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Show ROAEL- COUNTRY REQUIRES MORE PAVED ROADS With highway traffic constantly Increasing In-creasing In all parts of the United States, means to relieve road congestion conges-tion are being considered more carefully. care-fully. The total registration of automobiles auto-mobiles at the eml of 1024 in this country was 17,700.170, a gain of 1G.3 per cent over 102.'.. As a matter of fact the 4.000.000 or so automobiles now being built each year are greatly in excess of the annual an-nual increase of roadways suitable to boar motor traffic sniVIy and economically. econom-ically. The permanent paved surfaces laid each year would in reality not provide pro-vide adequate parking space for the cars turned out each 12 months. This Is not mere theorization, for from all sections are beard complaints of road congestion, and reports of conferences heh to devise methods of relief. New roads are of course desirable where it is necessary to open additional addi-tional routes of travel, and In many instances in-stances are essential to relieve congestion. con-gestion. But where the problem requires re-quires only the provision of sufficient area for machines, and not necessarily separate routes to different destination, destina-tion, wider pavements on existing rights of way will solve the problem. In some Instances where traffic Is not heavy, pavements from nine to ten , feet wide may be made to do until I funds are available for widening them Into two-track roads, although such narrow strips are not without disadvantages. disad-vantages. But when there are so many vehicles going In opposite directions ' that turning out to pass each other Is a nuisance and likewise dangerous, double-track pavements of IS and 20 feet are essential. Three-track pavements are from 27 to 30 feet wide and will of course carry more traffic than double-track surfaces. However, they have some drawbacks from the standpoint of safety, since cars going in the opposite oppo-site direction may try to use the center track at the same time. |
