"A hyperlane, also known as a [...], spacelane, [...], was an area of space that had been deemed safe for hyperspace travel." ...This is a quote from the wiki of Star Wars ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperlane ) ...Personally, I'm preferring the "spacelane"-term, but the actual thing is, that I can totally identify these "spacelanes" for Stellaris, so that such a one is NOT an artificial or a magical "road in space", which simply boosts a ship into an artificial or into a magical ftl-state, so that such a "spacelane" is nothing more than "empty" space in between 2 locations, 2 star-systems for example, without facing the risk to collide with "something" in between these 2 locations ...For Star Wars as well as for Stellaris, this explanation makes even more sense in regards to the circumstances, that these "spacelanes" are just there + that it's not even necessary to build special structures, special space-stations at the entry-/exit-points in the star-systems for example, for the usage of them + that the maps of Star Wars / Stellaris don't represent all the star-systems in their galaxies, so that you could guess, that in the case, that there isn't a "spacelane" between 2 "interesting" / represented star-systems, you have (probably) - 1 or more "un-interesting" / not represented star-systems or "something else" in between these 2 "interesting" / represented star-systems ...This "something else" could even be an other "spacelane", so that it makes somewhat sense, that the species have made some sort of a mutual agreement about an established "spacelane-network" without "crossing" "spacelanes" to avoid the risk, that their ships collide with each other ...What's left is, that a ship needs an own ftl-device for itself, but it's nevertheless recommended, that this ship uses "spacelanes" / an established "spacelane-network" ...For Stellaris, we could call it a day by calling this ftl-device the (more explainable) "warp-drive" (Star Trek) than the (not so comprehensible) "hyper-drive" (Star Wars) ...By the way, I wouldn't be surprised in the case, that ...01. The "hyper-drive" (Star Wars) is actually some sort of a (better) "warp-drive" (Star Trek) ...02. The "warp-drive" (Star Trek) is actually a bit more restricted in regards to "spacelanes" / an established "spacelane-network" ...