Highway

“ Sometimes, it is true, the highway lies by the side of a foaming torrent, hurrying over stones and boulders to join the sea; sometimes it climbs amongst untrodden snows; sometimes it creeps along the edge of the foam-clad blue, or wanders through a grove of tall and silent pines. ”

“ The highway is irrelevant. The highway is slipshod. The highway is as the necklace of a gipsy or an Indian, a savage string of pebbles and precious stones, no two alike, with an occasional trumpery suspender button or peach seed. Every diamond is in the rough.
I was walking between rugged farms on the edge of the oil country in western Pennsylvania. ”

“ After your farthest wandering, you are never surprised to come forth upon the vast avenue of highway, to strike the centre point of branching alleys, or to find the aqueduct trailing, thousand-footed, through the brush. ”

“ It is a highway that, if not quite so busy as London’s Fleet Street, is traversed almost daily by craft of one sort or another, bound either east or west; and something might come along at any moment and, if I could but attract attention to myself, pick me up. ”

“ The highway of the vain is to depart from seriousness, and follow mirth on the trail of fools. The highway of the ambitious is a toilsome scramble up a mountain’s side towards its summit, which seems in the distance to be a paradise basking in sunlight above the clouds ”

“ The road is built above and overlooks the plain. No pains in the original construction of twenty-odd centuries ago, nor since in its remodification or repair, has been spared towards making it an eternal highway down which as a vast speedway a half-dozen cars might race abreast. ”

“ There were few to share the highway with me: a farmer with an empty wagon, urging his team on and giving me a churlish glance instead of an invitation to ride; a horseman on an elegant chestnut picking his course carefully among the chuckholes, and a few tramps, each bent on his solitary way, at once defensive and aggressive. The condition of the bridges accounted for the absence of minibiles. ”

“ Thronged at the point where it descends to the water's edge with steamers and other craft, great and small, lined on the right and left up to the far vanishing-point with handsome buildings, its pavements and central roadway everywhere astir with life, its appearance is agreeably exciting and even impressive. It looks to be, what in fact it is, the outlet of a great highway leading into the interior of a busy, populous country. ”

“ Finally, our advice is, in extended driving, keep to the main highway, with miles of woodsy driving every day, as fascinating as any Lovers’ Lane, with ponds and lakes innumerable, and occasional cascades so near that the roaring keeps one awake all night. ”

“ The study of any highway for itself alone might prove of indifferent value, even though it were an Appian Way; but the story of a road, which shows clearly the rise, nature, and passing of a nation's need for it, is of importance. ”

“ By a study of the transportation—travel, movement of goods and commodities—and the means and facilities for its accomplishment, the relative civilization of any people, their rank and position may be accurately surveyed, graduated, and estimated. The highways of a nation, whether they be of the land or sea, or both, are most vital elements in its progress and could almost as well as transportation be considered the measuring rod of civilization. ”

“ But, at other times, though the open road is clear, and there is no obstacle on the way of common trade, the traveller may of choice turn to the by-ways and hedges. Not that he hates the wider track, but he may also love the less frequented, narrower paths, which carry him into nooks and glades, whence, after shorter or longer detours, he reaches the highway again. ”

“ The highway now becomes extremely steep and narrow, with countless hairpin turns, though all danger of collision is eliminated by the regulations which permit no down-traffic in the morning and no up-traffic in the afternoon. During the final fifteen miles, in which is made an ascent of more than six thousand feet, one has the curious experience of passing, in a single hour, from the torrid to the temperate zone. ”

“ Although the freight and express traffic of those days lacked the picturesqueness of the passenger coaches, nothing illustrates so conclusively what the great road meant to an awakening West as the long lines of heavy Conestogas and rattling express wagons which raced at "unprecedented" speed across hill and vale. Searight, the local historian of the road, describes these large, broad-wheeled wagons covered with white canvas as
visible all the day long, at every point, making the highway look more like a leading avenue of a great city than a road through rural districts.... ”

“ That great highway—leading from the capital to the Eastern provinces—was ever thronged by a ceaseless crowd of men, engaged in the varied business, and swayed by the various interests, that centre in the seat of a mighty government. ”

“ And through this “Pass” runs the great highway that has been traveled for threescore years, from the south-eastern to the north-western States. The range of mountains is from thirty to fifty miles in width, and in the central part rises up in immense rocky ranges. ”

“ A road is a strip of land set apart or appropriated for travel, public or private. When a road has been dedicated to the public or has been used so long that the public has a legal right of easement therein, it becomes a highway. [173]
The object of a road is to provide a way for transportation. It goes without saying, therefore, that its situation should be such that it can perform this function most efficiently, and a system of highways should perform the same function for the public in the same manner. Efficiency here includes the ideas of economy and satisfaction combined. ”

“ Development of Traffic.—The character and extent of the highway improvement needed in any locality is dependent entirely on the demands of traffic. In sparsely settled areas, particularly those that are semi-arid or arid, the amount of traffic on local roads is likely to be small and the unimproved trails or natural roads adequate. ”

“ Bridges, culverts, and railroad crossings should, preferably, be directly along the highway and at right angles to the obstruction.
(9) Ruling grades, dependent upon the class of road will also affect the layout.
(10) Esthetics. Perhaps the people of the United States have been too materialistic and have paid too little attention to the beauty and interest elements in highway location. Especially for pleasure riding and recreation should the esthetic side be considered. ”

“ In writing this book, then, I have had constantly in mind the myriads of people who have not the time, and possibly not the facilities, to search the pages of the literature of the past for the origin and development, or to work out their present importance, of our amplification of roads and of road uses. It is felt that many of these people laudably desire a conversational knowledge of the origin, evolution and present status of highway transportation, even though it be glimpsed by a very rapid passage through a very large subject. ”

“ The highway is in reality the right of passage, not the beaten track, for in both England and the United States the laws recognize the privilege the traveler has when for any reason the road becomes blocked or obstructed of taking to the fields and making another track. ”

“ Continuing through the town, this great national highway flattens itself out for a space, on a little plateau from which the hill takes a fresh start. For something over a kilometre it rises straight and bold ”

“ And, on the day following, as I pursued the course, his words proved true and I suddenly came into a traveled road. The old highway was still in use as far as a farm-house located at a distance from the main highway. It was not blocked up, for many still use the old road as a footpath across the hills. For the explorer of old highways there is perhaps no spot in America which can equal in romance and interest the three great pathways, one built upon the other, which wind through the Alleghanies of northwestern Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania, from the Potomac to the Ohio river. ”

“ What Do We Mean—Highway Planning?
Everyone plans. One may spend hours and days planning a vacation trip abroad. A housewife plans constantly—from the trip to the store for the week’s supply of groceries to the time to put the vegetables on the stove for dinner. Engineers locate and design a section of road and portray their results by a construction plan. And perhaps the ultimate example is the successful result of planning to land a man on the moon and return him to earth. ”

“ Today we smoothly cross these same mountain barriers on Interstate highways which are a tribute to 50 years of highway engineering progress pioneered by those engineers who made the first highway locations and carried through the design and construction of the first improved highways across the mountain barriers, tying all parts of our country together with a modern highway transportation system. ”

“ To simplify the matter somewhat, the different classes of traffic to which roads are subjected may be divided into five groups, which may be called city, urban, suburban, highway, and country road traffic, respectively. City traffic is a traffic so great that no macadam road can withstand it, and is such as exists on the business streets of large cities. ”

“ For mile after mile I now alternately ride and trundle along donkey-paths, by the side of an artificial highway that would be an enterprise worthy of a European State. The surface of the road is either gravelled or of broken rock, and well rounded for self-drain- age; it is graded over the mountains, and wooden bridges, with substantial rock supports, are built across the streams; nothing is lacking except the vehicles to utilize it. ”

“ These are our thoughts as we look from the parapet of the bridge that carries the highway over the railroad below, our steps lead us northward, and although our local geography ends here, our usual luck for further guidance is at hand. ”

“ The roads are well swept, for the farmers on each side diligently scrape up all manure; and as men with brooms clear all away before a traveller of rank, the highway is kept in a very neat condition. Men selling straw clouts for travellers, and straw shoes for the horses, which require, of course, frequent renewal, pick up a living by the roadside, and we pass them frequently. ”

“ This road, which was made last year by subscription, in order to give employment to the poor in a period of great distress, is a good wide macadamized highway, with a footpath on each side; but the people of the country make little use of it, as they have no wheeled carriages. ”

“ The principal function of such a route is the distribution of traffic approaching the city on any highway, either to the other highways to which it may need to transfer or to points on the circumference of the city nearest the urban section of its ultimate destination, and the distribution of outbound traffic in a reciprocal manner. ”

“ Transportation on the public highway, whether of raw products to the market or finished products to the consumer, is denominated primary; transportation by railroads, canals, and ships as secondary. Practically all secondary transportation is of products which were first or last or both subjects of primary transportation. ”

“ Now meet two such beasts, yoked together, and it is a wide highway that leaves you room to pass. Moreover, their drivers being invariably sound asleep, the animals wander at sweet will about the right of way, tossing their heads toward the passer-by. ”

“ The primary objects have therefore been, to sketch briefly and simply the development of the transportation systems of the United States, to indicate their importance and mutual relations, to present some practical methods used in the operation of highway transport and to make occasional suggestions for the betterment of the road as a usable machine for the benefit and pleasure of mankind. ”

“ All rural sections of the system expected to carry an average daily traffic of 3,000 but less than 15,000 vehicles shall provide at least two lanes for traffic moving in each direction, each lane to have a width of 12 feet; and the lanes for traffic moving in opposite directions shall be separated by a median strip at least 15 feet wide. On sections which permit crossing or entering at grade at intersecting highways or private entrances, the median strip at public road crossings shall be at least 40 feet wide, and opposite private-property entrances, at least 25 feet wide. ”

“ Calling on the road inventory and traffic volume and classification data from the highway planning surveys, detailed studies were made of rural road service in all States. Such items as the extent of road surfacing; the distances of rural residents from all-weather roads; the road usage (from the road use studies) of rural roads by farmers and other rural residents; the average traffic volumes; the adequacy of schoolbus and mail delivery routes; the motor vehicle ownership; and the social functions permitted by the road system were studied. ”

“ Houses and shops are constructed near the road, usually parallel with it. The road may be a trail, public highway, railroad, river, or ocean harbor, but, in any case, the community usually starts in parallel relation to the first main highway. ”

“ While building upon these bases of knowledge, highway designers were often in a dilemma as to which features of wagon roads should be retained, modified, or rejected, which characteristics of railroad practice should be incorporated, and what new concepts were needed to satisfy the peculiar qualities of automobile traffic. ”