Abstract
IN a recent radio talk given over the Columbia Broadcasting System, Prof. S. S. Steinberg, of Maryland University, discussed the highways of the United States. With more than 25 million motor vehicles, the business of highway transportation is one of the largest in the country. Last year, holiday motorists in the United States spent almost 600 million pounds. Highway facilities are still far from complete; only five per cent of the three million miles of rural roads are hard-surfaced, while only thirty per cent have received any kind of improvement. In many places, need for reconstruction is urgent, and the mileage of secondary light traffic roads required is very great The loss of life due to accidents is high, as almost a hundred persons are killed every twenty-four hours,, and last year one out of every hundred of the population was injured in a road accident, one of the gravest risks being the ‘railroad grade’ crossings, of which there are 240,000. About 1,500 persons are killed annually at these crossings; at least 30,000 such crossings are dangerous, and it will take many years before they can be made safe. Congress has provided sixty million pounds of emergency relief funds for this purpose, and the development of ‘farm to market’ roads will be a great boon to the country. The work will provide employment for many at present unemployed as the cost of constructing roads is mainly for labour. Mr. Robinson points out that the highways affect everyone vitally as they are the arteries which carry the life-blood of agriculture, commerce and industry, as well as bringing many social and educational amenities.
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Road Traffic in the United States. Nature 136, 750 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136750a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136750a0