Statistical Analysis on the Relationship of Highway Net Density with Economy and Population

This paper analyzes the development of the highway in the world's 25 most developed countries and makes a statistical analysis, while finding that the development of the highway in developed countries has experienced two stages: the first one is economic-driven and the second is population-driven. The paper points out that in the first stage, the construction of the highway is highly related to the economic development, but later it has less of an impact. At this time, on the contrary, the rising of population (or precisely, the number of drivers) becomes the main factor of promoting the development of highway net, or comes into the stage of population-driven. This study makes a? theoretical reference for the trend of highway development in China.