Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-05-22
Widening Of Area of Travel
From North Carolina Good Roads Association Publicity Bureau,
Leging ton.

-
Improvement of the highway in
almost every locality where it has
been accomplished has brought
about a most remarkable change
in the traffic which they carry.
Over unimproved roads the travel
is generally limited to small loads
drawn by horses, and occasional
buggies or other light wagons.
Sometimes an automobile passes,
but not often.
Loads drawn by horses over
unimprOved roads are necessarily
limited, as the hauling capacity
Of animals is limited to what they
can pull over the worst places.
While three or four tons are not
exceptional loads for two horses
on hard roads of. easy grade, one
third to one-quarter Of that a.
mount is often difficult to negot-
late over a road which abounds
with mud holes and sharp bitches
with long heavy hills it is often
less.
When good roads are built much
local heavy traffic, which has pre-
viously gone by other routes, is
diverted to them, probably doub-
ling the amount Of load travel or
iginating in the vicinity which
passed over the road before its
improvement. :
The good road easily doubles the
distance that a horse or team and
buggy can travel in a day. This
fact brings into ex~istance a larg-f
er amount of this class of travel,
estimated at fifty per cent more,
and by reason Of the greater dis
lance which may be covered, and
the overlapping travel from 9th
er localities, this class of traffic
may easily be multiplied by three.
The development of the automo-
bile multiplies by ten, according
to the most reliable estimates, the
radius Of a days travel. With an
automobile a business or profess
sional man at the. county seat or
other point can visit practically
every part of the county in a day,
and be hOme before supper time.
People from other localities, on
business or pleasure, enter, leave
or cross a territory in a short time
which formerly took hours; local
merchants deliver goods twenty
five miles away instead of within
village or city limits. Automobile
trucks establish freight lines to
villages and Smaller points which
were previously unprovided for.
With all these facilities, which I'M
proved roads make possible, it is
estimated that the'motor car trav-
ell of all kinds is multiplied ap-
proximately by ten.
Doubling the heavy traffic, treb-
ling the light horse traffic, and
multiplying the motor traffic by
ten, places fifteen vehicles on the
good road where there was but
one before the Improvement was
made. And this is an underestl-
mate rather than otherwise. A
close observation Of the travel over
thousands of miles of improved
roads will show increases OF ~ to
80 times that which existed before
the good road was constructed.
This enormous increase IN travel
is one of the wonders of the age
in which we live. And this en-
HANGED travel is an important
factor in the development OF local
markets.
State control of road construc-
ton is made necessary by a num-
her of different reasons, each I'M
portant in itself, as has been de.
monstrated by the experience OF
states where state aid has long
been the rule. Among these are,
.1r - vovious counties