Roads dedicated to public use and assigned an appropriate category based on the regulations of the Act on Public Roads.

The roads are split by their function in the road network into following categories:

1) national roads,

2) regional roads,

3) district roads,

4) communal roads.

National roads include:

- motorways and expressways as well as temporary roads used in place of motorways and expressways currently being built,

- international roads,

- other connection roads providing coherence of the national road network,

- access roads to public border crossing points that handle personal and load-carrying international traffic,

- roads alternative to toll motorways,

- ring roads for large urban agglomerations,

- military roads.

The regional roads include roads other than listed above which are connections between urban areas, roads important for the voivodship and military roads not listed as national roads.

District roads include roads other than mentioned above, which link poviat capital cities with commune capital cities and commune capital cities with other commune capital cities.

Communal roads include roads with a local significance not included in the other categories, which supplement the network of roads servicing local needs, excluding internal roads.

The public roads are split by the surface type into hard-surfaced roads and unsurfaced roads.

The hard-surfaced roads include improved hard surface roads (cobble stone, clinker, concrete, stone and concrete slabs, bitumen) and roads with unimproved surface (with macadam and cobbled surface).

The unsurfaced roads include virgin soil surface roads and roads fixed by means of special procedures and preparation of the virgin soil using mixtures made of clay, gravel, cinder, etc.

Roads are split by their territory into urban roads and non-urban roads.

The road is classified into the appropriate road categories according to:

- the regulation of the Council of Ministers (national roads),

- the resolution of the regional parliament (regional roads),

- the resolution of poviat council (poviat roads),

- the resolution of the municipal council (communal roads).

The public roads are divided by availability and territorial service into:

1) general public roads,

2) expressways,

3) motorways.

Urban roads are defined as road segments located in urban communes and rural/urban communes for roads located in urban areas.

Non-urban roads are defined as road segments located in rural communes and rural/urban communes for roads located in rural areas.

• Act of 21 March 1985 on Public Roads
  Place of publication: (Dz. U. z 2024 r. poz. 320)