Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-10-11
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Street Railway. vs.. Coed Roads.

|
n NEW factor that must 500
" be taken into consideration il
| NJ connection with the goo
roads problem Is the rapid eS
tension Of the electric traction sys
TENS into the rural districts. No
content with the immense volume ant
earnings OF the intramural systems
the street railway interests have III
vaded the country with long interur
ban, lines that are already projected
all the wsy across large States.
These street railways or electro
traction reads are not to be ignored
by the good roads workers. The,
must be studied for the purpose o
determining the effect they will hav'
upon highway travel, whether TOWARD
increasing or decreasing its volume
or as reducing the length Of haul b,
horse and wagon, and changing Il!
direction
Practically all of these railways par
allel important public highways he
tween the principal cities and towns
Many Of them have franchises from
the State, granting the right of con
struction and operation directly on tht
public highways, while others OWL
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 obyi-
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 Courl
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, II the intcrurban ROADS re-
duce the travel between towns OH 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
feeders to the steel ways. This 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 40 reagoR
for becoming apprehensive that the
extension CT the lnterurban electric
railways will cause any of the wagon
roads to be abandoned and TO fall int
decay. While they seem likely to
reduce traffic Oh some OF the main
connecting towns, their
effect will be to increase the number
Of short hauls in the aggregate en-
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 manufac ture of practi-
cal and economical steam and gaso-
line trucks and ''loTries," as well as
passenger coaches, for the trsnsporta-
ton of freight and passengers Oh the
public highways offers the good roads
sufficient guarantee for
influence tending 10
give the interurban wagon way Il new
1t will probably then
come to a struggle between the opera
tor of the motor stage and the cleo,
trio traction companies to decide
which Of them can reduce the cost
Of operation TO the lowest point.-H.
w. Perry, in the Good Roads Maya