The first roads in Istria were built when the Romans arrived in the 1st century BC, while the opening of the Učka Tunnel in 1981 can be regarded as the one that marked the beginning of modern transportation infrastructure. This paper gives a brief historical overview of the construction of the most important transportation facilities. The paper later presents general facts about the roads in Istria County, such as the length of public roads by category, the proportion of public roads and road density, compared to road conditions in the Republic of Croatia. There is also a short report on road conditions by road category and the proportion of public roads over the territory of the Istria peninsula. The analysis of the traffic load in the period from 2011 to 2015 shows the amount of traffic obtained by the annual average daily traffic rate and the summer average daily traffic rate at selected counts on the highway and on the state and public roads. For each road category at a single count the analysis of the following was carried out: the annual daily traffic, the average daily hour traffic volume, the average weekday hour traffic, and traffic volumes by vehicle categorization. The chapter on road safety gives information on the amount, types and figures of casualties as well as of causes of traffic accidents in Istria. It also contains the qualitative and quantitative targets according to the Istria County Road Safety Programme for period 2012-2015 with the projection of the anticipated reduction in traffic accidents along with the real world accident data. The former road network accident black spots are mentioned with the examples of their improvement. Finally, the paper contains a chapter dedicated to the Istrian Y Motorway with the issues regarding its current condition, the planned continuation of its construction and the safety on the most important highway of Istria County.