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Show Highway Improvement Is Costing Billion a Year The magnitude of the country's road improvement program Is emphasized in a summary of the government's participation par-ticipation made by Thomas IL Mac-Donald, Mac-Donald, chief of the United States bureau of public roads, who was the principal speaker at the twentieth annual an-nual convention of the American Road Builders' association, held ih New York city. "Long strides have been made In improvement im-provement of roads in the United States," he said, "but the building program pro-gram of the country has scarcely been dented. The federal government gives a little more than 6 per cent of aid to states and localities In meeting the expenses ex-penses of improving roads. Since 1918 the bureau of public toads bos undertaken under-taken a program of 180,000 miles of road Improvement help. "Throughout the United States last year a total of $970,000,00 was spent by the federal government, the states, counties, and municipalities In building and improving ronrts. There are 2,800,-000 2,800,-000 miles of roads in this country, of which 2.500,000 mUes remain to be im- nrnved. "Building of good automobile roads will not hurt railroads but will help them. Statistics In hand will disprove the contention held by some that states expending funds for motor roads are spending money for the beneflt of the country at large rather than for the states themselves. "Most of the trafnc Is local, that is within the state. Take the case of Connecticut, for Instance, There the traffic on the highways Is TO per cent local That Is, It Is traffic confined within the state's borders, giving the state the largest beneflt of its road Improvement Im-provement In general, we have found that 35 per cent of the road traffic on automobile highways Is truck or short-haul short-haul traffic and that V5 per cent Is pleasure. But the bulk of traffic remains re-mains within state boundaries." |
