The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-10-08
I2425 MILES AVERAGE
TRUNK HIGHWAY USE
GOOD ROADS SAVING THREE
TIMES AMOUNT OF LICENSE
AND GAS TAX INDICATED BY
FIGURES MADE PUBLIC.

Automobile owners in st. Loui
| county who have travelled 242
miles on Minnesota trunk highway
during the last twelve months ar
getting their shane of the benefit
of the state road system. Accord
| ing to bulletin from the Stat'
highway department, that IS tn
average mileage covered by Mime
sofa passenger car owners on trunl
highways in their own state.
only one factor in this figure il
based upon an estimate, the remain
der is arrived at by simple calcula
ton from the traffic census taker
by the department in August. Tha
number of Minnesota passenger car:
per day on the average mile OF
trunk road, from August 8 to 15
was 691. There are 6,955 miles II
the trunk highway system ano
there are $4,000 passenger cars
registered in the state. If we esti
mate the average traffic the year
around as rs per cent of the August
traffic, we can figure out how much
the average motorist uses the trunk
highways. The rs per cent estimate
is believed to be conservative, be-
cause motorists are more and more
using their cars all the year around.
The average passenger car own
er is paying $14.54 for his license
this year. The gasoline tax will
average about $500 for each
machine in the state, but this in
cludes trucks and buses, So the
average per passenger car will be
less. The contribution for each
passenger car to the trunk highway
fund is therefore about $22. Esti-
mates of the savings in fuel and oil,
tires and repairs, through good roads,
made by organizations which keep
record of the cost of automobile
travel, run all the way from three to
five cents per mile. Using the
smaller figure, the saving per car
is $72.75, leaving a net saving, after
deducting the $22 contribution to
the trunk highway fund, of $50.75
per car.
There are nearly as many class
"a" as class "B" cars in the state,
250,742 of the former and 1882
of the latter registered up to Sept
ember /. But the traffic census
bowed 453 "B" and only 246 "A'
cars in the trunk highways per day
at the average station. Figuring
mileage per year for each class on
the same basis as figured for all
cars, we find that the average "a"
car travels 1859 miles and the aver
age "B" car 3,047 miles per year,
on trunk highways. One explana-
ton is that since there is car to
every four persons in the state, hun
dreds of families own two cars and
use the smaller car for local travel
and the larger car for longer trips.
But with only 1859 miles of travel
on trunk highways, the average
smaller car owner saved $55 on car
upkeep and contributed $40 in
license tax and probably SIS in gas
tax to the trunk highway fund. The
owner of the larger car, making
greater use of the trunk highways,
saved more than 500 by having good
roads, and contributed about $50 to
the trunk highway fund.
Five foreign cars in Minnesota in
1926 for every two that came in
1921, is the increase shown by the
traffic census taken recently. In
other words, tourist traffic increased
149 per cent in five years. The
number of cars passing the average
census taker this year was lat, and
only Sc in 1921.
The actual number of cars carry
ing licenses from other states, count
ed during the seven days was $780,
SGT. This does not mean that there
are that many visiting cars in the
state at one time, bulletin from
the Highway department points out.
On the average checkers were 80
miles apart, and most tourists pass
ed several stations. A tourist who
averaged 100 miles per day would
pass % stations i'm a week. Nc
doubt many go much more than zoe
miles in a week, but others take il
leisurely, and many stop from a day
to a month at favorite camping OF
fishing spots. Using 700 miles a.
the average for the week, there
would be 10,455 foreign cars in the
! tate at one time. The actual mum
Der was probably two or three time:
that great.
! taking the reports OF twenty-five
stations on trunk highways ending
at the state line, we find they count
ed a total of 1926 foreign cars fol
the week. Assuming that an equa
number were coming in and goine
out, we find that 27,642 foreign car.
entered the state in one week. Some
of these were Iowa, Wisconsin anC
Dakota cars on local trips. No esti
mate is available of foreign cars en-
tering on county roads. This mum
Der is considerable, although it il
largely local business, and the ma
jority of long distance tourists en-
ter the state on trunk highways.
The two highest counts of foreign
cars were 1,277 on No. east Of
Moorhead and 1,265 on No. 8 west
of La Crosse. The third HIGHEST a