delivered at Highway Transport Conference, 1920, published as a
bulletin by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, New York.
BLANCHARD, HAROLD F., “Is the Day of the $150 Car in Sight,” _Popular
Science Monthly_, January, 1923, p. 26.
BROSSEAU, A. J., “Is Highway Transport an Aid to Railroads?”
_Commercial Vehicle_, Jan. 15, 1922. Also published in bulletin form
by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce.
CABOT, PHILIP, “Root, Hog or Die: The New Englander and His
Railroads.” _Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1921, p. 258.
CHATBURN, G. R., “Highway Engineering,” p. 5. John Wiley & Sons, New
York.
CRISSEY, FORREST, “Our New Transportation System,” _Saturday Evening
Post_, December 16, 1922.
GRAHAM, GEORGE M., “Highway Transportation,” Proceedings of the
Eighth Annual Meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce. “The
Motor Vehicle--Competitor or Ally?” National Automobile Chamber of
Commerce.
GREEN, G. A., “Motor Bus Transportation,” Society of Automotive
Engineers, _Journal_, 1920.
JOHNSON, EMERY R., “Elements of Transportation,” D. Appleton &
Company, New York.
MACDONALD, THOMAS H., “Federal Aid Highways,” Proceedings of the 8th
Annual Meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
NORTON, S. V., “The Motor Truck as an Aid to Business,” Part I. A. W.
Shaw Company, Chicago.
RIGGS, HENRY E., “Report of the Committee on Interrelation of
Highway, Railway, and Waterway Transport,” National Traffic
Association of Chicago, N. A. C. C., 1920.
THIRLWALL, J. C., “Fields of the Rail Car, Trolley Bus and Gasoline
Bus,” _General Electric Review_, Vol. XXIV, pp. 974-985.
WHITE, WINDSOR T., “Benefits of War Experience,” Proceedings of the
Eighth Annual Meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
FOOTNOTES
[159] Chatburn’s “Highway Engineering,” Wiley & Sons, N. Y.
[160] Cf. “Root, Hog or Die,” by Philip Cabot, _Atlantic Monthly_,
August, 1921.
[161] This estimate includes the following items:
--------------+-----------+--------------+---------
| | Heavy Car |Light Car
--------------+-----------+--------------+---------
2 Drivers |$8.00-10.00|$10.00 per day| $10.00
Tires | 4.00- 6.00| 6.00 | 4.00
Oil, etc. | .75- 1.00| 1.00 | .75
Gasoline | 3.50- 5.50| 5.00 | 3.50
Depreciation | 4.00- 6.00| 6.00 | 4.00
Interest | 1.00- 1.50| 1.50 | 1.00
Insurance | 1.00- 1.50| 1.50 | 1.00
Garage | .50- 1.00| 1.00 | .50
License, taxes| .75- 1.50| 1.50 | .75
Repairs | .50- 1.00| .50 | .50
|-----------|------ | ------
|24.00-35.00|$34.00 | 26.00
--------------+-----------+--------------+---------
[162] “Root, Hog, or Die: The New Englander and His Railroads,” by
Philip Cabot, in _Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1921, p. 258.
[163] _Wall Street Journal_, August 26, 1921.
[164] _The Railway Review_, Chicago, July 30, 1921.
[165] W. Jett Lauck, a union-labor economist, in a report laid before
the Railroad Labor Board, specifies the avoidable wastes as follows:
1. Modernizing locomotives.--Gross reparable deficiencies are pointed
out which it is claimed might be avoided by the applications of
improvements such as superheaters, brick arches, mechanical stokers,
feed-water heaters, there would result an annual saving of at least
$272,500,000.
2. Locomotive operation.--The magnitude of the railways’ coal bill
is considered and certain of the larger wastes calculated, and it
is concluded that by use of better methods of coal purchase, coal
inspection, careful receipt, and efficient firing of the locomotives,
an annual saving could be effected of at least $50,000,000.
3. Shop organization improvements.--The sad and almost incredible
inadequacy and out-of-date equipment of the railway shops is
reviewed, and defenseless wastes considered, and it is conservatively
estimated that by a proper shop organization an annual saving could
be effected of at least $17,000,000.
4. Power-plant fuel savings.--The obsolete and wasteful condition
of the power plants in the railway shops is considered, and it is
estimated that in this field the possible saving of fuel would by
itself amount to an annual total of $10,000,000.
5. Water-consumption savings.--The railroads’ expenditure in
maintenance of way and structure is reviewed, necessary wastes noted,
and it is estimated that easily attainable savings in the consumption
of water alone would amount annually to $12,600,000.
6. Service of supply savings.--The expenditure of the railways for
supplies has been inquired into and the avoidable losses surveyed,
and it is estimated that the wastes and abuses amount annually to not
less than $75,000,000.
7. Shop accounting savings.--Attention has been given to the matter
of uniform railroad statistics and the use of efficient methods of
cost accounting. An annual saving would be feasible to the amount of
$10,900,000.
8. Labor turn-over savings.--The industrial losses due to unnecessary
labor turn-over and to inadequate training of personnel have been
reviewed, and it is estimated that the avoidable wastes incident to
labor turn-over alone amount to more than $40,000,000.
9. Loss and damage savings.--Inquiry has been made into the amount of
the annual damage account of the railways and into preventable causes
of such losses, and it is estimated that an annual saving might be
effected to the amount of $90,000,000.
Other alleged losses, he says, would bring the total waste to over a
billion.
[166] Report of the Joint Commission on Agricultural Inquiry.
CHAPTER VII
AUTOMOTIVE TRANSPORTATION
Automotive transportation is a matter of such recent growth that
only a few of the elements entering it have as yet become fixed or
standardized--the whole question is still in the experimental or
growing stage. The next few years will probably see as many, if not
as radical, changes in equipment and operation as have the past few.
The law of evolution seems to include a period of slow growth or sort
of weak feeling-out; then a period of very rapid growth, developing
usually along several lines; and finally a ripening or fixing period
in which standardization is reached. The automotive industries are
now beginning the third period. Revolutionary changes are not to
be expected, but there will be many minor ones seeking efficiency
or economy. The machinery of transportation, the motor car and the
roadway, are, perhaps, in a later stage of standardization than are
the social and legal phases of the subject. The relative rights of the
people on the street and driver of the car have yet to be determined.
The relation between automotive transportation and the older forms
of transportation is still in a very formative stage. Plans and
organizations for operating systems of highway transport and methods
of accounting which shall be fair to owner and patron have in a large
measure yet to be developed.
These things must necessarily be true in a new and growing industry.
Why, encyclopedias published in the ’eighties make no mention
whatever of the motor car or automobile. In fact, the first practical
automobiles were put on the market after 1893, and trucks were not
sold as such until 1903, ten years later. This was about the period
when automobiles were being made over by change of body into “business
wagons.” But so rapidly has the use of the motor car grown, automobile
registrations increasing from about one million in 1912 to more than
eleven millions in 1922, that, so it is stated, 80 per cent of all cars
manufactured are still in use.
Automotive transportation may be considered to include all conveyance
from one place to another by means of motor vehicles. A motor vehicle
is one which carries within itself the source of mechanical power which
propels it providing that source be not muscular. This definition would
include the tractor, the road roller, the torpedo, and the locomotive,
which are ordinarily excluded. For the purposes of this discussion an
automobile or motor car may be considered as a self-propelled vehicle
which transports a burden other than itself as a weight upon its own
wheels. This will exclude the tractor and the locomotive, which though
self-propelled, are intended to draw other vehicles rather than to
carry the load; also the road roller and the torpedo, which have no
burden to transport other than their own weights. Some definitions
would confine a motor vehicle to one designed to move on common roads
or highways. However, motor cars are now being used on railroad tracks;
they are entitled to and should be allowed the use of the name. The
automobile may have as the source of power internal-combustion engines
using such fuel as gasoline, kerosene, benzol, and alcohol; it may use
steam generated by these fuels; or an electric storage battery charged
by sources outside the engine may furnish the propelling force. The
load transported will either be passenger or freight. Passenger traffic
may be classified as business or pleasure. If a vehicle is used mostly
for business, first cost and economy of operation may play a more
important part in the purchase of the car than if used for pleasure, in
which case appearance and luxurious appointments may be the deciding
factor.
[Illustration: THE EVOLUTION OF THE STEAM AUTOMOBILE
1. The Cugnot Steam Carriage--1770.
2. The Trevithick & Vivian Steam Carriage--1801.
3. The Gurney Steam Carriage--1827.
4. The Church Automobile Carriage (Steam)--1833.
5. Gaillardit’s Steam Carriage--1894.
(Courtesy of the _Scientific American_.)]
=Business Passenger Traffic.=--All machines that haul passengers for
hire, that are used as a means of performing, promoting, or extending
business relations, while so used, may be rightly considered business
machines and the traffic business traffic. The physician who finds that
he can quadruple the number of his daily calls; the traveling salesman
who can double the territory covered and do it much more efficiently;
the business or professional man, of whatever kind, who uses his
automobile in going from one place to another in the performance of his
duties; the farmer who comes to town to get his mail and information
relative to markets or otherwise to assist him with his farm industry;
and the multifold other uses which are for the advantage of financial
or industrial enterprise may constitute a legitimate business passenger
traffic. The transportation, however, by taxi-cab, jitney or bus is
considered by many persons to be the type that should be classified
under the term business passenger traffic.
Jitney and taxi-cab traffic are of vast importance in the cities and
are of real economic use in furnishing a rapid means of transit from
point to point. The jitney is usually a privately owned vehicle not
especially constructed for the business, which plies with more or less
regularity over a route that may or may not be set out in the owner’s
license. In early days the price of a ride was a “nickel” or “jitney”
hence the name.
Taxi-cabs are regularly licensed automobiles that carry passengers
for hire, usually making the charge dependent more or less upon the
distance traveled, which is registered by a taximeter. For example, the
charge may be 25 cents plus 15 cents per mile or fraction thereof. This
would make the charge for distances less than 1 mile, 40 cents; from 1
mile to 2 miles, 55 cents; from 2 to 3 miles, 70 cents; and so on. The
driver usually turns the taximeter up to the fixed charge plus 1 mile,
if fractions are counted as full miles, when the passenger enters, and
the instrument adds on as the cab travels. Of course the taximeter
may be made to register every quarter, every fifth, or every tenth
of a mile, or even continuously. A special waiting charge is made if
the cab is held by the passenger. Taxicabs are variable in form, from
“flivvers” to limousines. Many of the larger cities are supplied with
cabs owned in quantity by substantial companies which put on a line of
cars usually all alike and painted with some striking feature or color.
The larger ones are limousines seating five or seven passengers in the
tonneau and one on the seat with the driver. Some of these cars are
almost luxuriously fitted with fine cushions and special lighting. They
have speaking tubes or electrical devices to signal the driver. The
drivers for the large companies wear the livery of the company. Taxis,
as may be inferred, have no established routes, but go wherever the
passenger may desire.
The motor-bus is well established both in city and cross-country
traffic. As at first made motor-buses consisted of special bodies
with seats placed upon freight truck chassis. This did not prove
altogether satisfactory because of their excessive weight, too much
of which is “unsprung.” They also have a high center of gravity, high
floors, long turning radius and rather rigid suspension. A bus, to be
efficient, durable and comfortable, should be especially designed.
There should be lightness and strength; small unsprung weight; a low
center of gravity; a flexible control; special transmission; wide
treads; ample wheel base; short turning radius; low step entrance and
exit; low top clearance; curb receipt and delivery of passengers; ample
brake capacity; and high lowgear efficiency.[167] Pneumatic tires on
account of their resiliency make the bus much more comfortable for
the passengers by absorbing shocks, and for the same reason they also
increase the life of the car and make it possible to travel faster.
Cushion tires are next in order of merit and are an effort to combine
the durability of the solid tire with the easy riding qualities of the
pneumatic. Tests made by the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads show that the
cushion or semi-solid tires stand between the solid and the pneumatic
as regards riding comfort. With many bus operators a combination
equipment is being used--pneumatics are used on the front to protect
the engine and gasoline tank from vibration and cushion tires on the
rear where the hardest wear comes.
[Illustration: A MODERN RURAL PASSENGER BUS]
[Illustration:
© _Underwood and Underwood_
A NEW YORK CITY “STEPLESS BUS”
It Has an Emergency Door, with Wire Window Guards, and will Seat 30
Persons.]
Buses are made both single and double deck. The latter are in demand
where traffic is large and also where sight-seeing is an important
item, the upper deck being usually open to the weather.
The fare charged by the bus is either the same or in many cases a
little higher than that by the trolley car, but the bus has the
advantage in that it can travel over streets where the trolley is not
allowed, can usually make better time, and can load and unload at the
curb, thus avoiding danger from passing vehicles, a matter of no little
importance to timid passengers. The trolley car is able to haul large
numbers at a less expense. In such cases no passenger transportation
is cheaper. But the field for the auto bus is wide and no doubt it
will come more and more into competition with the street car and
steam railroad lines. The former, whose single and primary business
is transporting passengers, are already complaining bitterly of the
inroads made upon their business by the privately owned automobile and
motor bus. The automobile is the larger factor because there are more
automobiles than buses. Since about every tenth person owns a machine
which can accommodate from two to seven passengers, one can readily
see the importance of this item to the traction companies. The result
has been a falling off in passenger fares, which the companies have
endeavored to offset by increasing rates, and this in turn has only
accentuated the trouble by driving more men to automobiles. The only
way the street car can hope to compete with the motor car is by keeping
its rates low and hauling large numbers of passengers. The handiness of
the automobile, going at the instant wanted, avoiding the usual walk
of two or three blocks to and from a car line at the beginning and the
end of the journey, the consequent saving in time, coupled with the
exhilarating effect of riding rapidly through the open air furnishes
a great handicap which the traction companies will have difficulty
in overcoming. About the only things the street car has in its favor
are cheapness and dependability. It can no doubt be shown that it is
cheaper to patronize the trolley than to own and operate the average
car. The street car will go in rainy or snowy weather when motor cars
must be laid up. But the average American does not count cost; he
thinks more of his own comfort and doing as his neighbors do, i.e.,
being in style. It may become necessary, as stated in another chapter,
for the public to take over the street-car lines, run them at as low
rates as possible for the accommodation of those who cannot afford
motor cars, since their work is an absolute necessity to the community,
and charge any deficit to the taxpayers.
There seems to be another feasible and legitimate use for the motor bus
which may help the street car companies as well. That is extensions
by means of buses at the ends of the car lines or into territory not
well served by them. The bus might collect passengers from an outlying
district and bring them to the car line where the trolley can take
them on to the heart of the city. Thus motor buses will become feeders
rather than competitors of the regularly established traction lines.
The car companies should attempt to take advantage of this sort of
thing, using either the trackless trolley or gasoline motor, as may be
thought the more suitable for the situation in hand.
Cross-country motor service has proven quite feasible and scores of
buses now leave every large city for the surrounding smaller towns.
The bus seems to negotiate a 50-mile trip very easily at a speed of
approximately 20 miles per hour including stops. These buses or stages
carry from 12 to 20 passengers and are operated by one man; they are
well sprung and equipped with pneumatic tires. For country traffic
seats cross ways of the car are much more comfortable to the rider than
lengthwise seats. Their usefulness seems to lie in suburban traffic or
as feeders to railroads.
Such buses are also largely used as carriers of children to and from
consolidated schools. The little red school house, wherein began the
educational training of so many of our great men, of which silver
tongues have orated, whose virtues have been painted in poetry, and
praises commemorated in song, cannot stand against the superior
advantages of the consolidated graded school brought near to the pupils
by the advent of the automobile. Since each consolidated school with
about five teachers replaces eight to ten ungraded schools, and since
it is easier and cheaper to maintain and heat one consolidated school
than eight ungraded schools, the advantage is economical as well as
educational.
Another place where the motor bus seems extremely well adapted is
in the transfer of travelers from one railroad terminal to another.
Railroads contract with transfer companies to do this and a coupon, a
portion of the traveler’s ticket, is detached by the bus-man when the
transfer is made. To one who is not used to the city this is a great
convenience. In the city of Chicago, through which many long-distance
tourists pass and through which no or at least few railroads extend
in both directions, hundreds of such transfers take place daily.
Passengers and baggage are thus taken care of on a through ticket with
despatch and little inconvenience.
=Pleasure Passenger Traffic.=--Vast and important as may have become
the business passenger motor traffic, purely pleasure travel by
automobile probably exceeds it. Of the more than ten million motor
cars licensed in the United States perhaps 80 per cent of them were
purchased not for their use in the business of the owner, although
that might have been the final excuse that consummated the deal, but
for the pleasure the purchaser and his family would get from owning a
car. The great car industry which has sprung up like a mushroom during
the past quarter century may thank the people’s desire for personal
pleasure for its tremendous prosperity. The movie picture industry is
another instance of the same character; likewise the newest epidemic
to attack the people--radio. It is not claimed that these have no
economical uses. But the business and economical uses have followed
rather than preceded the pleasurable uses. There are many who think the
automobile fad, like the bicycle fad, will eventually wear out and the
whole automobile question settle down to a purely business basis. Such
a thing is not likely to occur, however. The automobile is a much more
perfect pleasure machine than is the bicycle. The knack of riding a
bicycle has to be learned and requires considerable muscular exertion.
It is not the thing a tired person eagerly turns to for recreation and
rest. Anyone without exertion and with complete relaxation may ride in
an automobile. Soon there comes a desire to drive the machine; then
complete relaxation while no longer possible is replaced by a mental
effort which drives out all thought of business, all care and anxiety
regarding the ordinary affairs of life. The mind for the driver’s own
safety must be confined to his effort to manage the machine and make it
go where and as he wants it to go--change of work is often better than
complete relaxation, although the latter has its beneficial effects in
the treatment of diseases.
For these reasons then, if for no other, the use of automobiles to
cater to the pleasure propensities of the people will continue. There
are very few persons who do not enjoy an automobile ride--they are only
the timid who fear accident. The recreational and pathological benefits
to be derived cannot be overestimated. During the recent war the
Government gave much attention to the entertainment of the soldiers and
endeavored in many, many ways to divert their minds from the serious
side of war. So with the people generally. They are much better off for
pleasurable diversions and the automobile furnishes these in a very
high degree.
[Illustration: THE EVOLUTION OF THE GASOLINE MOTOR CAR
1. Panhard & Levassor Carriage--1895.
2. Duryea Motor Wagon--1895.
3. The Benz Motocycle.
4. Hertel’s Gasoline Carriage--1896.
5. The Olds Horseless Carriage.
6. Winton’s Racing Machine.
(Courtesy of the _Scientific American_.)]
If, then, there be included under the head of pleasure passenger
traffic all not purely business it may with propriety be estimated that
three-fourths of all automobile travel is for pleasure. Considering ten
million automobiles in use in the United States, that they average 4000
miles per year and carry two passengers each, there results a total
passenger mileage of
10,000,000 × 4,000 × 2 = 80,000,000,000
80 billion miles. A number beyond ordinary comprehension. The passenger
mileage upon the steam railroads is roughly speaking about 37¹⁄₂
billion miles, a little less than half as much as that by automobile.
It is evident that all this travel, even though a large percentage be
local, must affect seriously the earnings of the steam and electric
railway lines. Since 75 per cent may be estimated to be for pleasure
purposes, it will not be possible for the steam and electric lines ever
to regain it. The people who do the dancing are perfectly willing to
pay the piper, and even though automobile riding cost more than trolley
or train riding the people will continue to have it as a means of
entertainment.[168] Most men who own cars pay the expenses in lump sums
and forget about them. To have the speedometer register in dollars and
cents instead of miles, while it might be a deterrent on the use of
the automobile, would “take the joy out of life.”
=Freight Traffic.=--When it comes to freight traffic cost and time
will be the principal factors to determine the type of performance.
The element of pleasure is here eliminated and only cold economical
features remain. Already horse trucking is rapidly disappearing as it
seems to be able to compete with the motor only where many stops are
to be made. In large cities motor trucks are utilized to haul packages
to certain districts at considerable distances from the store, where
they are turned over to small wagons for delivery. Ice and milk are
often distributed in the same manner, thus taking advantage of long
rapid hauls upon fully loaded trucks and less expensive delivery wagons
where many stops are to be made and smaller loads are to be carried.
Even in delivery service some merchants have by carefully arranging and
timing their routes brought the cost of delivery to below ten cents
per parcel. All purchasers of goods at the store whether delivered or
not should be interested in reducing this cost because usually in the
accounting it is spread out over the entire turnover and charged to
the expense of doing business. It may be possible that in a few years
horses will be barred from the streets for sanitary reasons; then it
will be necessary to use motors for all sorts of deliveries, possibly
large ones for hauling to the distant districts and small ones for the
house to house delivery in the district.
In very congested districts motor trucks are at a great disadvantage
because they cannot be used at their most efficient speed. If the
congestion can be eliminated or at least relieved by such means as
one-way traffic, paving parallel streets, removing buildings which
obstruct passage, widening driveways, elevating railroads and street
cars, supplying overhead crossings, making subways, or by careful
rearrangement and planning of terminal facilities, warehouses, and
other accommodations, the cost of transportation in the large cities
may be materially reduced. In many such cities public service
commissions are studying these questions and applying remedies which
will allow motor trucks to operate at a greater rate of speed and much
more efficiently.
Accurate observations of motor truck performance in city trucking
business has shown that a large part of the day is given up to loading
and unloading, that the truck stands still so much of the time that the
cost is more nearly proportional to time than to mileage. Since certain
charges such as interest and insurance go on whether the truck is
idling or not, it is better to keep it moving. To do this effectively
depots, warehouses, and other terminal facilities are provided to
lessen the time of loading and unloading. It may be wise to hire an
extra stevedore or two to assist with these operations, or mechanical
devices may be installed where the saving will justify it. Usually
there is not only a saving in time when a mechanical device is used but
the amount of expensive manual labor is decreased.
Among the practical devices used are removable bodies. The whole
body of the truck may be swung by means of a crane from the chassis
to a platform where it is loaded or unloaded while the truck with
another body is proceeding on its way. Other bodies are so arranged
on rollers that they may be readily rolled from the chassis to the
platform. Railways are also taking advantage of removable bodies for
the shipment of less than car-load lots. These bodies are made to fit
a truck and also of proper sizes so that several of them may be nested
or interlocked upon a flat car. One of these units or containers may be
left for any length of time for loading then rolled upon the truck and
off it to the steam train. At the other end of its journey it is rolled
from the car to the truck and from that to the unloading platform with
a great saving of time at each terminal. The New York Central railway
places nine containers of 6000 pounds capacity on one flat car. These
are unloaded by means of a crane in less than five minutes for each
container, or the whole car in approximately forty minutes. By this
means the railroad is able to take advantage of what has been called
store-door delivery. Instead of the consignor hauling its goods to the
station and unloading them on the platform to be loaded into cars by
stevedores, transported, unloaded into the warehouse, and the consignee
notified to come for them, the railway leaves a container which when
filled is hauled by truck to the railway yard and in five minutes’ time
placed upon the car, which upon reaching its destination is placed upon
a truck and hauled to the consignee. Goods shipped in these containers
which may be made of steel and securely locked are considered just
as safe from predacious hands and the weather as in a way car, and
possibly are safer.
The demountable container which is rapidly coming into general use, and
which has for some time been used by the New York Central Railroad and
the interurban railways of Australia, consists of a large steel box or
safe, the doors of which can be locked. When it is placed upon a steel
flat-car with sides two feet high it cannot possibly be opened as the
doors are on the side of the container. And it cannot be removed from
the car without the use of a derrick, the top corners of the container
being equipped with hooks for this purpose. The containers have a
capacity of 438 cubic feet and will hold from 6000 to 8000 pounds of
package freight. When the packages are locked and sealed within the
containers they are safe from fire and rain as well as marauders. One
flat-car will accommodate from 4 to 9 containers, depending upon their
size.
In addition to the safety furnished by these containers they
are economical in saving time of transportation. Re-handling is
unnecessary. The transfer of the entire container from truck to car and
from car to truck is very quickly made. The mileage of the flat cars
is thus greatly increased--with mail cars it is claimed to be doubled.
Expensive packing and crating is avoided and the checking at each
rehandling of parcels is eliminated.
Mass loading or unloading, whether the whole truck body is swung off
by a crane, rolled off, or even if trailers and semi-trailers are left
to be worked upon after the truck has gone, save little in the way of
manual labor. On the other hand they require the installment at each
end of the route of special arrangements to facilitate their use.
Another class of devices are those connected with the truck itself.
For example it may have a winch on it to draw up an inclined plane at
its rear such heavy articles as pianos, safes, and large castings. It
may have a crane with a pulley running along a central beam over it
to facilitate loading and unloading heavy boxes or other things. A
swinging crane is also used with some trucks. On others, hoists are
arranged to tip the body backward for unloading building and road
materials, grain, and so on. Many of these devices make use of the
truck power for their operation. Pumps with suction hoses empty catch
basins, cess-pools, stopped-up sewers and flooded cellars, pumping the
fluid to a tank body of the truck, whence it can be hauled away and
dumped by elevating the front end of the tank and opening a gate in its
rear. Devices for lifting and dumping coal truck bodies directly into
the bin save much time over hand shoveling.
Still another class of devices are entirely separate from the truck and
may or may not be connected with the warehouse. For example a chain
conveyor which can be rolled up to the back of a truck elevates barrels
and boxes, sand and stone, and is operated by a small electric motor
the lead wires of which are plugged into a suitable socket, up to the
floor at the rear of the truck from which place they can be easily
pushed or shoveled to proper position. Elevated bins are utilized to
store road materials from which the materials run by gravity into the
body of a small motor-car which then goes to the mixer where it is
grabbed by a device that empties the body into the mixer, thus saving
much handling of material.
Many special types of bodies are made for peculiar purposes. These
often facilitate loading and unloading, for example tank ears for
hauling water, milk, gasoline or other fluids; or trucks fitted with
shelves on which are placed trays containing fruits and so forth. As
the motor truck enters newer fields of usefulness multiple devices will
be developed to lessen the time of loading and unloading. The financial
importance to both the owner and the public of keeping the truck moving
will no doubt lead to the adoption of these devices providing they are
practical and will accomplish the desired result.
=Traffic between Towns.=--Wherever the roads are dependable and
passable at all seasons of the year truck and bus lines have sprung up
to ply regularly between the towns. The length of haul most profitable
seems to be that over which the motor can make the round trip each
day and have sufficient time at terminals for loading and unloading.
Forty to 50 miles for trucks and 60 to 65 miles for buses seem to be
negotiable and double these distances are proving to be practicable.
In many of the states such enterprises have been declared to be common
carriers subject to the laws governing such carriers, and must secure
licenses to do business from the public service commissions. It is but
reasonable that the public should be safeguarded and these concerns be
required to take out insurance or give indemnifying bonds to cover loss
of goods to shippers by carelessness or theft or injury to passengers
by accident. On the other hand the licensed motor transport is entitled
to protection against irresponsible truckers. The modern method of
state regulation does not contemplate competition as an economic
factor in the determination of rates and routes. The old doctrine of
“everyone for himself, and the devil take the hindmost,” is certainly
most wasteful. This is about the way that method worked. A starts
a bus line between two towns. After he has run it a short time and
built up a trade B, seeing his success, decides to put a competing
bus on this same route. Then there is a period of competition. Rates
may be cut and speeds quickened until each bus is running at a loss.
This cannot continue indefinitely. The result is that either one
man goes out of business or there is a combination of interests by
actual coalescing or by a “gentlemen’s agreement,” so that there is
practical monopoly anyway. The modern method is to regulate all common
carriers as far as rates and routes are concerned so that each may make
a justifiable profit. This may be tending toward socialism and away
from individualism; it may be a violation of the Darwinian doctrine
of a survival of the fittest. But that is departed from every day.
Our cornfields and gardens would amount to nothing if the weeds were
allowed undisputed sway.
It would seem to be the duty, therefore, of public service commissions
to grant licenses to truck and bus lines, to establish routes and
equitable rates, to require careful and complete accounting and to make
public from time to time such items as the people may be interested in.
The Railway Commission of the state of Nebraska was, perhaps, the first
public service commission to exercise the right of regulating highway
transport (1918). Colorado, California, and other states soon followed.
In California the matter came upon a complaint that adequate service
was not given by the railway and the decision was:
“We are of the opinion that the public deserving transportation of
freight and express ... is entitled to a more expeditious service
than that at present being given by the Southern Pacific and American
Railway Express.”
It went on further to state that notwithstanding their ability to give
service the evidence was to the effect that it was not given, hence
motor highway transport was licensed.
The first highway transport freight rates established by the Railway
Commission of Nebraska placed the freight under four classes,
describing 103 items. The rates were:
1st Class 20 c. plus (1¹⁄₂ c. per mile per 100 pounds).
2d Class 85 per cent of the 1st class.
3d Class 70 per cent of the 1st class.
4th Class 60 per cent of the 1st class.
In addition they established rules and regulations, standard bills of
lading, etc. These rates have since been rescinded.
In Colorado two sets of rules were adopted, one for the prairie and one
for the mountain division. For the prairie division the minimum charge
was 25 c. and the mountain 30 c. per 100 pounds. The rates for motor
truck hauling was made, for the prairie division, 30 c. per 100 pounds
for 5 miles and for distances up to 100 miles graduated 5 or 10 c. for
each additional 5 miles until they reached $1 per 100 miles. For the
mountain division, the rate for 100 pounds carried 5 miles is 36 c.,
graduated to $1.20 per 100 miles.
=Motor Bus Traffic.=--Suburban and interurban motor bus passenger
service is growing rapidly. Buses accommodating as high as sixty
persons are being used on the haul where the roads are well paved, but
twenty to thirty seems more popular. At present these buses seem to
be well patronized, usually bringing their passengers to the larger
city in time for business or shopping and returning them home in the
afternoon or evening. The rates of fare for bus travel are about the
same as those for steam car travel, or approximately 4 c. per mile.
The rate of travel depends upon the character of the roadway and the
condition of traffic, being usually routed upon dependable but less
congested roads.
Just what may be the outcome of this traffic is problematical. Can the
buses compete with other forms of transportation in fares and speed? If
so, they will survive; otherwise they will gradually discontinue. Some
writers seem to think they will not only live but will eventually kill
the older forms of transportation. Although they will no doubt take
over very much of that transportation it seems highly improbable that
all transportation can be taken care of by motors.
=To and from the Farm.=--Farm trucking seems to be firmly established
and very much if not all farm hauling will eventually be done by
automobiles. Very many farmers now own their own trucks and the number
is constantly being increased. Glowing statements by government
officials, reports of investigational committees, and propaganda
by manufacturers and dealers have worked up the farmers’ desire for
trucks. A congressional joint committee on agricultural inquiry has
recently stated that,
No single development since the railroads were first constructed has
had so marked an economic and sociological effect upon productive
life as the motor vehicle. Previous to its appearance the economic
zone of transportation was sharply defined by the haulage range of
the horse and the cost of such transportation.
There is the evidence of no less a person than Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover that the farm motor truck will be of vast importance to
the agricultural interests of the country. Here is his statement:
Fifty per cent of our perishable foodstuffs never reach the consumer
because the farms on which they are raised are too remote from
the market at which they are sold.... Forty to 60 per cent of our
potato crop is lost each year by rotting in the ground owing to poor
transportation to market because of inadequate transportation over
long distance.... By motor trucks the farmer will be able to reach
better markets farther away than now by horse and wagon. He will be
able to spend more time actually producing on his farm and be able to
sell food more cheaply by eliminating the present tremendous waste.
By use of the motor truck the farmer will be able to produce more and
sell at less cost.
Some of the arguments advanced in favor of the farm truck are:
(_a_) The motor truck allows the farmer to haul larger loads, longer
distances in less time, thus reducing the actual cost of haulage.
(_b_) That he can better take advantage of market fluctuations and thus
be able to sell at high markets.
(_c_) That a truck on the farm will replace several horses; that the
cost of keeping these horses far exceeds the cost of keeping a truck.
(_d_) That the truck may be used to market produce while the horses are
busy in the field.
(_e_) That the truck will allow land otherwise too far from market to
be farmed with perishable but better paying crops.
(_f_) By means of trucks the farmer is often enabled to put his hogs or
other live stock on the early morning market in less time from the farm
and consequently fresher, gaining the advantage of better prices.
While there may be some question as to the validity of all these
assumptions they are no doubt, in the main, correct. The United States
Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Crop Estimates, collected data
showing that in 1918, the hauling in wagons from farm to shipping
point cost on the average for wheat 30 cents per ton-mile; for corn,
33 cents; for cotton, 48 cents. For hauling by motor truck the average
costs were: wheat, 15 cents; corn, 15 cents; and cotton, 18 cents.
These unit costs were, consequently, reduced to less than half by the
use of the truck. The same bulletin gives the average length of wagon
haul for these products to be 9 miles, and of motor truck haul, 11.3
miles; furthermore the average number of round trips by wagon per day
was 1.2 while by truck it was 3.4.
Whether or not the truck on the farm will release any horses will
depend on what determines the number of horses kept. To do his hauling
does the farmer keep more than is necessary for farm operations alone?
The passenger automobile, no doubt, did release many driving and
riding horses, but will the truck release many more? The thoughtful,
foresighted farmer usually plans his yearly work so that he may do
his hauling when the horses are not otherwise busy. This of course
limits his farm operation to products which, like wheat and corn, can
be stored indefinitely. This limits also diversified cropping which
farmers find in the long run to be very much safer than “putting all
eggs in one basket” by raising a single product. It is seldom that
a wheat crop, a corn crop, a beet crop, a hay crop, an apple crop,
and gardening crops all fail by drought, wet weather, hail, or other
untoward events during the same season. Good roads, trucks or anything
else which will lend assistance to diversified cropping are without
doubt beneficial to the farmer.
Intensive farming of perishable crops can be done only where the roads
allow daily contact with the market. The truck, because of its more
rapid speed, will widen the zone of such farming very much over the old
zone when the horse-drawn vehicle was in vogue. Because of the risk
involved and the labor necessary the net returns per acre for this sort
of farming are high, allowing small parcels of land to keep a family.
As the distance, or rather time, the “fourth dimension,” from market
increases the less intensive the farming operations and the less net
returns per acre. The community as a whole is deeply interested in
widening the zone of intensive farming in order that more people may
profitably make a living upon this land.
Persons who are not familiar with stockyard activities will be
surprised on visiting them early in the morning at any one of the
packing-house industries to see the large number of hogs and other farm
animals arriving for the early market in motor trucks. These animals
have been brought from distances up to 60 miles, but have been on the
way less than three or three and one-half hours. Careful stockyard
figures show that in 1921 more than 6,000,000 cattle and very many
more hogs were transported in motor trucks. These animals upon arrival
are very much fresher and show less shrinkage than those that have
been driven to their home station and loaded into stock cars the day
previous. Other things being equal, the top of the market is accorded
to the fresher animals. Also for short hauls, say up to 60 miles, the
transportation costs are in favor of the trucks.
The farmer may obtain the benefits of motor transportation in at least
four different ways: (_a_) He may own and operate his own truck. This
pays when the farm is of sufficient size to keep the truck reasonably
busy. (_b_) Two or more neighbors may coöperate in the ownership of a
truck. This is applicable to small and medium-sized farms. (_c_) By
patronizing truck lines privately owned which haul products, freight,
and express upon a charge basis. (_d_) By the trucks of the United
States Postal Service.
Whether or not it pays for a farmer to own and operate a truck depends
upon the size of the farm, kind and quantity of the commodities hauled,
distance from market, character of the roads, and the loading on the
back trip. A small farm could not be expected to furnish sufficient
hauling to keep a truck busy unless intensively farmed and producing
commodities which require frequent marketing. Even a small farmer,
though, might by hauling for neighbors keep his truck reasonably busy.
Or several neighbors may coöperate in the purchase of the truck and
arrange how it shall be operated. They may even form an express line
and go into the transportation business as a side issue.
The parcel-post service has been very successful in handling packages
of produce even as large as a case of eggs. The post-office department
allows its carriers to pick up and deliver packages along the route
the same as letter mail. Privately owned Rural Motor Express vehicles
are also operated successfully which pick up and deliver all sorts of
express packages, farm produce in small quantities, fruit, butter,
eggs, and cream. Trucks which haul nothing but milk and cream are quite
common. The farmer leaves his full cans of milk or cream at a specified
place, usually a platform at a level with the truck floor, on the
roadway. The driver of the milk truck picks up the full cans, leaving
empties in their place. Or he may pick up the full on his way to the
market, creamery, or railway station, and leave the empties on his
return. Such routes are both privately owned and coöperatively owned by
the several farmers patronizing them. Often these trucks deliver the
milk and cream to the railway in time to catch a special milk train
into the city.
[Illustration: HAULING BEANS BY MOTOR TRUCK AND TRAILER
Sacramento Valley, Calif.]
[Illustration: HAULING SUGAR BEETS TO MARKET IN A MOTOR TRUCK]
Since the trucks come directly to the farmer’s gate to pick up and
deliver express or freight, the convenience is much greater than the
service given by either the steam railway or the interurban trolley. As
a result the trucks will probably be patronized when the railways would
not. The habit of sending eggs, cream, and other perishable products
daily to the market is formed. The daily credit the farmer receives
amounts to a considerable sum by the end of the month when he collects
from the dealer. Many farmers much more than pay living expenses from
the sale of small items utterly ignored before the days of the motor
express.[169] Even the farmer who owns his own truck could hardly
afford a daily trip of several miles and the time entailed to market
small amounts of cream, eggs, vegetables, and fruits, but the express
man by combining the incoming and outgoing commodities of many farms
can without much expense to anyone do a very good business for himself
at an economic benefit to his patrons.
If the farmer, or several farmers, desire to purchase a truck it
would be well first carefully to consider the question with an idea
of finding out the character and amount of trucking at hand and then
purchase a machine best adapted for the purpose. The kind of bodies
available should be studied, remembering that he may wish to haul grain
on one trip, hogs or sheep on another, then cream and vegetables. He
will want, probably, to haul back groceries, flour, feed, lumber,
hardware, implements, fertilizer, cement, and gravel. In looking
ahead he should estimate the increase in the quantity of hauling that
more rapid transportation, the going to more distant markets, and the
possible raising of different products which may come about through
the owning of a truck, will bring to his farm. In this connection the
reader is referred to the chapters on “Highway Transport Surveys” and
“Effects of the Ease and Cost of Transportation on Production and
Marketing,” given later.
=Terminal Facilities.=--Railways have found it advantageous to spend
enormous sums of money upon terminal facilities. Depots and warehouses,
garages and repair shops will be necessary if truck lines are to prove
efficient and successful. It would be quite feasible and profitable
for all the truck lines leading from a city to have a union or common
terminal station. Portland, Oregon, has such a station owned by a
corporation composed of bus lines that operate from there to every city
of any importance within a radius of 100 miles. The terminal resembles
a railroad depot with waiting rooms, ticket office, announcer, and
conveniences. Buses load and unload on a platform at the rear of the
building reached by a drive-in from the street. Patrons remain in the
waiting room until the bus is announced. Two buses are sent out if more
than enough tickets are sold for one. Under the present schedule 150
departures in 21 different directions are provided for. This gives the
farthest cities two stages per day while many closer ones are served
hourly.
Some of the advantages of a terminal station may be inferred from the
above. Another is that the total number of clerks and employees may
be cut down, for one clerk can route goods on half a dozen different
lines almost as easily as on one, and there will be no competition
between lines, except by service, if the public service commission
has allowed no duplication of lines and establishes rates. Much of
the freight and express will be brought by the shipper to the depot,
where bills of lading will be made out and charges paid. To be sure,
large shippers may desire freight to be picked up elsewhere, or small
express trucks may be used for this purpose, but orders for this can
conveniently be phoned to the central office and directions given from
there accordingly. Similarly one garage and one repair shop may easily
look after the cleaning, repairing, oiling, and fueling of several cars
more economically than could each keep its separate shop or even go to
a commercial shop.
The terminal building may be arranged, if desired, so that it can be
used jointly for a passenger station, a freight depot and a storage
warehouse. If for a passenger station there would be need for the
agent’s office, waiting rooms, and toilet accommodations for men and
women. The freight depot is a place for the collection of freight and
should be arranged for convenience and rapid loading and unloading of
the trucks. The installation of devices for this purpose may become
advisable as the amount of traffic increases. Storage room should
be provided for those articles which are to wait some little time
for shipment. A check stand to care for parcels is a convenience to
passengers and furnishes the company some revenue.
=The Social Aspect of Motor Transportation.=--The change from poor
roads and horse-drawn vehicles to good roads and motorized vehicles has
produced in society changes quite as radical. These changes are not
entirely separate from economic changes and one cannot always say that
this particular thing or that particular thing is due to the automobile
alone because every activity in life has its effect on every other
activity. As the waves upon a pond circling about the point of shock
come into contact with other waves their effect is enhanced, minimized,
or transformed, and just what part of the resultant may be due to one
agency or to another agency is impossible to decipher. That each has
entered into a combination with the whole and affected the result there
is no doubt. For example it is claimed that because of the prevalence
of pleasure riding the giving and receiving of dinners and teas have
very greatly diminished. No doubt the high cost of living has had its
effect also. Clothiers and haberdashers complain that automobile owners
finding it impossible to keep grease spots from their clothing, are now
buying an inferior grade and losing the art of good dressing. Builders
claim that the expense of buying and maintaining an automobile has
prevented many persons from making needed repairs on houses or even
building new ones. As people live most of their leisure time in the car
a very small apartment will accommodate them for the remaining time.
Fewer books and newspapers are read, it is claimed, and there is less
attention paid to the cultural niceties of life. People go riding in
the evening, so the Sunday evening church service is not attended.
An editorial in the _Nebraska State Journal_ of August 31, 1921, puts
the matter piquantly, at least:
The savage determination with which the American is sticking to
his automobile despite the drop in his income is an occasion for
wonderment and no little irritation with a lot of us. For the sake
of economy we may have to exchange our seven passenger for a light
six or one of the little fours. Beyond this we need not go. But the
farmer, yelling his head off at the fall in corn prices, what does he
mean by sticking to his car? Your mechanic resisting the inevitable
fall in wages, would be well enough off if only he would give up
trying to ride like a millionaire. These merchants, claiming they
aren’t making a living, don’t give up their cars, you will observe.
Why pity them, then?
Thus does the general assumption that the automobile is a
super-luxury impinge upon the fact that the automobile has become
a prime necessity. You laugh. Well, go inquire what are the other
things the people will sacrifice before yielding up their speed
machines. A sharp automobile manufacturer assured a gloomy harvester
manufacturer the other day that not only would the men do without
harvesters rather than lose their cars, but the women would yield up
their very chewing gum. Yea, more than that, their pretty clothes.
Food is, of course, a superior necessity, but even that can be
reduced and simplified in favor of gasoline.
As to houses, we like to be conservative, but there is a perfectly
obvious disposition to put house shelter second to automobile
shelter. That is why the house shortage isn’t hurting us as we
expected it to hurt. The people are in automobile camps. Observe the
sudden energy in developing automobile camps. They are wise. It looks
now as if half the population will have deserted houses and flats for
their automobile tent within another year or two.
In winter time a corner of the garage will do well enough for a
living room during the few minutes at a time we are at home. If we
insist on a separate house, then the tendency is toward a very small
one. What is the sense in maintaining a big house not to live in?
That is the way our minds run now. This will help the lumber men to
understand why building doesn’t pick up as it should. And that is how
we manage to keep the car while incomes fail. It is done by cutting
out such unnecessaries as houses and furniture and clothes and heavy
dinners.
America has been living at a fast gait on its nerves. Isn’t that
which we see now the natural reaction from the nervous overstrain of
fixed habitation and the relaxing ways of the nomad? The automobile
came along in the nick of time to furnish the transportation, and off
we go. The universal gypsy is breaking out in us. This isn’t more
than half moonshine. It is at least half solid fact, with economic
and social consequences which, whatever they prove to be, will be
important.
The above editorial indicates that people are beginning to notice the
social changes being brought about by the automobile, and more, they
are ascribing them to the automobile. Changes usually come about so
gradually that, like the hands on a watch, the movement can be noticed
only by comparing what is with what was some time previous.
Rapid transportation and rapid communication has extended Broadway
clear across the continent. One writer by taking an automobile tour
found the American world extends from ocean to ocean, that the hat
she purchased in New York had its duplicate in every millinery window
all the way across to Los Angeles. She further found that the people
between were not all “hicks,” and that farmers did not go around with
alfalfa on their chin and straws in their mouths as shown in the
cartoons of the funny section. Some farmers play golf on their own
pastures. The fact that the sack containing their clubs is often tied
with binding twine is of no consequence.
The social intercourse which good roads and the rapid moving automobile
makes possible between neighbor and neighbor and between country and
town tends to produce a more homogeneous people. Each gets the view
point of the other, which reacting modifies his own. Factions are
largely broken up. Tolerance gains sway and more satisfaction and
happiness results.
High wages and profits during and following the war led the average
citizen to purchase some of those luxuries which before then he was
unable to afford. He has had a taste of a “higher standard” of living.
No wonder he objects to a return to pre-war conditions, no wonder he
objects to giving up his automobile, the thing which has furnished
him with more pleasure than his previous humdrum life believed
possible. No, he will fight to maintain the new standard and new living
conditions. A social revolution has taken place, and in traveling about
the spiral the world is one step higher.
And while some will for a short time be content to live in one corner
of the garage, as the editorial writer opines, the natural longing for
a home will assert itself. By the aid of the automobile property will
be bought in farther-out district where lots are cheaper, where taxes
are not so high, where there is more breathing space, and healthful
conditions are more likely to prevail. Men of wealth can build suburban
estates, and men of less means comfortable homes leaving the downtown
apartments and tenements to those who cannot yet afford motor cars, and
many there be, more’s the pity.
It will be a good thing to have the farms near large centers of
population divided into smaller tracts whereon by intensive cultivation
can be supported many families. Here there is always a demand for
garden products which by means of a small car, or through the agency of
motor express lines, can be marketed daily. It does not require a very
great deal of land to support a poultry farm from which there will be a
continuous income. By diversifying crops something will be coming in at
all seasons.
Good roads and the automobile not only make it possible to diversify
farming but make the home life in the country less monotonous. No
trouble to go after supper 12 or 15 miles to the town to take part in
civic affairs, to attend a lecture, watch the movies or go to church.
No extra horses need to be kept for these purposes, neither are the
farm horses deprived of their rest. While the swift ride through
bracing air rests the weary farmer after his day’s toil in the fields
and gives new life to his faithful spouse upon whom the lonesomeness of
isolation lies the much more heavily.
Salesmen have in great numbers provided themselves with automobiles
large enough to carry their samples. With these they can make many more
towns than when they were compelled to depend upon trains and the
small-town livery stables. The result is either a wider territory or
more frequent calls upon customers.
Hotels, during the summer season, especially, if located on one of
the popular cross country roads, are seldom without tourist guests.
Nina Wilcox Putnam[170] states that from Washington westward the “wily
tourist will always wire ahead for rooms, and preferably two days
ahead. The truth is that the best places to stop are not nearly large
enough to accommodate the crowd.” Speaking of these hotels she finds
them well equipped, clean, and well cared for. There is no doubt but
that the automobile tourist traffic has had its effect, too, upon
them. Each spring they clean and spruce up with the idea of securing
as much of this traffic as good service reported by the camaraderie of
travelers all along the way will bring to them.
Mention has been made of the country people going to the larger
cities to market their products and purchase goods wanted. It is not
considered at all unusual for country and small town people to auto 30
miles to patronize the large department stores in the city. If a trade
which satisfies both trader and tradee is beneficial and of economic
importance to both then this would seem to be a good thing. The selling
of the goods is beneficial to the store-keeper because he makes his
profit. The trader has a large variety to select from and having made a
voluntary selection is satisfied, because he or she may secure exactly
what the city cousin gets.
But what is to become of the business of the country store-keeper? How
is he to get along? The best thing he can do is to put upon his shelves
goods of a standard quality. His rents and overhead are less than those
of the city competitor; he, therefore, can sell at a less profit. This
is so true that the writer has known of city dwellers going to the
country store for these standard articles. Such interchange while of
economical importance is also sociological in differentiating between
city and country merchandising and in bringing together in a new way
the city and country dwellers.
=Consolidation of Rural Schools.=--The people of the United States have
been justly proud of her public schools. No one has ever considered
them to be perfect, but the influence exerted upon the minds of the
growing children has been wholesome. The very life of a republic
depends upon an educated citizenry. With thorough education along
right lines there is no reason why the nation should not live forever.
To obtain such an education as is commensurate with right living and
with the upbuilding and maintenance of our government and civilization
requires that every means at hand should be utilized. The broadening,
informational, and unifying influence of the automobile should not
be underestimated. Edison’s theory that the movie should supplement
the textbook because visual education is remarkably interesting and
effective, needs more than a passing thought. The instruction which the
young people receive from parents, from associates, from newspapers,
magazines, and miscellaneous books, from civic organizations of various
kinds, and from Sunday school and church cannot be overestimated.
Neither should be forgotten the vast and important education which
comes through the hard knocks of experience.
An illustration of what the public schools may do for the preservation
of the country can be drawn from the history of the Great War, the
worst and the fiercest the world has ever seen. During that war the
patriotism of the people shone forth with undiminished luster. The
response to the President by the citizenry of the country, whether of
his own or opposite political faith, by every honest organization,
public or private, by business and professional men, by Congress and
legislatures, was all but unanimous. This surprising unanimity was, no
doubt, due to the influence of the public schools. The public schools
have always inculcated patriotism and loyalty, and these lessons were
potent as was evident because even before the draft many young men
with Teutonic names took their places with others whose forebears
were of other nationalities as well as with those of long-standing
American descent. Therein went astray one of the guesses of the enemy,
namely, that our Teutonic citizens with their children would prove more
loyal to the “fatherland” than to democratic America. The lessons of
patriotism the children brought home from school, the stories of Valley
Forge and Yorktown, of Gettysburg and Appomattox, were communicated to
their parents and penetrated deep, so that only a moiety of our foreign
born element could be classed with the enemy. Thus have the public
schools in this great melting pot of the world been the conservators of
liberty.
The effect of the public school upon the ideals of peace is no less
than that upon their state of mind during war. Every day examples are
so plentiful they need not here be mentioned. Suffice it to say that
it should be made possible for all the young people to come under the
influence of the public school learn the American’s Creed, and be
steeped in the symbolism of the flag that stands for true democracy.
=Changing Concepts of the Public Schools.=--Schools have continually
had to change with changing society. During the pioneer period, and
that extended through many years from the first settlements along the
coasts, and the occupation of the great fertile areas of the mid-west
to recent efforts to subdue the semi-desert and desert regions of
the farther west, the schools taught for a few months only a little
reading, writing, and arithmetic. The farm and home life supplemented
this with manual labor and the attainment of skill in making and
repairing necessary articles and machinery by the boys, and the arts
of home making, weaving, and cooking, by the girls, thereby completing
a well-rounded education for the times. But with the increase in
population there came a division of labor and specialization. This
meant that the simple school of the pioneers could no longer fit for
life, hence new and additional subjects were added to the curriculums,
until at the present time no one pupil can hope to complete all the
work given by the larger secondary schools. The changing character of
society caused the earliest private schools to be transformed into
semi-private and semi-religious schools, and these to tax-maintained
schools. The graded schools in the larger communities were found to be
more efficient than the ungraded. In country districts the advantages
of the graded system could only be brought about by consolidating
several small schools thus enlarging the districts to get sufficient
pupils. This made distances from home so great that walking to and from
school was no longer possible; pupils must be hauled. Considerable
progress was made in such schools with horse-drawn vehicles, but
not until the advent of the motor bus was attained anything like a
practical solution of the problem. So rapidly has the consolidated
school made its way that now there are more than 12,000 such schools
served by motor buses. Since a six-room consolidated school will
replace about nine small schools the greater efficiency of a graded
school extending through a longer school period is gained at little if
any increased cost. In the years to come the results of these schools
must have a marked beneficial effect upon the entire country.
=Rural Mail Delivery.=--The development of the Rural Mail Delivery and
its relation to the better roads movement has been touched upon in
Chapter V. It will only be necessary to say here that the psychological
effect of a daily mail upon the inhabitants of the rural districts
has been most remarkable. Through its means these people are no
longer isolated, they know daily what is transpiring in the world;
they are thinking of the great questions of finance, politics, and
what not, at the same time as their fellows in other parts of the
country. The nation is thus more or less unified, the country dweller
looks and thinks of himself as an integral part of the whole. Rural
mail, telephone, the automobile, modern home conveniences and, now,
radio telephony are rapidly making agriculture one of the great
and desirable professions. The rural home need no longer be a place
where there is nothing but ten hours’ work and six hours’ chores. The
farmer of to-day, with his daily paper, his market reports, his books
and magazines, his furnace-heated and electric-lighted house, his
automobile ready at hand, is better off, more independent, and should
be more happy and contented than those who dwell in the murky city.
=The Automobile and Health.=--“Health is something more than strength,
it is a universally good condition,” according to Munger. The
automobile, by inducing people to get more into the open air, may be
considered to be a prophylactic, and something that will bring them
into that universally good condition. The forgetting of business, the
obliteration of household cares, the unstringing of high-tensioned
nerves by a swift run like a swallow in its flight over smooth and
undulating roads brings rest with relaxation, and cure with comfort.
Then away from the mad’ning crowd, away from close poorly ventilated
rooms, away from foul-smelling germ-laden cars, to the roads, to the
hills, to the country with their varied shades of living carpets,
with freshening winds and glad’ning brooks, with bees, and birds, and
flowers into nature’s great laboratory where are brewed nectars and
panaceas for the ills which infest mankind.
But all cannot have automobiles, pity ’tis, ’tis true, but all may have
the benefit of fresh air and the style for an open air life set by
those who can afford to drive the “red flyers,” the “quivering arrows,”
the “bear cats” or the “poodle dogs,” have been followed by the less
fortunate _hoi polloi_. Thus outdoor exercises and amusements have been
popularized.
While motoring may not be the best form of exercise, may not bring
into play as many muscles as walking, horseback riding, or rowing,
say, it must be remembered that not many can have horses to ride or
boats to row and walking is too slow. Gymnasium exercises or even home
gymnastics are not exciting enough to keep one practicing, so that
the outdoor life of the present day, brought about largely by the
automobile, has had a more wholesome effect on the people generally
than perhaps any other measure.
Styles of clothing have kept close pace, and the garments now worn by
both men and women are both comfortable and sanitary, allowing freedom
of bodily movement. It is to be hoped that the same influences which
induced such hygienic clothing will continue and that never more
may the autocratic demands of style force people into close-fitting
uncomfortable, unsanitary wearing apparel. For years hygienists, health
reformers, and physicians preached against tight lacing for women
without results until the automobile came to their assistance. Until
very recent years women’s long skirts have swept clouds of germ-laden
dust into the air from sidewalks to be breathed by all passers-by. All
men know that their present dressing, while it might be bettered, is
so much more comfortable than formerly that they have much reason for
rejoicing. Formal dressing except for an occasional party has almost
disappeared. In the summer time men may be comfortable on the streets
without coats. But the women, though more responsive to style changes,
now go the men one better and abandon long sleeves and high collars.
Medical science, always alert to adopt modern improvements, was one
of the first to take advantage of the time-saving benefits of the
automobile. Its universal use by physicians and surgeons, allowing them
to reach the bedside of sick patients more quickly and allowing them
to visit more patients in the same time, is certainly a pathological
asset of great value. Automobile ambulances called in emergency cases
save the lives of many injured persons by getting them quickly to
the hospitals and under the care of competent medical and surgical
attention.
From a purely sanitary point of view good roads have been great
agencies for health. Clean streets, clean pavements, and clean roads
are much more wholesome than the mud puddles and quagmires that
formerly served as passageways for man and beast. In order to get
better roadways drainage was resorted to. Ponds and standing water
along the side of the road were done away with, at the same time
obliterating the breeding places of the myriads of mosquitoes that
always abounded in summer time. Since mosquitoes are carriers, as
is well known, of such diseases as malaria and yellow fever, the
consequence has been a very great reduction, almost elimination, of
these ailments.
Again just as the use of the horse on the highways has diminished, so
has the summer pest of flies grown less. The favorite breeding place
of the housefly is horse dung. When nearly every house in both city
and country had its stable with a pile of horse manure by the door
flies bred abundantly. The fly has been convicted of being a most
energetic distributor of typhoid and other bowel complaints, hence the
distruction of its breeding places will be the most effective means
for its extermination, and with it one of the most virile sources of
contagion.
Thus, upon analysis, it may be seen that the influence of the
automobile extends throughout the whole domain of life, changing and
modifying nearly all social customs. It is called into use at the birth
of the babe to bring the physician to the bedside of the prospective
mother. It is the correct equipage at the wedding and starts the bride
and groom upon their honey-moon and, it is to be hoped, a happy journey
through life. And finally, it bears the remains to their last resting
place in the silent city of the dead.
=The Automobile and Crime.=--But not always have the changes produced
by automobiles been in the interest of better living. Criminals and
those who verge upon criminality have been quick to employ the superior
advantages of modern means of rapid transit to assist them in their
nefarious work. Automobile theft has taken the place of horse thievery,
and automobiles are used daily as a means of getting to and getting
away from the place of the crime. Trucks are utilized to haul the loot.
Since the adoption of prohibition laws motor cars have been seized
upon by booze runners as a convenient vehicle for transporting liquor
from one place to another, thus becoming an aid to “bootlegging.” In
several of the states cars used for illegally transporting intoxicants
are confiscated upon discovery and sold by the state. Drastic laws also
deal with operators and owners.
Highway robbery of trucks hauling goods across country is reported. In
New Jersey two trucks were robbed of $120,000 worth of merchandise. In
other places express drivers have been held up and relieved of their
money. One of the earliest improvements of the roadways of England was
due to the prevalence of highway robbers--the brush and trees were
ordered to be cut from the highway in order that their might be fewer
lurking places for robbers.[171]
Here the results of robbery may lead to interesting possibilities. For
instance if the trucks above mentioned as robbed in New Jersey were
owned by the shipper the $120,000 is a dead loss to him unless he had
insurance. Even if the trucks were owned by a small capitalist he would
probably not be able to recompense the shipper. Had it been lost on a
railway it would have been paid for. If motor shipping is to continue
shipments must be covered by bonds or insurance. Even then there is
a loss to the public when outlaws seize a loaded truck and drive it
into wilds whence its contents can be disposed of at leisure. Shall
truckers, like the ancient caravans of the deserts maintain guards with
long guns to fight off marauding Bedouins? The western stages of some
years ago furnished employment as guards to the quickest shots in the
world. Is it the duty of the community to make its highways safe for
transportation or must the shipper take the risk and employ guards and
machine guns?
=Vandalism.=--Complaints are made that those who drive or walk to the
country are often guilty of vandalism and disregard for the rights of
property. Note this editorial utterance in the _Saturday Evening Post_
of June 17, 1922:[172]
On Sunday one dare not leave one’s farm or country place unwatched or
unprotected for a moment. The whole countryside is aswarm with Nature
lovers from the near by city. First come the makers of forbidden
beverages, trooping across fields and lawns, picking the once
despised dandelion and anything else that happens to be loose; then
the happy motorists in long procession, embowering their cars in the
spoil of orchards, woodlands, and wayside shrubberies. If there are
no flowers near the road these free-and-easy visitors will penetrate
one’s garden and break off the blooming branches of the rhododendrons
or lilacs or whatever other bush happens to engage their fancy.
With trowel and spade the woods are looted and sometimes, if it
looks safe, an unwatched garden. Following come shy maidens, in
twos and threes, daintily pulling up the woodland flowers by the
roots--arbutus, azalea, and a hundred little blossoms that wilt in
the hand that picks them; and everywhere are bands of half-grown
hoodlums helping in the spoiling of the countryside.
The bolder spirits are usually those who come in motors. They can
destroy more, steal more, and get away faster than the man on foot.
They meet remonstrance with effrontery and resent the notion that
a hick has any rights of property and privacy that they are bound
to respect. The flowers, the shrubs, the orchards, and occasionally
the unguarded gardens are their prey. They camp beside the woodland
brook or the shaded spring, hack the trees, trample the flowers, and
turn the spot into a garbage hole with their greasy papers, tin cans,
bottles and refuse food. Then up and away to the snug flat in the big
town, throwing out the wilted flowers as they go.
Spooning in automobiles parked along the roadways is a subject of
regulation in the city of Omaha. An ordinance makes it a misdemeanor
subject to fine.
However, the motor car will not be discarded or outlawed because
unscrupulous persons put it to illegal and immoral purposes. A net cast
into the sea gathers fishes of every kind, and among the wheat there
will always spring up tares.
=Conclusion.=--The world cannot now get along without the motor car.
What was a luxury yesterday has become a necessity to-day. Automotive
transportation is carving out a path for itself. While it perhaps will
take much from the older forms of transportation it can never hope to
supplant them. The final result will come only after the world has
had opportunity through competitive experience to determine which is
most economical in time and money and which is most desirable and
comfortable from a personal or a sociological standpoint for the
various purposes and various kinds of transportation.
At present it would seem as though the automobile will be used more
largely than ever: I. As a pleasure and business vehicle driven by its
owner for passenger traffic: (_a_) for local travel near home; (_b_)
for short runs from town to town; (_c_) for more extended tourist
traffic, and (_d_) for the use of salesmen. II. For pay passenger
traffic: (_a_) Taxi-cabs in the cities: (_b_) Motor-bus service in
the cities either in competition or in conjunction with street car
service; (_c_) motor bus service to suburban and outlying districts;
(_d_) motor bus service between towns up to 75 or 100 miles, with
towns not more than two hours apart, (_e_) motor bus service between
railway terminals. III. For freight and express traffic: (_a_) Haulage
of farm products to market or shipping point in owner’s truck; (_b_)
Haulage to market of perishable farm products in rapid going privately
or coöperatively owned trucks; (_c_) Heavy trucking lines through farm
districts; (_d_) Light express lines through farm districts; (_e_)
Suburban or radial distribution of goods from large cities; (_f_)
Short-haul traffic between towns; (_g_) Short branch-line or stub-end
transportation to be taken over by trucks either in competition or
conjunction with railways; (_h_) Trap car and store to door service
by railways; (_i_) Terminal distribution allowing cars to be loaded
and unloaded at a greater distance from congested centers; (_j_)
Terminal distribution between different lines of railway or between
railway and waterway either to relieve congestion or where there is
no physical connection; (_k_) Longer hauls where there are no rail
facilities; (_l_) Logging and lumbering formerly done by horses, oxen,
or even light railway, (_m_) Rural mail service, and IV. By modified or
combination motors: (_a_) Trackless trolley; (_b_) Rail motors.
=Addendum.=--Since the above was written President Harding has issued
the annual legislative message to Congress (December 8, 1922), in which
he discusses at some length the transportation problem in the United
States. Among other things he says:
Manifestly, we have need to begin on plans to coördinate all
transportation facilities. We should more effectively connect up
our rail lines with our carriers by sea. We ought to reap some
benefit from the hundreds of millions expended on inland waterways,
proving our capacity to utilize as well as to expend. We ought to
turn the motor truck into a rail feeder and distributor instead of a
destroying competitor.
It would be folly to ignore that we live in a motor age. The motor
car reflects our standard of living and gauges the speed of our
present-day life. This transportation problem cannot be waived aside.
The demand for lowered costs on farm products and basic materials
cannot be ignored....
Government operation does not afford the cure. It was government
operation which brought to us the very order of things against which
we now rebel, and we are still liquidating the costs of that supreme
folly.
Surely the genius of the railway builders has not become extinct
among the railway managers. New economies, new efficiencies in
coöperation must be found. The fact that labor takes 50 to 60 per
cent of total railway earnings makes limitations within which to
effect economies very difficult but the demand is no less insistent
on that account.
The President then urged merger of railroads, pooling of equipment and
a central agency to aid in their financing and to suggest economies.
This portion of his message was evidently inspired by the great labor
strike during the summer of 1922, and the subsequent shortage of cars
and inadequacy of transportation facilities. He argued that there
“should be a guaranty against suspended operation. The public must be
spared even the threat of discontinued service.” He then recommended
an abolition of the Labor Board as not being “so constituted as best
to serve the public interest.” This board is composed of three members
selected by the railways and three by railway employees, and three
by the Government. According to President Harding “it is inevitable
that the partisan viewpoint is maintained throughout hearings and
in decisions handed down. Only the public group of three is free
to function in unbiased decisions.” He, therefore, suggested the
abolishment of the partisan membership and that the work of the board
be performed by or in very close contact with the Inter-State Commerce
Commission which already has supreme authority in rate making to which
“wage cost bears an indissoluble relationship.”
When a president of the United States takes up so much of his annual
message with transportation and the relationship which the different
forms bear to each other, when he argues for harmony between them and
between them and their employees, there is certainly reason for study
and legislation which will bring about just and adequate methods of
administration, operation and regulation.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Agricultural Inquiry, Report of Joint Commission on, Part III deals
with Transportation, Washington, D. C., 1922.
ALDEN, H. W., “Automotive Obligations Toward Highway Development,”
_Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers_, Vol. VIII, pp.
161-162, 426-432.
_Automotive Industries._--“Automobile Service Stations,” Vol. XLVII,
pp. 174-175; “Automobiles in Postal Service,” 178-179; “Cost of
Operation of Bus Lines,” 482-483; “Motor Trucks on the Farm,” 315;
“Railroad Officials Recognize Truck as Transportation Ally,” Vol.
XLIII, 1201-1203.
BAKER, C. W., “Relative Economy of Truck and Railway,” _Engineering
News-Record_, Vol. LXXXIII, pp. 52-67.
BASSETT, W. R., “Avoiding Industrial Traffic,” _Industrial
Management_, Vol. XLI, pp. 342-346.
BLANCHARD, A. H., “Traffic and Transportation,” _Canadian Engineer_,
Vol. XL, pp. 129-131.
BLUM, H., “Transportation of Bulk Freight,” _Kali_, Halle, Germany.
_Bus Transportation._--“Baltimore Service,” Vol. I, p. 484; “Motor
Buses,” 479-80; “Bus and Electric Railways as Essentials in
Transportation,” by G. A. Green, 293-295; “Battle of the Bus and the
Street Car,” by F. H. Warren, 85-88; “New Englanders Hold Meeting to
Study Motor Bus and Trackless Trolley,” 124-129, 191-193; “Railway
Men Discuss the Bus and its Relation to Rail Transportation,” 195-196.
DAVIS, F. W., “Motor Truck Transportation,” _Engineering
News-Record_, Vol. LXXXV, pp. 1194-1195.
DONNELLY, WILLIAM T., “Comparison of Cargo Transportation,” _Marine
Engineering_, Vol. XXV, pp. 899-903.
_Engineering._--“Bringing the Food to the Table,” Vol. VI, pp.
387-391.
_Electric Railway Journal._--“Report of Committee on Trackless
Trolley Transportation to the American Electric Railway Association,”
Vol. LX, pp. 576-577; “Freight and Motor Truck Competition,” Vol.
LVI, pp. 157-160.
Development of the Automobile:
HISCOCK, GARDNER D., “Horseless Vehicles,” Norman W. Henley & Co.,
New York, 1901.
HOMANS, JAMES E., “Self-Propelled Vehicles,” Theo. Audel & Company,
New York, 1902.
“History of Automobile Carriages,” reprinted from _La Nature_ by the
Scientific American, Vol. LXXII, p. 389, June 22, 1895.
Many other articles in the _Scientific American_, some of which are:
“Ponchain’s Electric Carriage,” Vol. LXX, p. 69; “The Tachocycle,”
p. 181; “Gaillardet’s Steam Carriage,” p. 200; “Simonds’ Steam
Wagon,” p. 398; “Bicycle of 1816,” Vol. LXVII, p. 180; An Account of
an automobile race from Paris to Bordeaux with descriptions of some
of the machines participating, LXXIII, p. 40; “An English Horseless
Carriage of 1827,” p. 214; “Duryea Motor Wagon,” p. 293; “Petrolium
Tricycle,” p. 234; “Kane-Pennington Victoria,” p. 293; “The Benz
Motocycle,” p. 315; “De La Vergne Motor Drag,” p. 377; “Steam Omnibus
in London, 1833,” p. 404.
Firestone Ship by Truck Bureau, Bulletin No. 6, “Consolidated Rural
Schools and the Motor Truck”; Bulletin No. 7, “The Motor Truck
Terminal.” Akron, Ohio.
Facts and Figures, 1922. “Motor Bus Aids Rural Education,” National
Automobile Chamber of Commerce, New York.
GREENOUGH, M. B., “Motor Trucks and Highway Transportation,”
_Engineering and Contracting_, Vol. XLIX, pp. 157-158.
JOHNSON, EMORY R., “Elements of Transportation,” D. Appleton & Co.,
New York, 1909.
LACY, V. E., “Inland Waterway Transportation,” _Journal of the
Society of Automotive Engineers_, Vol. VIII, pp. 59-62.
LANE, F. VAN ZANT, “Motor Truck Transportation,” D. Van Nostrand
Company, New York, 1922.
MACKALL, J. N., “Motor Bus as a Factor in Highway Transport,”
_Engineering News-Record_, Vol. LXXXIII, p. 234.
MANTELL, JOHN J., “Transportation Problems of the Metropolitan
District,” Official Proceedings of the New York Railroad Club, Vol.
XXXI, pp. 6369-6393.
_Mechanical Engineering._--Discussion on Motor Truck Transportation,
Inland Waterways, etc., Vol. XLIII, pp. 181-183.
Motor Rail Cars:
_Railway Review._--Vol. LXIX, pp. 753-755, 792-796; 860, Vol. LXX,
49-50, 191-192, 389-392, 501, 656, 669-673, 741-747, 928-929, 930.
_Railway Age._--Vol. LXXI, pp. 841-843, Vol. LXXII, pp. 749-750, 886,
920, 1008-1009, 1069-1070, 1183-1184.
_Electric Railway Journal._--Vol. LXIX, pp. 419, 513, 685-686.
_Municipal Engineering._--“Text of Colorado Decision Affecting
Commercial Use of Highways.” Vol. LXIII, sup. pp. 17-18.
National Automobile Chamber of Commerce.--Graham, George H., “The
Motor Vehicle--Competitor or Ally,” 1920.
NORTON, S. V., “The Motor Truck as an Aid to Transportation,” A. W.
Shaw Company, Chicago.
_Power Wagon._--Various articles March, July, October, November, and
December, 1921, and during the year 1922.
STOCKS, C. W., “The Bus Transportation Field,” _Electric Railway
Journal_, N. Y., Vol. LVIII, pp. 517-522.
SPENCE, LEWIS J., “New Era of Railroad Transportation in America,”
Paper before the National Industrial Traffic League, _Railway Age_,
Vol. LXIX, pp. 1153-1154.
UPHAM, C. M., “Car Shortage and Its Relation to Highway Work,”
_Engineering News-Record_, Vol. LXXIX, pp. 1099-1100.
WHITE, W. T., “War Development of Motor Transportation,” _Good
Roads_, n. s. Vol. XIX, pp. 291-292.
WHITESIDE, W. J., “Motor Truck Competition,” _Electric Railway
Journal_, Vol. LIV, pp. 981-982.
WILLARD, DANIEL E., “Railroad Transportation. Fundamentals for
developing a complete and well-articulated national transportation
system,” _Mechanical Engineering_, Vol. XLIII, pp. 17-18.
WILLIAMS, C. C., “When Ship Freight by Motor Truck and When by Rail,”
_Engineering News_, Vol. LXXVIII, pp. 315-316, 660-661.
YOUNG, H. E., “Freight Movements by Motor Truck,” _Western Society of
Engineers’_ Journal, Vol. XXVI, p. 204.
FOOTNOTES
[167] See “The Motor Bus Field as a Market for Trucks,” _Automotive
Industries_, September 29, 1921.
[168] One method of estimating cost of automobile riding, for a
machine costing originally $1000, which having a life of 30,000 miles
is then worth for scrap $100, may be given thus:
Original cost expressed in cents per mile
(1000-100)100
------------- 3.0
30,000
Cost of repairs, estimated, 0.5
Gasoline and oil 2.5
Tires 1.5
Garage }
Interest }
Taxes } 1.5
Insurance }
License }
---
9.0
The cost is about 9 cents per car mile. If an average of two
passengers ride that is 4¹⁄₂ cents per passenger mile. The above is
merely an illustration and cannot be applied generally.
[169] See Bulletin 770, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of
Markets, “Motor Transportation for Rural Districts,” Also Bulletin
931.
[170] “A Jitney Guide to the Santa Fé Trail,” _Saturday Evening
Post_, June 10, 1922.
[171] The statute of Winchester enacted during the reign of Edward I,
of England, provided “that highways leading from one market town to
another shall be enlarged, where woods, hedges or dykes be, so that
there be neither dyke, tree nor bush, whereby a man may lurk to do
hurt, within two hundred foot on the one side and two hundred foot on
the other side of the way.”
[172] Reprinted by permission from _The Saturday Evening Post_,
Copyright 1922, by the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa.
CHAPTER VIII
PLANNING HIGHWAY SYSTEMS: SELECTION OF ROAD TYPES
A road is a strip of land set apart or appropriated for travel, public
or private. When a road has been dedicated to the public or has been
used so long that the public has a legal right of easement therein, it
becomes a highway.[173]
The object of a road is to provide a way for transportation. It goes
without saying, therefore, that its situation should be such that it
can perform this function most efficiently, and a system of highways
should perform the same function for the public in the same manner.
Efficiency here includes the ideas of economy and satisfaction combined.
In order to make a layout of a system of highways they should first
be classified as to use, for the proper treatment will depend upon
the use to which the roads are to be put. Anyone attempting a layout
will make his own classification suitable to the inherent conditions
pertaining to the district covered. The classification of Mr. T. H.
MacDonald, Director of the Bureau of Public Roads, U. S. Department of
Agriculture, made for another purpose may be adopted:[174]
1. Those used chiefly related to agriculture.
2. Those which are recreational in character.
3. Those which are commercial.
4. Those which are military.
Agricultural roads comprise those leading from farm to town and are
used chiefly for marketing, and for social, educational, and religious
activities.
Recreational roads are either local, upon which driving is done for
pleasure, or through, those followed by tourists in traveling over
the country. Either of which may lead to places of interest within or
without the state. The national park roads and forest highways can be
classified under the head of recreational.
Commercial highways comprise those exclusive of agricultural, upon
which the haul is chiefly of a business nature such as freight and
express and bus traffic.
The War Department of the United States during the war refused to
designate any roads as special Military Highways, saying a road which
would adequately serve the agricultural; recreational, and commercial
interests would serve the military. However, it might be well to keep
in mind this possible use of the highways. A classification of roads
into National, State, County and Town has frequently been suggested.
Since national roads do not exist as such in the United States the most
densely traveled routes and those used largely for through traffic are
usually designated state roads, and all others local roads.
Keeping the cost and use of the roads in view the problem before the
road planner is:
(1) To secure the most economical routes in construction and
maintenance and future haulage, taking into account topography,
alignment, grades, and amount of traffic.
(2) To accommodate the greatest number of people commensurate with the
money available for expenditure.
(3) To utilize existing roads as far as practicable.
The system will ordinarily consist of one or more trunk lines to be
laid down first and several branch lines connecting with the trunk
lines. Some of the essentials to be considered are:
(1) Ruling points. These ordinarily will be (_a_) the main community
centers--the large cities and villages, for to and from these will
naturally flow the greatest traffic; (_b_) Natural configurations
such as mountain passes, low points in hills, ridges and valleys,
rivers and bridge sites; (_c_) Parks, scenery, and recreational and
amusement centers; (_d_) Articulation with the highways of adjoining
jurisdictions, so that they may eventually be united into one
continuous passage.
(2) Branch lines and detours. The question will frequently arise
whether to run a branch line to some locality or detour the trunk.
Much pressure will be brought by the inhabitants along the way and the
deciding power will needs have firmness and fairness in the highest
degree.
(3) Alternate routes. If two roads of equal or almost equal importance
are available a choice must be made between them.
(4) Existing highways and principal streets of cities should be
utilized as much as practicable. Although sometimes betterments so
great may come through changes that old routes should be discontinued,
in which case the
(5) Vested rights of citizens living along discontinued routes and
damages caused by any improvements made must be considered.
(6) The widening of existing roads and streets and costs of the same.
(7) The location of railways, trolley lines, and street car tracks may
influence the layout for grade crossings should be eliminated, or at
least placed where there is clear vision each way for a considerable
distance.
(8) Bridges, culverts, and railroad crossings should, preferably, be
directly along the highway and at right angles to the obstruction.
(9) Ruling grades, dependent upon the class of road will also affect
the layout.
(10) Esthetics. Perhaps the people of the United States have been too
materialistic and have paid too little attention to the beauty and
interest elements in highway location. Especially for pleasure riding
and recreation should the esthetic side be considered.
=Motor Transport Efficiency Outline.=--At this point it would be well
for the road planner to consult an excellent paper by M. C. Horine and
his efficiency chart which is substantially as follows:[175]
ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY
Highway Efficiency
Adaptability of road to carrier
Road capacity
Width of road
Pressure capacity
Impact capacity
Seasonal limitations
Tractive resistance
Grades
Route
Curves and corners
Adaptability of carrier to road
Dimensions
Capacity and weight
Speed
Climbing ability
Accelerating ability
Stopping ability
Turning radius
Tractive effort
Transport Efficiency
Adaptability of carrier to volume and character of load
Total load units to be carried
Range of load units to be hauled
Average load units to be hauled
Density of load
Length of haul
Route
Number and probable duration of stops
Comparative adaptability of motor transport
Horse transport
Highway efficiency
Transport efficiency
Vehicle efficiency
Public health
Railway transportation including trolley express
Transport efficiency
Economy
Haulage cost
Packing cost
Adaptability of carrier to traffic
Legal restrictions on equipment and operation
Possible average running speed
Bridges and ferries
Vehicle Efficiency
Operation
Moving factor
Loading delays
Unloading delays
Waiting for loads
Clerical delays
Loafing
Traffic delays
Load factor
Body capacity
Special deliveries
Return loads
Outside hauling (custom work)
Pickups
Deliveries
Trailers
Maintenance
Active factor
Disability layups
Chassis repairs
Body repairs
Accessory repairs
Tire repairs and replacements
Overhaul and painting
Driver’s disability
Requirement layups
Seasonal fluctuations
Off-peak period
Shut downs
Labor troubles
Economy
Earning factor
Unit miles
Packing cost
Loading cost
Unloading cost
Time in transit
Marketability
Insurance
Interest on value
Shrinkage and breakage
Perishability
Tracing and follow up
Advertising value
Goodwill of trade
Increased radius of trade
Increased business turnover
Cost factor
Operating cost
Fixed charges
Maintenance charges
Running charges
Overhead
Loading devices
Shipping room devices
Office and clerical expenses
Telephone
Labor
Loaders
Watchmen
Clerks
Supervisors
Accountants
Traffic department
Miscellaneous
=The Highway System Unit.=--Ordinarily the units will be the same as
the political divisions, that is, national, state, or local. A national
system would include the whole United States and will comprise trunk
lines paralleling each other across the country east and west and north
and south, considering, of course, ruling points, with a few branch
lines of importance. The total number of miles of such highways should
probably never exceed 2 per cent of the total mileage in the United
States, or about 50,000 miles. A national highway committee estimated
that this mileage of roads would serve 87 per cent of the people. The
arguments made in favor of a national system of highways may be briefly
summarized as follows:
(1) Political lines would be obliterated, thus welding together and
unifying all the people. Commercial and social intercourse would wipe
out sectional differences, hatreds, and enmities. The people of one
section would learn that the people of another section are human beings
as they themselves are, and are actuated by the same instincts and
inspirations.
(2) Economic, commercial, and pleasure routes cut across state
lines and it would be much better to have the roads continuous and
administered by one central control. They would then be kept in a more
uniform condition of usefulness. The roads radiating from New York City
are mentioned as an example. They pass out of the state of New York
and into the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
On any one of these roads it would be difficult to say which state you
are in by observing the license tags on the trucks and automobiles.
A Connecticut traffic census on a road carrying approximately 3000
passenger cars and 500 trucks per day showed that 47 per cent of the
cars in the analysis came from without the state.
(3) Military. All roads would become military during war. It is
frequently stated that the good roads of France saved Paris from
invasion and probably saved the war to the allies. The German General
Kluck admits that while he was advancing upon the British and French
south of the Marne, an army of which he had no suspicion had struck
outward from Paris and put his flank in deadly peril.[176] This army
was one that Joffre had concentrated in Paris under General Maunouri,
which had been brought over two or three good French roads from Paris
by motor trucks and lorries to a point within striking distance of the
German right flank, where he attacked and began the First Battle of
the Marne. In the Second Battle of the Marne, motor cars performed a
very important part in the concentration of troops which were to make a
surprise attack. In addition the motorized armed cars known as tanks
played an important part.
On this side of the ocean the trunk line roads during the war
supplemented the railways, which were badly congested at the eastern
terminals, by hauling large quantities of men, materials and munitions.
It is said that 16,000 trucks were engaged in this work.
(4) The benefit of example. The federal government not hampered by
local prejudices may construct roads of the highest type along best
possible locations which when completed will serve as an example for
state and local officers to pattern after. The people having seen such
roads will more willingly vote bonds and taxes for road betterment.
=State System.=--The benefits to be derived from and the arguments
for a national system of roads apply with equal force to a state
system. In fact it may be better to avoid the two extremes of one
consolidated central control for the whole country and a very highly
dispersed decentralized local control. The state seems to be a
sufficiently large unit to do good work and sufficiently small to be
approachable. Competition with other states may bring out developments
which under a single central control would never have been thought of.
Notwithstanding the excellent research work that is being carried on
by the Bureau of Public Roads there is no doubt but that that which
is being done by the several states more nearly solves those special
problems arising on account of climate, topography, soil, and so on of
the particular state.
The state system should cover a greater per cent of the roads than a
national system can hope to do. The effort seems to be to take over
about 10 per cent of the established roads as state highways. Such
roads, if carefully selected and located, can accommodate from 90 to 95
per cent of the inhabitants of the state.
The remaining roads would continue under local--county and
town--authorities. A county system might be laid out and money
expended upon its roads about in proportion to their use.
Again there is a feeling on the part of many that the first expense of
improving a road (that would include grading, bridging, and paving,
even if the latter should be done some time subsequent to the former)
should be borne by the state and the abutting property, that the
maintenance should be under the direction of the local authorities, and
paid for by local taxation and by a portion of the state automobile
license and gasoline taxes to be returned to the county for this
purpose.
=The Procedure of Laying out a Road System.=--To fix the mind
definitely suppose it to be a state road system that is to be laid
out. It is generally conceded that the planning should be done by an
unprejudiced commission headed by an engineer of wide experience,
one who is fair but will show no favoritism. The first question,
after deciding to make a layout and who shall make it, is what shall
be the determining factor of the lay-out. Shall it be primarily a
farm to market system, primarily a commercial system, or primarily
a recreational system? A wise commission will, no doubt, attempt to
embody all these features in one system, as they should be, for,
nowadays, more than half the population of the country reside in the
cities and villages. They pay taxes and are as much entitled to road
facilities for their particular industries and pleasures as are the
“farm bloc,” and every fair-minded person will admit this.
Good maps must of course be obtained. Government contour maps when
available will assist materially in selecting roads that will come
within a ruling grade. On these maps will first be noted the trunk
line terminals and other ruling points. The trunk lines should be as
direct as practicable from one ruling point to the next. An endeavor
should be made to have the roads with the greatest travel upon them the
straightest, so that the total future haul may be a minimum. The roads
having the greatest travel will usually be those connecting the largest
cities of the state or articulating with roads leading to large cities
of other states. Then will be drawn in branch lines and detours so that
when the plan is complete every county seat, every village of more than
1000 inhabitants, and every manufacturing, scenic, and pleasure resort
of importance will have been reached, as well as connections with the
main roads of adjacent states.
This will form a tentative system. Observation upon the roads
themselves will now be necessary. A reconnaissance survey may be made
quite rapidly from an automobile. Two men are necessary. The engineer
will ordinarily drive while the topographer will be supplied with a
clip board and ruled sheets of paper. The straight line up the center
of the sheet represents the roadway. Small squares on the sheets
represent distances and areas. The scale should be made according to
the work. On a road with few houses and few topographical features to
be recorded 1 inch to the mile might be sufficient. With more houses,
and other features, 1 inch to the quarter mile might be none too
much. As speedometers (odometers) usually read to a tenth of a mile
cross-section paper with ten smaller divisions equal to one larger is
convenient. The engineer will observe features and the recorder will
record them as the machine is driven along. The miles may be marked
off on the sheets ahead then very quickly by a series of notations,
such as a [Illustration] for a farm house, a dot with a roof over
it [Illustration] for a school house, a steeple or cross on top
[Illustration] makes a church. A crossing wagon road [Illustration],
railroad track [Illustration], a trolley line [Illustration], stream
[Illustration], and so on. Written explanations can be made along the
margin where necessary.
The reconnaissance survey should cover all routes on the tentative
map together with alternative or competitive routes and others
when found to be worthy of consideration. The record will show all
farm houses within a prescribed limiting distance of the roadway,
factories, stone quarries, sand and gravel pits, schoolhouses, and
churches. All intersecting roads, railroads, trolleys, mail routes,
creeks, canals, rivers, drainage and irrigation ditches, culverts and
bridges, together with the approximate angle of crossing the highway.
Note should be made whether grade crossings may be eliminated by
underground or overhead crossings, or by change of route. The character
of the soil whether clay, loam, gumbo, or sand, when it differs from
the general run of soil should be recorded, also hills, swamps, bad
condition generally with brief notes as to how they may be bettered.
Turns in the road itself may be noted by an angle thus [Illustration],
[Illustration], [Illustration], [Illustration]. Where no turn is
shown, straight away is understood. Other information and natural or
artificial features that may prove interesting or helpful will suggest
themselves for record as the survey proceeds. Of course the mileage
of each route as measured by the odometer or speedometer from fixed
and known points on the map will be taken. By tabulating and mapping
the information recorded it will be possible to get at the comparative
merits of alternative routes.
A few simple surveying instruments will be useful in the work of
reconnoitering. A steel 100-foot tape, a hand level and inclinometer, a
pedometer, a pocket compass, a small aneroid barometer in mountainous
countries, a pioneer ax for blazing, and a small spade may be mentioned.
After the reconnaissance, hearings should be held, usually at county
seats, notice of such hearings having been given ahead of time. At
these hearings the maps are shown and a statement made relative to the
procedure. After which an invitation for suggestions and constructive
criticism and even complaints is given. From these people who are
locally interested in the roads many valuable suggestions will be
received, and if they cannot be followed the reasons therefor may be
stated. The people will thus know the investigation and the location of
the road have been fairly made and that any suggestions that cannot be
settled offhand will be duly considered before final location.
The final location will usually be arrived at or at least influenced
by the following considerations: Alignment and distance, population
served, grades, amount and character of haulage, other kinds of
transportation available, character of soil (sand, clay, gumbo, loam),
structures, bridges, railroad grade crossings and their possible
avoidance, discovery of entirely new routes, topography, geological
formation, and other natural features and numerous local conditions,
including availability and freight charges of road materials. These are
not intended to be in the order of importance, for no two roads may
have the same determining factors. The character of the road surface to
be used in construction may greatly affect the location. For example
it does not pay to use steep grades with hard smooth pavements. But
steeper grades may be used with earth and gravel roads without material
loss in efficiency.
It will seldom be necessary to resort to preliminary or complete survey
to lay out the plan. Sometimes further viewing of alternative roads may
be desirable and many times compromises will have to be made. A traffic
census on the several routes would be extremely valuable for it would
determine to which class, agricultural, commercial, or recreational,
the road belongs, and also the character of the traffic and what type
of construction is best suited. Especially where there are alternative
roads, as is usually the case in midwestern states where the roads were
established along the section lines of the U. S. land survey, it is
very difficult to determine which is the important highway without a
traffic census. It must be remembered, however, in this connection that
the improvement of a road will often draw to it much traffic from an
equally short competing line. It is quite likely that if 10 per cent of
all roads, provided they are properly selected, should be well improved
they would carry 90 per cent of all traffic.
=Financial Considerations.=--While little has been said of financial
considerations they are, of course, of prime importance. The amount of
money as a whole that may be expended is usually limited by the taxes
voted or the bonds issued. The planner must cut the garment according
to the cloth. He must know the approximate unit costs of the roads
that will be constructed as well as the mileage of the several types.
To know this he must estimate the amount of traffic that will pass over
the road, he should know also about what part of this is local and what
part through, in order that a just division of the cost may be made
between the local and larger units. If all the money of construction
were to be furnished by the national government, say, and only through
traffic were considered, directness and grades between controlling
points would be the determining factors. But since local traffic cannot
be excluded from the use of such roads it is but just that part of the
cost of building be paid locally, and if so, that modifications in the
lay out be made to accommodate the local conditions.
While the first cost of the road or the road system is of very great
importance and will probably be the greatest influencing factor for any
particular improvement or layout, the continued cost or cost covering a
series of years approximating the life of the road surface should also
have consideration.
=Traffic Census.=--An important consideration in the selection of
a road alignment, of its grades, its width, and of the type of its
foundations and surfacing, is the amount and the character of the
traffic which will pass over the roadway after it is built. The best
way to get a reasonable estimate of this is to take a traffic census.
This is to be used as a basis and to it should be added an estimate
of the increase in traffic which the improvement itself will produce
by drawing from parallel and contributing lines, and by the probable
change that the improvement will work in the character of the farming,
the industries and the settlements along its way.
The alignment will be affected by the quantity of traffic, for the
cost of haulage depends, though not proportionally, upon the length of
haul. No less will the alignment be affected by the class of traffic.
With horse-drawn vehicles curves of 40-foot radius were perfectly
acceptable, but with the automobile a 200-foot radius is none too
great. The new road systems now being adopted by states quite generally
endeavor to make all curves to have radii greater than 200 feet except
in mountainous regions, with a preference of 500 to 800 feet.
[Illustration:
© _Underwood and Underwood_
TRAFFIC ON FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY]
The longer radii allow the turns to be made without slowing up the
traffic, providing there is proper superelevation of the outer
edge. The longer the radius, that is, the flatter the curve, the
less superelevation is required, and the less the tipping sensation
experienced by slow-moving vehicles on the turn. Moreover, on short
curves a considerable widening of the pavement is required in order
that the inner and outer edges, and therefore all traffic lanes, may
have the same degree of curvature. Also, clear vision for the longer
distances necessary for fast-moving traffic is easier to obtain on flat
than on sharp turns.
The minimum grade of a roadway is usually a question of drainage,
but the character and quantity of traffic is a determining factor in
the establishment of steeper grades. Passenger cars can more easily
negotiate grades than can commercial trucks. The average passenger car
shifts to second gear at about a 7 per cent grade and there is very
little shifting necessary on a long 6 per cent grade, hence for such
cars 6 per cent may be considered a maximum for the high-speed gears.
This same car will have to drop into low at about 10 per cent. Hence
from the standpoint of the convenience of operating a passenger car
there is no justification in going to great expense to cut a 10, or a
9, or an 8 per cent grade to a 7 per cent grade. For the average 5-ton
truck 4 per cent and 8 per cent are the maximum grades for convenient
running in high and intermediate. There may and possibly are many other
reasons for cutting grades wherever possible. Where time is an element
economy is effected by the possible speeds on grades.
The width of the roadway will likewise be influenced by the quantity
and character of traffic. With slow-going wagons a width of 8 feet was
sufficient for one lane of traffic, but with the automobile safety
demands 10, and the Good Roads Conference of 1922 voted that no road
should be less than 22.
The best type of foundation and surface is a factor of quantity and
class of traffic, and while as yet all engineers do not agree, the
numerous experiments now being made may lead to standardization.
Just as an example may be mentioned the change that has taken place
in the effect of vehicles on waterbound macadam. Under horse-drawn,
iron-wheeled wagons and carriages this was considered an ideal
pavement. The horses’ shoes and the iron tires wore off of the stones
a sufficient amount of dust to keep the road crust well cemented. The
rubber tires of the automobile do not do that; furthermore, what dust
is on the road is picked up and scattered to the winds. The force of
the drive wheels also is sufficient to loosen the stones and roll them
from their bed, causing the roadway to ravel and disintegrate rapidly.
These arguments might be multiplied indefinitely, but enough has
been given to demonstrate the value to the road planner and the road
designer of a traffic census.
=Methods of Taking Traffic Censuses.=--It is well known that the
traffic on any road is not constant. A count, then, made on a single
day could not be applied for an entire year. Counting every day for the
year would, of course, give a correct total, but that is impracticable.
It is customary, therefore, to take the count on a limited number of
days and consider their average to be the average for the year. There
seems to be a seasonal variation in traffic and a weekly variation. The
season variation in crops affects all sorts of commercial enterprises,
of which the road traffic is one. Sunday traffic is largely pleasure
traffic, and is more dense as a rule than week-day traffic, which
is partially pleasure and partially business. In France, where more
regular and scientific censuses have been made than in any other
country, the counting days are divided uniformly between the seven days
of the week and the four seasons of the year, in order to eliminate,
as far as possible, the periodic variation. The number of counting days
per year is therefore, 28, and these are so arranged that each of the
days of the week figures once in each quarter. The interval between
counting days is, consequently, 13. For 1923, then, the count might be
made as follows:
-----------+-----------+----------+----------+-----------
Days of the| | | |
Week |1st Quarter|2d Quarter|3d Quarter|4th Quarter
-----------+-----------+----------+----------+-----------
Monday | Jan. 1 | Apr. 2 | July 3 | Oct. 2
Sunday | 14 | 15 | 16 | 15
Saturday | 27 | 28 | 29 | 28
Friday | Feb. 9 | May 11 | Aug. 11 | Nov. 10
Thursday | 22 | 24 | 24 | 23
Wednesday | Mar. 7 | June 6 | Sept. 6 | Dec. 6
Tuesday | 20 | 19 | 19 | 19
-----------+-----------+----------+----------+-----------
This method distributes the counting days uniformly over the entire
year, but evidently the expense would be considerable unless it can
be done by the regular patrolman. For the purpose of laying out a
system of highways quicker results might be desired. In Massachusetts,
Connecticut and other states two counts were made about two or three
months apart. If one were taken in July, say, and another in October
and the results averaged it is thought they might fairly represent the
year. Each period could cover an entire week, thus giving an average of
14 days during those seasons of the year when traffic might most nearly
represent the normal. Blanchard’s method[177] contemplates taking the
census in four periods of three days each, one in April, May, or June,
one in July, one in August, and one in September or October, as local
conditions may dictate. The days selected should include Sunday in
order to include the heavy automobile traffic on that day. If further
information is desired additional three-day periods could be taken
during the winter season. Most of the authorities seem to think that
the daylight hours from 5 A.M. to 9 P.M. are sufficient. But in the
light of the tests being conducted by the Illinois Highway Commission
which show alternate convex and concave warping of pavements from day
to night it might be well to take account of night traffic.
Some of the latest censuses, namely Iowa and Connecticut, placed scales
on the highways and actually weighed the vehicles. In Connecticut road
scales were used which weighed the individual wheel loads.
The observers are supplied with cards on which is printed the
classified list of vehicles and animals likely to pass with columns
for tallying them during the separate hours. The in-and-out-of-town
vehicles are recorded separately, and, if actual weights are not taken,
whether loaded or unloaded. Information relative to the weather and
condition of the roads is also noted, and there are blank spaces for
the station, the date, and the signature of the observer.
The station, or stations, should be so placed that the road or
district will be fairly represented, since it will not be practicable
to get exact data on every portion of a highway, for every turn-out,
branch line, or tributary will alter results. Each station should
be established in some place where a good view of the road for some
little distance may be had, and where the observers may be reasonably
comfortable. The number of observers will depend upon the amount of
traffic and the detailed information desired. With considerable traffic
it may be necessary to divide up the work, giving one set of observers
the in-traffic and another the out-traffic, one man to observe
passenger automobiles another trucks and delivery wagons, or one man to
jack up and weigh front wheels and another rear. System will result in
more accurate results, and in less loss of time for the drivers, and
less congestion of traffic. It is customary to take the census over
the entire system on the same days although that is not absolutely
necessary.
=Classification of Traffic.=--The object of a classification is to
obtain: (_a_) the maximum loads and average number of heavy loads per
day. (_b_) The lighter loads, whether horse drawn or motor driven,
iron, solid rubber or pneumatic tire, trailers, traction engines,
animals, harnessed and unharnessed, and any other load which might
affect the wear of the roadway. (_c_) Any other interesting data
regarding the traffic, such as, local or through, cars belonging within
or without the state or county, camping parties, and so on.
Maximum wheel loads are required, primarily, to see if state
regulations regarding them are being complied with. In the Connecticut
census it was found that a majority of trucks were loaded beyond their
rated capacity and many of them beyond the legal maximum wheel loads.
Again heavy loads stress a pavement near to its elastic limit every
time they pass over it. It is well established that any structural
material when stressed near, to, or beyond the elastic limit will
become fatigued with repeated stresses. The higher the stress the
quicker they will fail by fatigue. It is not considered good practice
to stress a material, especially a brittle material, repeatedly to a
point half-way to its elastic limit. (The elastic limit is that stress
that may be given to a body without producing a permanent set; below
which it will return to its original shape upon the removal of the
stress.) A walnut may not crack at the first blow but with a sufficient
number of no harder repeated blows will crack. The higher the stresses
the sooner the crack occurs. So it is important to know how many
loads daily are stressing a pavement near to its elastic limit. From
all the loads it has been the endeavor of road engineers to work out
“importance factors” that will measure the relative damage done by
the several classes. The Road Board of Great Britain has adopted the
British ton as a unit and calculations are based on the traffic in tons
per yard of width per year or per mile.[178] The British Road Board
Unit Weights are as follows: