Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-04-23
Lincoln Way
Traffic Heavy,
Census Sho,Us

That traffic on the Lincoln highway
| near this city is heavy, and even
heavier than probably would lie sur
| missed, has been shown by a census
| taken of traffic at a point half a mile
west Of the city limits. The frequency
of the traffic corresponds in density
with the travel over hard surfaced
| roads near good sized cities in much
more thickly settled eastern states.
The census was taken on two fairly
| representative days Of the week.
weather and road conditions being con-
sidered. The first figures are for Sat-
urday, April IS; the second for sun
day. April II. The roads were fairly
good. but had not been good long and
mated that with the same weather and
road conditions month or two later
the traffic would be greater.
From Z in the morning until II at
night of Saturday. April 10. Sic We
hiclcs were counted. The count from
a. m. to 3 p. m. was 254 and from to
II p. m. it was 1862. In the period of
sixteen hours the average was more
than thirty-two per hour.
From Z in the morning to 9 at night
Of Sunday, April IA, 712 vehicles were
counted. From a. m. to 5 p. m. the
count was 27S and from to 9 p. m. it
was 434. The hourly average for the
fourteen hours was fifty vehicles. Dur
ing some of the hours of both days the
census takers reported to the county
engineers office, under whose direction
the census is being taken, that the
hourly count ranged from ninety-five
to los vehicles per hour. This was, OF
course. the maximum traffic for any OF
the hours during the days.
These traffic census figures are espe-
cially interesting for number of rea-
sons. They not only show how dense
the traffic is, but they point to facts
regarding both the kind of road and
the way of dividing the cost of building
them. The National Society of Engin-
GERS. has long ago established the rule
from experience that where traffic ex-
ceeds 500 vehicles a day over any road,
that only hard surfaced pavement will
be the cheapest and best in the long
run. That rule is what prompted En-
gineer Mcdonald, of the state highway
commission, to the belief that roads
approaching cities of $1,000 or more
should be paved to be made permanent.
The census shows that the traffic on
Sunday was 7i2 vehicles, compared
with 616 on Saturday. or more than Is
per cent greater. This proves clearly
that the city people were using the
road Sunday. and bears out the con-
tention of the state highway commits
sion engineer that because city people
do use the roads near large cities that
the cost of permanently improving
such roads should be spread out over
the city as well as as the country.
While the taking of traffic census is
somewhat new and novel here it has
long been established in the eastern
states. where for years they have had
hard surfaced and paved roads. 1t was
by taking traffic censuses in the east
that the engineers were able to deter
mine what types of hard surfaced
roads would stand up and last under
traffic of certain density.
Census of traffic was taken on other
days at the same point west Of the city,
but each of these days was either
rainy or the roads were muddy. so the
census was not representative. County
Engineer Hickok will station an enum-
orator at a point on the Lincoln high
way west of State Center for a few
days in a few weeks when road and
weather conditions are better.