Controlled-access highways in Hungary are dual carriageways, grade separated with controlled-access, designed for high speeds. The legislation amendments define two types of highways: motorways () and expressways ().
The main differences are that motorways feature emergency lanes and the maximum allowed speed limit is , while expressways may be built without them and the speed limit is .
According to Magyar Közút Nonprofit Zrt. (Hungarian Public Roads Ltd.; a state-owned enterprise responsible for the operation and maintenance of public roads in the country), the total length of the Hungarian highway system was 1,855 kilometers in 2022. The construction of the Hungarian highway system started in 1964 with M7, which connected Budapest with Lake Balaton by 1975. The total length of the system reached a milestone of 200 km in 1980, surpassed 500 km in 1998 and 1000 km in 2007.
As of July 2022, the Hungarian highway network comprises 26 highways (13 motorways and 13 expressways), 13 of which (M1, M5, M6, M7, M15, M19, M25, M30, M31, M35, M43, M51 and M70) have reached their total planned length.
Road categories
Road signs are white shield on blue and the abbreviation for both types of highways is M. There are 2 main categories of state-owned roads in Hungary: motorways ( – pl. ) and highways ( – pl. ).
Motorways (Autópálya) Motorways are public roads with controlled access which are designated for motor vehicles only, and feature two carriageways with at least two continuous lanes each with paved emergency lanes, divided by a median. They have no one-level intersections with any roads or other forms of land and water transport. They are equipped with roadside rest areas, which are intended only for the users of the motorway.
Expressways (Autóút) Expressways are public roads with limited-access which share most of the characteristics of motorways, differing mainly in that:This list contains the limited-access roads (expressways) in Hungary with (at least) four traffic lanes and median. Expressways may be built without paved emergency lanes. Expressway may occasionally have at-grade junctions with roads and other forms of transport. Expressways are designated for lower speed than motorways. For example, the road curvature can be higher and the lanes are usually narrower (3.25/3.50m vs 3.50/3.75m on Motorways). Expressways can have a single carriageway on sections with low traffic density.
Speed limits Maximum speed (km/h) Vehicle Motorways Expressways 130 110 100 80 80 70 Not allowed on motorways: pedestrians, bikes, mopeds, agricultural vehicles. Minimal speed on motorways is 60 km/h unless there are any extraordinary circumstances (e.g., snow, ice, or a car broken down). It is forbidden to stop except extraordinary situations, or travel backwards. Roads are protected from animals crossing the road.
History
First plans for automobile roads The first domestic design for the creation of automobile roads (autómobil utak, autómobil-pályák) was the work of Boldizsár Vásárhelyi, who prepared the first professional concept in 1941 as his doctoral dissertation. It was made in 1941, and in some respects it was more careful than today. Although this draft would not have eliminated the radial structure starting from Budapest, it would have emphasized the highway in places where there is no main road.
For example: to the east between Main roads 3 and 4 as the crow flies towards Debrecen, to the south between Highway 5 and the Danube straight towards Újvidék and Belgrade, to Zagreb further south from Highway 7, thus avoiding Lake Balaton further away, Tab and in the area of Marcali, and also towards Vienna by straightening Main road 1 towards the southern bypass of Tata. The project envisaged the construction of 2,000 km of automobile roads on the then twice the national area, essentially including today's outer ring. Out of all of these, only the relocation of the Main road 1 was realized: then the motorway being built followed the route of the relocated main road here as well.
At the beginning of the 1960s, the development of Highway 80, which was later developed into the M1 motorway, into a highway began specifically as a reconstruction work. At the same time, there were sharp professional discussions about the plans for the M7, which was to be built for the first time in the section between the capital and Székesfehérvár: the position that a large city like Székesfehérvár cannot be bypassed by the highway gained significant emphasis. In this case, the delay in construction had the beneficial effect of allowing the views to improve. A similar type of debate took place a decade later about the avoidance of Győr – here only the northern or southern avoidance was at stake – where time also helped to finally build a more modern network solution.
From the late of 1960s
The 1968 transport policy concept considered the eight single-digit main roads as the backbone of road traffic. However, following the settlement network development concept of 1971, an official highway network concept emerged, which, in addition to the eight radial main roads and the complementary Sopron and north Balaton roads, contained important ring elements: the southern and eastern sectors of the Budapest Ring, a Győr–Veszprém–Székesfehérvár–Dunaföldvár–Kecskemét–Szolnok–Eger "inner" ring, and some elements from an "outer" ring, Sopron–Szombathely–Nagykanizsa, Balatonlelle–Kaposvár–Pécs–Baja–Szeged–Békéscsaba–Gyula, and Berettyóújfalu–Debrecen–Nyíregyháza sections. Within this, the concept envisaged the construction of roads 1, 3, 5, and 7 as Highways. A total of 500 kilometers of highways were expected to be built by 1985. However, the rigid way of thinking of the concept makers of the era left the spatial structure of Hungary unchanged in essential points: the outlined highway network is centered on Budapest, and the roads cross the major rivers (e.g. Danube and Tisza) exactly where bridges already stood at the time the plan was prepared.
In essence, the above was confirmed by the fact that in 1978, the transformation of the radial structure of the main road network into a ring-radial system was already included as a directive in the new transport policy concept. This concept accepts the raison d'être of routes bypassing Budapest, but even this plan only gives space to transversal routes by maintaining the centrality of the capital.
After the fall of communism
In 1988, the need to create European-standard connections to the north–south and east–west transit traffic flow directions already appeared among the priority tasks. This is also reflected in the maturing changes in the international situation, the logical consequence of which in the high-speed network is the adoption of an opening grid structure. The National Road Network Development Program for the years 1991–2000, adopted in 1991, supported the development of radial and transverse roads, but did not consider the southern highway (Déli autópálya), which is increasingly emerging thanks to the activities of lobbyists, to be feasible.
In terms of national borders, the M1 motorway was the first to reach the Austrian border in 1996, followed by the M15 at the Slovak border in 1998, and the M70 motorway reaching the Slovenian border in 2005. In March 2006, the M5 reached the Serbian border. With the completion of the Zrínyi Miklós Bridge over the Mura at the Croatian border, the M7 motorway also joined the neighboring country's motorway system in 2008. In 2015 and 2020, the M43 motorway and M4 stretched to the Romanian border. The year 2025 also brought new connections to neighbouring countries, as the last section of the M80 expressway was opened in september, after the austrian side finally inaugurated their corresponding expressway. The M6 motorway also reached the croatian border being inaugurated in October 2025, after the building on the croatian side was delayed. In the future, the M3, M34, M60, M8, M85, M87 motorways may also reach the Hungarian border.
Plans were made to connect Szombathely with an expressway from 1995, and then its implementation took 10 years from 2006 to 2016. The construction was carried out in 9 stages and cost 158 billion forints, with 85% support from the European Union. The bypass section of the city of Csorna, handed over in 2015, became a unique solution in domestic road construction, as it was the first construction of an interweaving and diverging expressway, with the intersection of two roads in different directions. The merging and distribution of the M85 and M86 expressways into a common route was achieved with a 3.5 km expressway with a 2×3 lane track, while two railway lines are crossed together with an overpass.
From the 2020s
Highway system The following is a list of all existing, under construction and/or planned highways in Hungary.