Background

As of I January 2004, the Danish motorway network has a length of some 1,014 km (The public motorway network has a total length of 973 km and Sund & Bælt Holding A/S ’ motorways make up an additional 41 km). The motorways make up just 1.40 percent of the Danish road network, yet at the same time currently handle about 22 % (2004) of road traffic activity in Denmark. This is due both to the geographical location of the motorways as the connecting element between the key areas of urban development in Denmark and the development of road traffic, which is in turn derived from the economic and technological development in Denmark as a whole. Despite this, the motorway network’s significance for urban development in more general terms has never been the subject of serious public discussion in a national Danish context. The formal reason for this is that an overall plan for the layout and development of the Danish motorway network has never been discussed at a political level, nor has it been adopted by the Danish parliament (Folketing), although a draft of a