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Show TUT GIEST ROAD ACROSS CONTINENT FINE THOROUGH By LESLIE VI SPENCER In Motor Life It is safe to say that Applus Claudius, Clau-dius, whon he built the Appian Way some twenty centuries ago, had no thought of It being held up as the model or standard for road builders for two thousand years. His reasons for the groat undertaking were those of military necessity and had nothing to do with posterity. That the peoples peo-ples of far-distant generations would I point to his road building achievements achieve-ments as examples for their own road builders to follow perhaps never occurred oc-curred to him. Ho roognlzed the need of food road?, but only from one standpoint that of transporting warriors and enpines of battle to bettor bet-tor advantage. And after remaining for twenty conturles .13 the example and inspiration inspira-tion for all road builders, the Appian "Way stands today in tho discard. It has remained for the twentieth century cen-tury 10 antinuatc it nlace it on the 'same plane with other engineering works of fbose far-gone days. It has outlived Its usefulness as the ideal, tho standard and the inspiration 1 road-making. Built of heavy cobblestones, whoso rough surfacing Is the enemy of fast transportation. w the motor ear has been its undoing. Slow-moving road vehicles of other id ays found no fault with its ancient cobbles, but the modern motor car soon made it out of date. Its twenty-foot twenty-foot which has been outdone in many instances in our day; Its features have been bettered, and the demands of greater traffic tell us that it could not have come down to us In its present woll-prescrvcd form if our modern volume.. of transportation had always been upon It'. And so, witji the props knocked out from under our ancient Ideal of what a road should be, wo, moderns must readjust our ideas of hfghw.s and do it in a hurry. With our present broader views of' the necessity for adequate highways to cope with the steady advance f, road transportation vohlles, just what Is the ideal highway? It is all right I to tear down and discard the old imaginative and slotful race which ! 1 wo arc not we must set up new !, Ideals; must have new standards to ! Ttrivc for. We cannot stand still. I The dictators of ancient Rome per-( per-( haps had to give no thought to csts I when they built any of their wonder-j wonder-j ful strutures. Appi-js Claudius was 1 doubtless unhampered by material and labor prices when he constructed the recently-discarded road classic. Ho could build the best of which his mind could conceive, unworriod by any other considerations. But we of tolay must set up practical ideals. They must take into consideration ev-ory ev-ory condition with which we have to deal. Cost need not probibltively interfere in-terfere with the sotting up of 'what w.q consider our models, hut It. at least must bo taken Into account. Consequently in determining our idal highway wo must look at all sides of the matter. It must be tho very best compromise we can conceive between be-tween cost and physical perfection. Oh. It is a hard thing to determine. If any of us were delegated to name the features that constitute the ideal road we would be hard put to it to know where to begin or whero to end. But here is where the Lincoln Highway association, that enterprising enterpris-ing body which has perhaps done more for the advancement of good roads in our country than any other, has stopped in. Tho Lincoln Highway association proposes to build us an ideal section of highway a practical ideal, mind you. One that will take into consideration every factor with which we havo to deal. It does not set Itself to the task of laying down a roadway which will last two thousand thous-and years, but it does Intent to construct con-struct a strip of road which will be the ideal for our time; that Is, tpr at least twenty years. Further than conceive the Idea in Its fundamentals the association has not gone yet. It has not definitely detormlned any of the features of our twentieth century road classic. That is to be left to the best brains in this jor any other country to decide. It is the aim to make the ideal section reflect re-flect the most advanced, most modern mod-ern of modern engineering though along highway constructional lines. Loading road engineers will be asked to cn-operatp with the association's officials, and when plans are finally fixed the roadway should be a composts com-posts roflnctlon of the very beat ideas of all exports. Even tho, layman you and r, whose knowledge" of road con-i structloh, begins and ends witftUhc enjoyment en-joyment 'wo jjet out of riding) over' a smooth surface will be hcard.l'f we can advance any constructive thought as to what the road, ofthe future" should bejany thought which is bettor, bet-tor, thaft that of anybody else, our Ideas will be incorporated In the association's as-sociation's ideal section. There arc no reservations. The best Is wanted, no mattor froni what source. It comes. Think of all the advantages a roadway road-way should have. Remember that within the next few years we shall nave great nignt, traiiio over our main highways. The paths of commerce lead to the motor truck as an auxiliary auxil-iary or perhaps a superior of the railroad rail-road for short-haul transportation. This means night-hauling In ever increasing in-creasing volume. Therefore our Ideal highway must be lighted. But how? What schome of illumination will give the best results at the lowest cost? Perhaps our ideal roadway should make a distinction between fast and slow vehicles. Would It be best to have separate lanes for each class? Should there be some sort of dividing line in tho center of the roadway to keep all vehicles going in one direction direc-tion on one side: Beyond a doubt there must be adequate ade-quate drainage equipment, but what construction is best? What Is the ideal road width? Wo all know that there arc limits to the width; no need of mu.iiii 11 wiucr man me ueiruinas I of our times will require. What sort of surface should It have? These and many other questions confront the association. And they arc to be answered, as we havo said, by tho composite brain of our people. No road of today comes anywhere near approaching tho ideal which tho association has in mind. It cannot, because be-cause It is not representative of the beat thought of us all. The ideas of road engineers differ; the sums of money available for the work always hamper. There is no roadway one can name that Ib Ideal In every respect. One may bo satisfactory from the standpoint of the thickness and material ma-terial used, but cost may have dictated dic-tated a narrower construction than would have been most'deslrable. Another An-other may be wide enough, but Its surfacing sur-facing Is too shallow, and so on. In short, there is no road In efis- ' tence today that ombodies all of the world's best road engineering ideas, but the Lincoln Highway association proposes to build such a highway. The association proposes to build an Ideal section of road somewhere along tho Lincoln Highway a show road which -will stand for at least twenty yqars as the composlto opinion of America's best road engineers as to what constitutes a practical working fdqal highway. The project contemplates contem-plates not only the construction of the ideal road surfacing but the ultimato in sub-surfaco drainage. built-in ditches, lighting and so on. It goes even further and Includes the construction con-struction of an ideal ovor-night inn, a model camp site, an ideal gasoline filling station and, perhaps, an ideal truck-loading platform. In all Us ramifications, this clever and far-reaching schema is intensely interesting to all who ever expect to motor. It merjtjj careful consideration by everyone. Tho association is courting court-ing construtlve suggestions, and perhaps per-haps you have an 'idea which will be worth attention. I 1 Tho details aro all here. J ', |