Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-11-19
cow PATHS AND HIGHWAYS

Many of the principal streets in the older municipalities
and the main highways throughout the country were once
mere COW paths or Indian trails. They wound about in and
out among the trees and rocks following a course where
The travel was easiest. AS the settlers came they, too, fol-
lowed in the same course because the path had already been
broken.
But when the carts, wagons and coaches came along it
was necessary to have more room. Instead of opening
new roads, the old paths were simply widened. Thus farms
and finally settlements were established along these high
ways and, except for the increase in traffic and laying per-
manent pavements, they are about the same today as they
were in the beginning.
The time has come, however, when there has got to be
some radical change. Cow paths and Indian trails, even ii
they have been made a trile wider and given a hard surface,
will no longer suffice. 1t is safe to say that traffic on the
main highways of the country has increased more during
the last fifteen or twenty years, since the advent OF the
automobile, than it increased altogether from the time
the Indians blazed the way until the horseless carriages
appeared.
Just as the trail was not wide enough for the OK cart,
so the road which served so admirably for the stage coaches
and horse-drawn vehicles is no longer wide enough for the
automobile traffic of today.
While a great improvement could be brought about In
eliminating some of the numerous curves in the highways
that cause the traveller to go ten miles to get SIX, the most
imperative demand of the age is that the roads be maze
wider. When it is realized that the highways today, with
all the tremendous automobile traffic, are practically the
same width as they were after they were first Wldened In
order to change them from bride paths to Accommodate the
primitive vehicles of a century ago, we can appreciate the
necessitv of drastic action in this regard.
The federal government has just appropriated 90,
OOO.O 600 to be divided among the states with the provlSo
that the states duplicate the amount, for the building OF
improved highways. 1t would be a crime to have all TINS
vast sum of money spent on roads no WIDER IMAM are 'he
oreaf>1 majority Of those now in use. The little, narrow
ribbon of concrete or bituminous material that now eXtenoS
all over the country connecting the various municipalities
is less adequate for the traffic of the present Day IMAM "ero
the COW paths for the cOlOnists. /
Tn planning to rebuild the road between Metuchen ana
New Brunswick, for instance, the Board oil freehouerS' VIM
propose to act for the state in this particular JoD' shoulu see
that this pavement is made much wider than at present Nv
state Highway Commission should insist that, as the state
will eventually pay for the pavement, 1t should DE o d "lu'n
sufficient to care for the enormous traffic on that particular
stretch of highway-traGic that is constantly increasing.
Nothing less than the width of the Lincoln Highway as 1t S
naved through Railway will suffice and even that Will soon De
outgrown for sooner or later some speclal provision VIII nave
to be made for a separate highway for trucks.
That six mile stretch of highway between hetucneh
and New Brunswick is particularly congested because OF
the bridge across the Rartan river to when II IS I'll dP-
nroach. Once the traffic reaches New Brunswick there Is ue
choice of two or three routes to continue on across the STATE
thereby relieving the roads beyond New Brunswick. anu
once the cars reach Metuchen they can separate by elther
following the Lincoln Highway to Railway or omlh8 '|
Perth Amboy. But the road between Metuchen ana Ne"
Brunswick must carry it all. Nothing short OF a pavement
wide enough to carry four cars abreast should be cohSldereu
for this section.
Wider highways in the country and wider streets in the
cities are absolutely necessary for modern heedS' De'I0l
build fewer miles of pavement and have What Is dlu Wuel
than TO follow the old policy. City streets with automobiles
>parked along the curb are so congested even TO-DAY that IL
Il often difficult to get through. Take Madison avenue IN
Perth Amboy, for example. This street, under ordinary
circumstances, would be a fairly wide thoroughiare. 1t $
as wide as anyone would think of making a street a few years
ago. Yet, today, with automobiles parked on both spIeS
there is hardly room for two cars to pass IN the middle.
ANY new street to be opened that is likely to carry heavy
traffic ought to be as least seventy-fye feet wide; 100 feet
would be better. Modern traffic demands it,.
This question of the width of highways is OF supreme
Importance. To go on building roads as we have been build
ing them in the past is a waste of the peoples money. Every
wears finds more and more vehicles on the highways. 1t is
an age Of speed, also, as well as heavy trucking. While
there is no desire to make speeding easier, there is a desire
to make travel safer and the only way it can be made safer
is to make the roads wider.