Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-11-29


~ be taken into consideration ID
NJ connection with the good
roads problem is the rapid eA-
tension of the electric traction sys-
| tens into the rural districts. NOT
content with the immense volume ana
earnings of the intramural systems,
the street railway interests have in
vaded the country with long interur-
ban lines that are already projected
all the way across large States.
These street railways or electric
| traction roads are not to be ignored
! by the good roads workers. They
must be studied for the purpose of
determining the effect they will have
upon highway travel, whether toward
increasing or decreasing its volume,
or as reducing the length of haul by
horse and wagon, and changing its
| direction.
Practically all of these railways par
allel important public highways be-
tween the principal cities ard towns.
Many of them have franchises from
the State, granting the right Of con-
| struction and operation directly on the
| public highways, while others own
part of them in the shape Of purchased
| rights of way. The cars on these
lines transport passengers from town
to town, or between the points on the
roads, as comfortably, more cheaply,
and almost as quickly as the steam
cars between stations, and far more
| quickly and agreeable than the trip,
| long or short, can be made by horse
and buggy or wagon. 1t seems obvi-
Gus, therefore, that the electric roads
will tend to reduce the light passenger
travel along the wagon roads which
| they parallel.
| But the traction companies are not,
by any means, content with passen-
| ger business alone. They have al
ready embarked in the express and
| light freighting traffic, despite the le-
gal obstacles which are being thrown
| in their way by the steam railroad
companies, whose contentious have
| been defeated in the Supreme Court
of Ohio. This freighting or express
! business promises in the near future
| to become more profitable to the roads
than the transporting OF passengers,
and to grow more rapidly in volume
1t cannot be doubted that this draws
wagon traffic from the parallel high
ways.
AS yet. few, if any, of the electric
roads have attempted to embark in
the heavy freighting business in this
| country, though it has been done in
| Europe.
We may safely predict, however,
| that in time the traction companies
will attempt to secure much of this
business also. unless legal restrictions
debar them, for they can operate as
cheaply as the steam roads, and in
many cases they have advantages over
the latter in facilities for handling
such freight.
However, If the interurban roads re-
duce the travel between towns on the
highways which they parallel, they
will surely increase the travel ON the
cross roads leading from the farms
to the railways, and which act as
iStttiS " lut clttl ways. Ills VIII
also undoubtedly increase the volume
of travel on the roads reaching from
the villages off the lines of the electric
and steam roads to those through
which these lines extend.
Good road advocates have no reason
: for becoming apprehensive that the
extension of the interurban electric
railways will cause any of the wagon
roads to be abandoned and to fall into
decay. While they seem likely to
reduce traffic on some of the main
thoroughfares connecting towns, their
! effect will be to increase the number
OF short hauls in the aggregate on
others. 1t is, at any rate, factor in
the highway improvement movement
that may be studied to advantage.
The progress being made here and
abroad in the manufacture of practi-
cal and economical steam and gaso-
/ line trucks and "lorries," as well as
passenger coaches, for the transporta-
ton of freight and passengers on the
public highways offers the good roads
enthusiast sufficient guarantee for q
counteracting influence tending 10
give the interurban wagon way a new
Importance. 1t will probably then
come to struggle between the opera
tor of the motor stage and the elcc-
trio traction companies to decide
! which of them can reduce the cost
of operation to the lowest pont.-H.
w. Perry, in the Good Roads NIaca.
zine.