Highways in the Czech Republic are managed by the state-owned Directorate of Highways and Motorways of the Czech Republic – ŘSD ČR. As of January 2026, ŘSD manages 1,556 km of motorways (dálnice) and 5,700 km of highways (silnice). The national speed limit is 130 km/h on motorways and 90 km/h on highways.
Road categories There are 2 main categories of state-owned roads in Czech Republic: motorways (dálnice) and highways (silnice).
Motorways (Dálnice)
This is the highest category of roads in the Czech Republic, forming the trunk of the road network. Their start and end are marked by white-on-green directional motorway signs and the informational signs on them and leading to them are green. They are designated by a number prefixed by the letter D and their road numbers are displayed on red rectangular shields. They are maintained by the state and the use of most of their sections is paid via electronic vignettes or toll, though bypasses of large towns and other sections that are used for local traffic tend to be exempt. An electronic vignette is compulsory unless stated otherwise. The national speed limit on motorways is 130 km/h outside urban areas and 80 km/h within urban areas. Similarly to other European countries they include at least 2 lanes in each direction, as well as an emergency lane on the right and auxiliary lanes for entering and leaving the motorway in intersections.
Highways (Silnice)
This category contains all remaining state-owned roads. The highway network is divided into three classes, which are distinguished by the number of digits in the highway number. First and second class roads have blue rectangular signs placed on them and their road numbers displayed on a blue background. The class number can be optionally stated in roman numerals in front of the road number, separated by a slash. No electronic vignette is needed on highways, only truck electronic toll is on selected highway sections. The national speed limit on highways is 90 km/h, reduced to 50 km/h in urban areas, with dual carriageways having the same 90 km/h national speed limit unless stated otherwise.
First class roads (silnice I. třídy) are designated by an up to two-digit number and are owned by the state.
Second class roads (silnice II. třídy) are designated by a three-digit number and are owned by the regions. The first digit identifies the general location of the route: 1xx - south Bohemia 2xx - north Bohemia 3xx - east Bohemia, Vysočina 4xx - Moravia and Silesia 6xx - former first class roads replaced by a motorway
Third class roads (silnice III. třídy) are also owned by the regions. These are designated by four to five-digit numbers, where the first three digits are the number of a nearby higher class road, padded by zeroes if less than three digits. The road numbers are not marked on most maps and road signs.
Highways for motorcars (Silnice pro motorová vozidla)
Some sections of highways have their start and end marked by blue highway for motorcars signs. These highways are off-limits for non-motorised traffic. The national speed limit is 110 km/h, reduced to 80 km/h in urban areas. As they form parts of existing highways and are not a road system on their own, they do not have any specific numbering system. Thus blue informational road signs and road numbers on blue background are used outside built-up areas and white informational road signs within built-up areas.
Other roads
Local roads Local roads (místní komunikace) are public roads that serve local traffic and are not already part of a highway or a motorway. They are owned and maintained by municipalities. Similarly to highways, they are divided into four classes according to their importance, where the first class includes the most important collector roads in cities, while the fourth class includes walk paths and bike roads that are off-limits to automobiles. The Road Act also allows for so-called "express local roads" to be built up to expressway standards to accommodate for fast motor traffic.
A first class local road can be signed as a Road for motorcars (Silnice pro motorová vozidla) if there are no intersections with other roads, auxiliary lanes are used for entering and exiting the road and access to adjacent buildings is forbidden. Local roads use black-on-white signs.
Access roads Access road (účelová komunikace) can be owned by any subject, private as well as public.
Network map
Toll requirements
Motorcars up to 3.5 tonnes Each vehicle needs to purchase time-based fee, also known as electronic vignette, before entering the motorway. This can be paid online or in selected official selling places with validity of 1 day (200 CZK), 10 days (270 CZK), 1 month (410 CZK) or 365 days (2300 CZK) . The price of the vignettes is reduced by half for cars with LPG/CNG or biomethane costing 100, 130, 200 and 1150 CZK, respectively. For plug-in hybrids the cost is roughly quarter of the price for regular cars 50, 60, 100 and 570 CZK, respectively. However, there are many unofficial websites and unofficial selling places which may charge extra fees or provide bad exchange rates.
Electronic vignettes replaced the windscreen toll vignette (dálniční známka or dálniční kupón) in 2021.
A green motorway road sign means that a paid e-vignette toll is obligatory unless stated otherwise (usually sections from the border to the closest exit or close to large cities). Only sections not subject to e-vignette are designated with an additional road sign (see below).
For 2025, the following motorway sections are subject to the time-based electronic vignette duty for motor cars up to 3.5 t: +List of motorway sections MotorwayMotorway route subject to a time-based fee (compulsory electronic toll vignette)kmLModletice (exit 76) – Prague-Slivenec (exit 16)23Průhonice (exit 6) – Kývalka (exit 182)176Holubice (exit 210) – Kroměříž-západ (exit 258)48Kroměříž-východ (exit 260) – Říkovice (exit 272)12Přerov-Předmostí (exit 282) – Ostrava-Rudná (exit 354)72Brno-Chrlice (exit 3) – border with Slovakia (exit 61) – in the direction from Slovakia subject to a charge from km 55.5 (rest area Lanžhot)58Mezno (exit 62) – Čekanice (exit 76)14Měšice (exit 79) – Veselí nad Lužnicí, sever (exit 104)25Veselí nad Lužnicí, jih (exit 107) – Úsilné (exit 131)24Roudné (exit 141) – Kaplice-nádraží (exit 159)18Jíloviště (exit 9) – Třebkov (exit 84)75Prague-Třebonice (exit 1) – Beroun-východ (exit 14)14Beroun-západ (exit 22) – Ejpovice (exit 67)45Sulkov (exit 89) – border with Germany (exit 151) – in the direction from Germany subject to a charge from km 149.7 (rest area Rozvadov)62Jeneč (exit 7) – Bukov (exit 62)55Kněževes (exit 3) – Knovíz (exit 18)15Zdiby (exit 1) – Řehlovice (exit 64)64Knínice (exit 80) – border with Germany (exit 92) – in the direction from Germany subject to a charge from exit 64 Řehlovice12Stará Boleslav (exit 14) – Bezděčín (exit 39)25Kosmonosy (exit 46) – Ohrazenice (exit 71)25Jirny (exit 8) – Jaroměř-sever (exit 113)105Sedlice (exit 127) – Ostrov (exit 158)31Mohelnice-jih (exit 235) – Olomouc-západ (exit 263)28Olomouc-Holice (exit 276) – Lipník nad Bečvou (exit 296)20Vyškov-východ (exit 1) – Prostějov-jih (exit 21)21Držovice (exit 26) – Hněvotín (exit 37)11Bělotín (exit 1) – Jeseník nad Odrou (exit 8)8Palačov (km 12) – Nový Jičín-centrum (exit 21)8Rybí (exit 24) – Frýdek-Místek východ (exit 52)28Dobrá (exit 54) – Žukov (exit 70)16Hulín (exit 1) – Fryšták (km 18)18Rajhrad (exit 10) – Pohořelice-sever (exit 23)13Hulín (exit 16) – Otrokovice-sever (exit 30)14Babice (exit 42) – Bzenec (exit 64)22Ostrava-Hrabová, průmyslová zóna (exit 40) – Frýdek-Místek (exit 54)14
Vehicles over 3.5 tonnes Electronic toll applies to vehicles over 3.5 tons.
History
Motorways
Before the Second World War
The first informal plan for a motorway (first called in Czech autostráda or dálková silnice) in Czechoslovakia date back to 1935. This was to link Prague through Slovakia with the easternmost Czechoslovak territory, Carpathian Ruthenia (now Zakarpattia Oblast in Ukraine). The terminus was to be at Velykyy Bychkiv (Velký Bočkov in Czech) on the Romanian border. The definitive route, including a Prague ring motorway, was approved shortly after the Munich Agreement on 4 November 1938, with a planned speed limit of 120 km/h.
The Nazi authorities also made the second Czecho-Slovak Republic, already a German satellite state, build a part of the Reichsautobahn Breslau - Vienna as an extraterritorial German motorway with border checkpoints at each motorway exit. However, only a construction of the route within Bohemia and Moravia was initiated, but never finished. It still sporadically appears in some current Czech motorway plans.
On 1 December 1938 Nazi Germany had already initiated a construction of the so-called Sudetenautobahn (in Sudetenland, before the Munich agreement part of Czechoslovakia, then of Germany) in the route Streitau (Bavaria) – Eger – Carlsbad – Lobositz – Böhmisch Leipa – Reichenberg (capital of Sudetenland) – Görlitz (in Prussia, now in Saxony). The autobahn has never been finished, but some remnants in the landscape close to Pomezí nad Ohří, Cheb/Eger and Liberec/Reichenberg are still prominent and an unfinished part from Svárov via Machnín to Chrastava was used in the construction of the I/35 road.
Nazi occupation Czechoslovakia was broken up with a declaration of independence by the Slovak Republic and by the short-lived Carpatho-Ukraine which was a prelude to the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939. It was decided to build the motorway only as far as the Slovak border. The technical parameters of motorways (speed limit of 140 – 160 km/h) were adjusted to those of the German Reichsautobahn, as Czech (Bohemian-Moravian) motorways were to be integrated within the German Reichsautobahn network.
The project for the first segment Prague - Lužná was ready in January 1939, and construction in Moravia began on 24 January in Chřiby on the Zástřizly - Lužná segment. The construction in Bohemia from Prague began on 2 May 1939, with a switch to right-hand traffic in Bohemia and Moravia having already gone without a hitch. The motorway should have reached Brno in 1940, but building materials and labour shortages due to an absolute priority given to the Nazi armament industry delayed the work considerably. The construction in the route of approx. 77 km from Prague towards Brno advanced notably, but a prohibition of all civil constructions by the German authorities came into force in 1942.
After the Second World War After the Second World War, the completion of only the first and unfinished 77 km of the motorway Prague – Brno as far as Humpolec was approved by the Government in November 1945 and was reinaugurated in 1946. The part-built construction sites of the Sudetenautobahn (28 km) were completely abandoned, as well as that of the Breslau – Vienna motorway (84 km). The latter was, however, incorporated in some plans as a future connection motorway between Brno and the D35 motorway. The 77 km of the Prague – Humpolec motorway had been completed except for some large bridges and a concrete surface when the new communist government decided to discontinue the work completely in early 1950.
Only on 8 August 1967 the Government of the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia resolved to continue the construction of motorways by adopting a new motorway plan for the whole country and resolved to continue the already twice interrupted construction of the motorway Prague - Brno (number D1) and further Brno - Bratislava (D2). The construction was solemnly inaugurated on 8 September 1967. Due to a change of technical parameters, some bridges finished before 1950 were replaced. The Prague - Brno motorway (D1), initiated on 2 May 1939, reached Brno in 1980, a full 40 years after the originally scheduled opening.