Highways in the Czech Republic

Highways in the Czech Republic are managed by the state-owned Directorate of Highways and Motorways of the Czech Republic – . As of January 2015, ŘSD manages 1,501 km of motorways and 5,700 km of highways. 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 and highways.

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 are designated by an up to two-digit number and are owned by the state.
Second class roads 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 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.

Road for motorcars (Silnice pro motorová vozidla)

Some sections of highways have their start and end marked by blue road for motorcars signs. These roads are off-limits for other kinds of 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 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 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 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, 10 days, 1 month or 365 days . 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 in 2021.
A green motorway road sign means that a paid e-vignette toll is obligatory unless stated otherwise. Only sections not subject to e-vignette are designated with an additional road sign.
For 2025, the following motorway sections are subject to the time-based electronic vignette duty for motor cars up to 3.5 t:

Motorway	Motorway route subject to a time-based fee	km L
	Modletice – Prague-Slivenec	23
	Průhonice – Kývalka	176
	Holubice – Kroměříž-západ	48
	Kroměříž-východ – Říkovice	12
	Přerov-Předmostí – Ostrava-Rudná	72
	Brno-Chrlice – border with Slovakia – in the direction from Slovakia subject to a charge from km 55.5	58
	Mezno – Čekanice	14
	Měšice – Veselí nad Lužnicí, sever	25
	Veselí nad Lužnicí, jih - Úsilné	24
	Jíloviště – Třebkov	75
	Prague-Třebonice – Beroun-východ	14
	Beroun-západ – Ejpovice	45
	Sulkov – border with Germany – in the direction from Germany subject to a charge from km 149.7	62
	Jeneč – Nesuchyně	41
	Kněževes – Knovíz	15
	Louny-východ – Louny-západ	4
	Zdiby – Řehlovice	64
	Knínice – border with Germany – in the direction from Germany subject to a charge from exit 64 Řehlovice	12
	Stará Boleslav – Bezděčín	25
	Kosmonosy – Ohrazenice	25
	Jirny – Jaroměř-sever	105
	Sedlice – Ostrov	31
	Mohelnice-jih – Křelov	26
	Olomouc-Holice – Lipník nad Bečvou	20
	Vyškov-východ – Prostějov-jih	21
	Držovice – Hněvotín	11
	Bělotín – Jeseník nad Odrou	8
	Palačov – Nový Jičín-centrum	8
	Rybí – Frýdek-Místek východ	28
	Dobrá – Žukov	16
	Rajhrad – Pohořelice-sever	13
	Hulín – Otrokovice-sever	14
	Otrokovice-východ – Napajedla	3
	Ostrava-Hrabová, průmyslová zóna – Frýdek-Místek	14

Vehicles over 3.5 tonnes

applies to vehicles over 3.5 tons.

History

Motorways

Before the [Second World War]

The first informal plan for a motorway in Czechoslovakia date back to 1935. This was to link Prague through Slovakia with the easternmost Czechoslovak territory, Carpathian Ruthenia. The terminus was to be at Velykyy Bychkiv 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 the route Streitau – Eger – Carlsbad – Lobositz – Böhmisch Leipa – Reichenberg – Görlitz. 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 were adjusted to those of the German Reichsautobahn, as Czech 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.