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Show Offl 1KB 01 ROAD CKIKIl A. A. A. Hopes to Secure Information In-formation Which Will Benefit All Interested. Recognition. of the fact that more information in-formation is needed in determining the proper type of construction for any given sectiou of road, the national good roads board' of the American Automobile association is convinced that proper stops should bo taken in every stato in tho union to gather such data as will show the number, character and approxi. mate weights of vehicles passing over thc principal roads. The failure of many roads to stand up under the traffic is duc, not as many persons suppose to inferior materials and workmanship, btt to tho lack of preliminary information as to the traffic traf-fic tho road was expected to stand. Consequently, Con-sequently, roads have been built which would have lasted for years under other travel conditions; now they aro ruins, due to the absence of data which the engineering profession in any other branch of their work would have considered con-sidered essential. On this subject the Engineering Record of March 15 says: ''Without knowing the wear a road has, there is absolutely no way of telling tell-ing whether it is good or bad; only a careful traffic census can determine this. Roads too costly have been constructed con-structed in some places; in other places roads unsuited to tho traffic have been built. Tn view of this well-known fact, it is evident that a traffic census is an essential to economy in nearly all road building. Imagine a bridge designer making plans for a structure without anything more than a rough guess whether it -was to bo i&ecl lay steam railwa3'5 or trolley cars, and wo have an idea of the absurdity of proceeding with road building without traffic data." Illinois In. 1007 caused to be enumerated enumer-ated the travel over the roads at a few important points, and in March, 1013, Highway Engineer Johnson writes: "I am Euro we never collected any data on which T feol that I can place greater reliability re-liability than our traffic census data. It has been, all things considered, the most satisfactory investigation that wo have uttempted." Massachusetts tried taking a traffic census in 1000, and went into the subject sub-ject on n larger scale in 10 112. In August Au-gust and October. 1012. counts wore made at I GO .stations at different points in tho stato. each covering a full week of time, and twelve to eighteen hours a day. according to location. The results enable tho highway commission to make phins for not only currying thc present-travel, present-travel, but also to provide for the increase in-crease that is bound to come. It is considered, in view of the rapid changes in traffic and traffic conditions condi-tions being rapidl' and constantly made, that ii traffic census should be provided pro-vided at least four times a year, of at least a week at each period, and should cover thc principal roads entering en-tering every cilv in a state. To be of real value, the census should continue con-tinue for a series of years, in order to establish a proper knowledge of the ratio of increase. After a few years, and tho establishment of practical standards from which estimates could be made, so great frequency of count would not be uocotsary. Povisions for traffic census in most states will- roquirc the enactment of special laws. aud special appropriations. Compared with tho saving which would be effected in road construction tho expense ex-pense would be trivial. The figures, when made and properly collated, would be the basis on which all highway plan-ning plan-ning would rest . |