 4. Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Maybe a nation that consumes as much booze and dope as we do and has our kind of divorce statistics should pipe down about “character issues.” Either that or just go ahead and determine the presidency with three-legged races and pie-eating contests. It would make better TV.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“O for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)