Bundesstraße
One distinguishing characteristic between German "Bundesstraßen" and "Autobahnen" is that there usually is a general 100 km/h (62 mph) speed limit on federal highways out of built-up areas, as opposed to the merely advisory speed limit ("Richtgeschwindigkeit") of 130 km/h (83 mph) in unmarked sections of the autobahns. However, a number of "Bundesstraßen" have been extended as expressways (dual carriageways) (colloquially called "Yellow Autobahns"). Many of these have speed limits of usually 100–120 km/h, others have only an advisory speed limit like autobahns. Most sections of the federal highways are only single carriageway with one lane for each direction and no hard shoulder pull-out area.
Road traffic safety
Major highways including motorways, freeways, Autobahnen and interstates are designed for safer high-speed operation and generally have lower levels of injury per vehicle km than other roads; for example, in 2013, the German autobahn fatality rate of 1.9 deaths per billion-travel-kilometers compared favorably with the 4.7 rate on urban streets and 6.6 rate on rural roads.