registered had increased from 55,000 in 1904 to nearly 2 million in 1914.[1] But this increase is not as great as it appears to be, since it represents a larger number of States requiring vehicle registration in the later year—47 as compared with only 13 in 1904. Imposts on motor vehicles, rapidly growing in importance as a source of State income for highways, provided $12 million of the $75 million spent by the States for that purpose.
Of the almost 2.5 million miles of rural roads in1914, only 257,000 were surfaced and a mere 14,000 miles had a high type of surface:
| Bituminous | 10,500 miles |
| Brick | 1,600 miles |
| Concrete | 2,300 miles |
By 1916, 3.4 million autos were registered and 1 truck for every 14 autos. Roads were not equipped to meet the needs of this growing vehicle population. Probably because of the poor condition of most rural roads and their discontinuity, the use of trucks was limited almost entirely to cities and their close-in suburbs. Although trucks were beginning to be used for intercity transportation, this use was not yet economically significant and was largely restricted to the household moving industry.
Yet the potential of trucking was recognized; and farmers, railroads, and others joined the ranks of the auto owners and wheelmen (bicyclists) who were dissatisfied with the progress being made and who were pressing for better roads. One of their loudest complaints was about the lack of completed intercounty and interstate improved routes.
County and local authorities tended to improve those roads that were the objects of the greatest local pressure or were best suited to the needs of the local economy in narrow terms, with little regard for the requirements of the traffic going to and from other jurisdictions. Nor did the States usually make a serious effort to gear their road improvements to those of adjoining States.
A step forward in progress toward connected road systems, the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 contained some of the most important principles still in effect today. The Act reserved to the States the right to initiate projects and determine their characteristics and to perform the work directly or by contract. Completed projects were to be federally inspected and approved for reimbursement to the extent of 50 percent of the funds expended, not to exceed $10,000 a mile. The policy of the United States Government favoring a tax-supported highway system was expressed in a provision that “All roads constructed under the provision of this Act shall be free from tolls of all kinds.”
While the Act itself did not require that Federal aid be spent upon designated-system routes, the Bureau of Public Roads requested that each State highway department designate a limited system to which it would confine its Federal aid. Maintenance was made a State and local responsibility.
In recognition of the longer time span required for financing large capital improvements, funds were appropriated for a 5-year program and were apportioned among the States according to a formula based on area, population, and post road mileage. Thus, the eligibility of roads for improvement with Federal-aid money, adopted from the earlier post road Act, carried forward the justification of Federal aid on the basis of the use of roads for carrying, the mail, although the provision was so broad as to enable almost any rural road to qualify.
World War I and Its Aftermath
At the end of 1917, all 48 States had formed highway departments adequate to meet the requirements of the 1916 Act, and 26 States had submitted for approval 92 projects involving 948 miles of road, expected to cost about $5 million. With United States’ participation late in World War I came general economic dislocations because of the draining of man- power and materials to the war effort. By the 1918 fiscal year, all Federal-aid work was limited to projects essential to that effort. Even so, the required projects were such that the amonut of Federal-aid construction completed and under agreement continued to grow.
Following the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the public began to clamor for a speedup in the regular Federal-aid program. In 1919, Congress increased the appropriation for the period 1916–1921 from $75 million to $200 million. In spite of the handicaps of shortages and high costs of materials and labor, strikes, and unrest, the work accomplished during fiscal year 1920 exceeded by 25 percent all work done previously under the Federal Aid Road Act.
During the year, a survey was launched to obtain data needed to establish a classified system of highways. At the same time, Federal officials were cooperating with the War Department in selecting a system of highways of military importance.
Before the First World War, the military establishment exhibited little interest in trucks and truck transportation. In 1911 the Army began experimenting with their use. In 1912 it tried out trucks of 11 different makes in a cross-country operation from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Georgia, and thence to a camp near Sparta, Wisconsin. Only one vehicle, an all-wheel drive truck, finished the journey. The resulting Army report approved the use of trucks for field and supply purposes, but nothing came of it.
By this time, the Office of Public Roads had become interested in the possibilities of overland truck transportation. In 1911, the agency participated in the first coast-to-coast journey made by a truck by designating the driver as a special agent of the Office of Public Roads. Although the trip was accomplished in two entirely separate operations, it reached both coasts and demonstrated that trucks could negotiate the nearly impassable roads and rugged terrain.
World War I was the first “motorized” war, and thousands of trucks were built by American factories for military use. In 1919 a convoy of 20 Army trucks was sent from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco to further demonstrate the capability of such vehicles for wartime transportation. It took 56 days to complete the trip. One of the officers making the journey was Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower, who became greatly impressed with the possibilities of highway transportation.
- ↑ Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics Summary to 1965 (U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1967), p. 23.
