A small section of the privately financed Long Island Motor Parkway was the first expressway to begin operation as a toll road[2] and the first highway to use bridges and overpasses to eliminate intersections.

Some, such as the Sprain Brook Parkway, are functionally equivalent to a freeway; others, like Seven Lakes Drive, are two-lane undivided roads.

In later sections north of New York City, the roadways were typically divided by a wide landscaped median and provided service areas along the way that offered fuel and restrooms.

Second, because designers focused more on making routes scenic rather than efficient, the parkways are meandering, often built to follow a river, and so contain many turns.

The surviving remnant of the LIMP in western Suffolk County, named the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, became a surface road that is no longer an expressway nor off limits to commercial vehicles.