Road agent

“ At the intersection of important highways, the problem is complicated by the necessity for providing for through traffic in both directions and for traffic which may turn in either direction and the engineer must provide safe roadways for each class of traffic.
Tractive Resistance.—The adoption of a policy regarding the grades on a road involves an understanding of the effect of variation in the character of the surface and in rate of grade upon the energy required to transport a load [Pg 50] over the highway. ”

“ Leaving the old world there is sketched all too briefly the development in the United States of transportation facilities from the coastal and natural waterways, from the pack and trail, used by the aborigine and early settlers, through the treks of the pioneers, the periods of canal digging, the toll road competition, and the railway frenzy, to the advent of the modern road with the coming of the bicycle and automobile and their wonderful accelerative impulse. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Where there is no one to guide him, it becomes quite difficult to avoid collisions, especially in congested thoroughfares, for truth to tell, there appears to be an absolute lack of road courtesy on the part of most automobile drivers. When more than one man is assigned to a vehicle, the helper should take the position on the ground where he has an unobstructed view of traffic and pedestrians approaching from all directions. ”

“ But in so extensive a concern as the system of roads, involving so great an expense, we may naturally look for small beginnings and very gradual advancement. Accordingly, we find in the first formation of highways, before their utility could be fully understood or experience had shown the benefits of science in the practice of the engineer, the early road-maker only increased the breadth of the horse-track, and strewed it over with gravel from the neighbouring brook. ”

“ The roadway was more than half blocked, and cabs and omnibuses, in charge of overheated and eloquent drivers, were being filtered through the narrow space left at their disposal by a phlegmatic policeman.
"Look here," said Champion.
I looked.
"What on earth are those fellows doing?" he continued.
"Re-laying the road, perhaps."
"One doesn't re-lay a road by making a deep hole in it."
"Well—gas!"
"Gas and electric light mains in this street are all led along a special conduit reached by manholes every eighty yards," said Champion. "There's no need to dig." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The climatic conditions are readily obtained from the Weather Bureau, and a satisfactory record of the volume and character of the traffic can be made by any competent person living in view of the road.
In France the measuring of traffic has received a great deal of attention, and a census is kept for all the national highways. The traffic there is rated and reduced to units in the following manner: A horse hauling a public vehicle or cart loaded with produce or merchandise is considered as the unit of traffic. Each horse hauling an empty cart or private carriage counts as one-half unit ”

“ The general increase of heavy traffic soon after the middle of the eighteenth century did not escape the notice of those responsible for the condition of the roads. Incompetent road-surveyors, ignorant of the science of road construction and employing unsuitable materials and unskilled labour, saw the highways they had mended with mud, road-scrapings and gravel continually falling into ruts and sloughs, often from twelve to eighteen inches deep. ”

“ A few hundred sappers and engineers, with proper tools, would soon go a long way towards making the road fairly fit for traffic, but nothing can be done without tools and wheel-barrows, or at least hand-barrows for carrying stones. ”

“ We have been impressed by the frequency and unanimity with which representative associations of road users have emphasised the importance to the safety and convenience of all traffic, of uniformity of practice in the display of legible street name-plates and street numbers. ”

“ From the standpoint of the national-defense effort, the objective in access road construction is to provide adequate highway connections for the reservations and industrial areas with nearby main highways and railroads or other transportation services, and from neighboring towns and cities. From the standpoint of highway traffic, the developments planned at nearly all of the reservations and new industrial sites will be equivalent in their generation of highway traffic to the creation of a considerable number of new cities of very substantial size. ”

“ Good roads are as important to the motor truck operator as the railroad is to the transportation of logs by rail.
The big handicap in motor truck logging in the past has been poor roads. The same man who will survey, grade, carefully lay and ballast the steel for a logging railroad will many times put a truck and trailer on a poor dirt road and expect the truck to haul economically and satisfactorily. A motor truck will haul over some mighty poor apologies for roads but it does not pay. A good road is an excellent investment. ”

“ Proper maintenance of highways is equally important with proper construction. With nearly all types of road construction, the need for maintenance arises soon after the surface is placed under traffic and is continuous thereafter. The nature and amount of maintenance work varies greatly among the several types of surface and the organization suitable for a system of highways will depend to a considerable extent upon the kinds of surfaces that are to be maintained. ”

“ The answer is that although a vast amount of road-making or road-repairing was going on, at the very considerable expense of the road users, and to the advantage of a small army of attorneys, officials and labourers, it was not road-making of a scientific kind, but merely amateur work, done at excessive cost, either with unintelligent zeal or in slovenly style, and yielding results which mostly failed to give the country the type of road it required for the ever-increasing traffic to which expanding trade, greater travel, and heavier and more numerous waggons and coaches were leading. ”

“ It will be seen, however, that the combined operations of the Royal Automobile Club, the Automobile Association and Motor Union, and the Road Board constitute, in effect—and more especially from the point of view of provision of facilities for through traffic under satisfactory conditions—a national road policy far in advance of anything this country has ever seen before.
These road improvements appeal to the motorist, delighting in cross-country journeys, still more than they do to the urban trader, whose road transport does not, generally speaking, extend beyond a certain radius. ”

“ When construction is completed, it shall immediately remove all the obstacles from the road and eliminate the hidden troubles endangering safety, and only after the road is checked and accepted as up to traffic requirements by the department in charge of roads and the traffic control department of the public security organ, the road may be open to traffic anew. ”

“ Instead, the new Public Roads was exclusively a house research journal, and all of its contributors were engineers, scientists, and economists of the Bureau of Public Roads. As the Bureau’s research activities expanded, Public Roads published papers dealing with every aspect of highway research—finance and taxation, the economics of transport systems, the properties of soil and road materials, the management of construction operations by contractors, the characteristics of highway traffic, the strength of road slabs, and many others. ”

“ Ranking and Parking. —Frequently the things which will attract the motorist are those which also prevent accidents, which cause vehicles to interfere with each other as little as possible, relieve congestion, which make it easier for the stranger to find his way, as well as make it more pleasant and more comfortable for passenger and driver. All road regulations might be considered under the heading of conveniences and comforts, for they all tend to make [421] traveling more safe and pleasant. ”

“ The amount of motive power and cost of working it, depends in a great degree upon the disposition of grades as regards the direction of the traffic movement. The most economically worked road will be either a level one, or one where the bulk of the traffic is moved down hill. ”

“ The unfortunate motorist is perhaps ploughing his way steadily along through the gravel, dust, and sand. He encounters a barrier across the road bearing a notice that repairs are going on and that he must follow the detour indicated. The road selected, I believe, is generally the one with the most pot-holes, ruts, mountains, canyons, etc., in its formation in the surrounding district. ”

“ In this manner careful studies were made of a vast number of materials, including oils, asphalts, tars, concrete, brick, crushed stone and gravel. In connection with practical road men and research committees of such organizations as the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Society for Testing Materials many useful standards have been adopted for road materials and road construction. The effect of traffic on various types of roads has also been a profitable subject for study. ”

“ We found the roads in most places worthy of the name “highways”; but on the steepest grades, where the outside of the road shelves off into space, with a drop of hundreds of feet, there are no walls or fences, not even railings, to prevent accidents. In the main, the roads are sufficiently wide to allow two cars to pass; in some places, however, the smaller car must back down to a siding to allow the Government cars, which have the right of way on the inside of the road, to pass. ”

“ There is nothing particularly novel in the principles involved in this aerial road, but it is the first of its kind to be built for passenger traffic. Similar less pretentious roads have been in use for freight transportation for several years. But the success of this road means the building of others on inaccessible mountain inclines where the laying of ordinary roadbeds is out of the question, and the operating of cog roads too expensive. ”

“ It is in this direction that science has proved itself of the greatest service to the highway engineer,
The destruction of the surface of a water-bound broken-stone road by motor traffic is due, according to experiments conducted by the Office of Public Roads, to the shearing or grinding action of the tires of the rear wheels of cars, which under the impulse of the engine, revolve at a slightly higher rate than that corresponding to the movement necessary to conform to that of the car over the road. ”

“ He shall report to the engine-driver any set of points not under his personal charge which he finds neglected, as also any defect which he is himself unable to repair.
26. He shall keep clear all road and field crossing grooves, and shall at once acquaint the engine-driver when repair to the surface of any road crossing is necessary.
27. At least once a week he shall walk over the whole length of the main line and sidings, observing carefully that the keys, bridge bolts, fish bolts, and sleepers are in order. ”

“ If he can show that one type is superior to another the tax-payer will usually follow his advice, and agree to the type suggested. The final decision must rest with the road officials. They should know the requirements of the road, whether, for example, it is to be largely commercial or used largely for pleasure; whether durability or noiselessness is a determining factor; or whether a pleasing appearance and convenience to the inhabitants living along the way are of greater importance than directness and low grades. ”

“ A narrow, crooked access to a busy goods yard is a great impediment to the expeditious working of a heavy traffic; and road waggons conveying long pieces of timber or ironwork along such a route, would be very apt to block the roadway and delay the passage of other vehicles. ”