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6th January 1939, Page 30
6th January 1939
Page 30
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Page 30, 6th January 1939 — CAN WE
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LEARN FROM Ai\

RICAN HIGHWAY PLANNING

This Year the U.S A. Will Spend £257,000,000 on Its State Highway System and the Country is Undoubtedly Ve-ty Road-minded

By Major H. E. Crawfurd, President, Associated Road Operators

0 N January 1, 1938, there were officially reckoned to be, completed or under construction, 3,033,713 miles of roads in the United States. This com

pares with 178,904 miles in Britain in 1937. The enormous mileage represented by the former figure, especially when it is realized that in many areas suitable material for the building of modern roads has to be brought long distances and that many thousand miles of this road system traverse one of the great mountain ranges of the world, obviously created an immense problem if the road system in the States was to be brought up to date to cope with modern traffic needs.

The interest to be derived from a study of how this mileage is made up, what is happening. to it, and what the roads themselves are doing, lies in the comparison of what the American Nation is doing in this respect as compared with the efforts that are being made here.

Now for the figures. On the above date, 390,485 miles

were classified as improved. This length includes 169,802 miles which had been given bituminous or concrete surfaces. That is to say, roughly, a length of road equal to the total road mileage of this country has been, in the 'United States, made suitable for modern motor traffic. The rest of the " improved " roads consist of macadam, gravel and sand clay. .

There are 48 States in the Union, and in each there is a State system of roads—the others are in the care of the counties or cities. The state system usually represents from 10 per cent. to 15 per cent, of the total road mileage within the State, and on the whole will be found to consist of those roads. which, as I have said, are

classified as "improved." The total mileage of the State system is 454,841, from which figure it will be seen that some four-fifths of these State roads have been modernized.

In addition to the State, the county, and the city, since 1916 the Federal Government has given grants for road improvements, and these grants have been much increased since 1931. In connection with the supply of Federal grants to the State-highway systems there is an active department in Washington known as the Bureau of Public Roads under the able guidance of Mr. T. H. MacDonald. I had the advantage of two long talks with Mr. MacDonald, and gathered from him that the Bureau had been very successful in using its position to help towards standardizing all roads.

Amount Spent on Roads Steadily Increasing.

The total cost of the State highway system in America, including the payments made by the Federal Authorities, is estimated for the year 1939 to be 1,200,000,000 dollars, which, at the present rate, represents something like A257,000,000. This is slightly higher than the amount for the past three years, which again showed an increase over the average for 1932-35. Of the total sum the Federal Government will contribute this year 225,000,000 dollars.

The increased Federal payments made in the past five years, and estimated for the present year, have been avowedly a contribution towards the solution of the unemployment problem. One thing which cannot fail to strike the observer, and to which I shall refer again in another article, is the work of permanent value which has been done in the United States, particularly in some of the great cities, in the form of unemployment relief.

s24 In considering the amount of modernization of toads • that has been carried out in the United States there is one factor, that should not be lost sight of, in which that

country differsfrom this. Over there distancesare obviously greater—it is more than 1,000 milesfrom Chicago to New York, and it is 3,000 miles across" the country, which is indeed a continent. Large areas are still very sparsely populated, and if this be true in parts East of the Mississippi it must be still more true of the mountainous country in the West. In a country where these conditions obtain, where, for instance, you have

• the manufacturing cities of the Atlantic Sea Board 1,000 miles from the industrial centres of the middle-West, and three times that mileage in some cases from the large centres of population on the Pacific Coast, with distances almost as great to the South, the railway, with the good possibility of maintaining a high average speed over long distances, is obviously at a greater advantage as compared with the road than in a more thickly populated country such as ours. This should be borne in mind when considering the attitude of the American people towards road transport and road construction.

Every . Evidence That Road Transport is Appreciated. In spite of the many advantages which railway transport has in a country where distances are so great, and in spite of the fact that the development of the States owes so much to their railway system, there seems no hesitation whatever in accepting the new and improved facilities for transport brought by the mechanical vehicle on the road, and everywhere there is evidence of a desire to make the utmost use of it.

• A recent writer in "American Highways" begins an article on the problem of acquiring rights of way for road construction with the following words :—" To the road builders of America has come the challenge to adopt adequate programmes that will enable them to improve our roads for highway safety with divided lanes, wider shoulders, easier curves, shallower side ditches, and longer sight distances." There is here no suggestion that the number of road vehicles should be restricted. The fact that they are wanted is accepted, and the assumption which follows logically on that, that the highway system should be improved to cope with the modern form of traffic is universally accepted.

Now let me say a few words as to my own experiences of the highways in both cities and states. We hear a great deal about the excellence of the American roads, and our, enthusiasts here compare them very favourably with what is to be found in this counfty. My experience is that this point of view is partly but not entirely accurate. There are some magnificent highways in the States, over some of which I travelled; naturally enough these are mostly to be found in the neighbourhood of, or proceeding out of, the large cities. When you drive from Detroit to Chicago out past the Dearborn district, where the Ford Works are situated, in the direction of Ypsilanti, there is a wonderful high road with double tracks, each to carry three lines of traffic, wide borders and a grass margin in the middle, and admirably graduated slopes where there are bridge crossings.

The same is true of the road from Washington, some 20 miles to Mini-A Vernon. You have the same features

in the highway system, about. which more later, now being created in New York State. But what the American terms the super highway is not universal. It is true, however, that there are no two considerable cities in the United States without a concrete or bituminous service road between them. As I have stated before, there are 170,000 miles of such roads.

In traversing the fiat lands of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, and the Middle West generally, the visitor from this country will not fail to be struck by the long, Araight, fiat stretches of road, which often run for many miles with no gradient and no curve. This obviously enables a higher average speed to be maintained, so 400 miles to 450 miles is by no means an exceptional day's run.

The one undesirable feature of the American highway system is the great number of railway crossings. How

many there are in all I do not know, but they are a constantly recurring feature of any journey by road. Where they occur in cities or townships they are mostly protected by gates or lights, or both. In the open country, however, one has to rely on a road sign.

On one occasion, when driving near the border of Illinois and Wisconsin, north of Chicago, I had a very vivid experience of the danger involved. We approached such a crossing, the view of the railway line being, in this case, somewhat obscured by a wood. My companion, an official of the Bureau of Public Roads, pulled up short of the crossing, the invariable habit of careful drivers, turned to me and said : "I think I hear a bell." Sure enough, in a few seconds the MilwaukeeChicago express went by 5 yds_ in front of us at some 60 m.p.h. or 70 m.p.h.

Some features we should do well to copy. In several states, for instance Michigan and Illinois, a broad black band is painted the whole length of the road in the middle of the concrete. This is an admirable help to the driver in keeping to his proper side. The road signs are comparatively few but adequate, simple and clear. The main routes are numbered and indicated at each road junction. Approaches to curves, double bends and railway crossings are clearly shown.

Natural features by the roadside are, so far as possible, retained.


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