bringing engineers together for lectures on the latest developments in the field. He also strengthened a weak road maintenance system and encouraged counties to be more efficient by acquiring road machinery such as cement mixers and dump cars.
Some of the most important advances in road improvements, and some of the most important legislation, took place during Rogers' first few years in office. They included:
- The Covert Law, championed by Philip Colgrove of the Michigan Good Roads Association, authorizing the formation of special assessment districts in the counties for road improvements, with property owners, the counties and the townships sharing the costs of the various projects. It triggered a new spurt in road-building.
- The Automobile Tax Law effective in 1916 was Michigan’s first weight tax for automobiles, taxing passenger cars at 25 cents per horsepower and 25 cents per 100 pounds of weight. The levy on motortrucks was 15 cents, with half of all proceeds going to the state highway department and half to the counties, all to be used for highway purposes.
- A law promoted by a beauty-conscious Rogers authorizing the highway department to plant trees along all state reward roads.
- Legislation authorizing the commissioner to name all unnamed state roads and post signboards on public highways with the name of the road and the distance to the nearest settlement. These coincided with efforts of the automobile clubs to guide motorists by such means as painting bands of different colors on roadside telephone poles along the main routes between cities.
- Laws and efforts by the department, the auto clubs and others to sign thousands of railroad grade crossings.
- The Bryant Bill of 1917, which for the first time imposed regulations on the axles, tires and speed of vehicles and set 15 tons as the maximum weight for vehicles traveling state roads.
A "Rube Goldberg" type of contraption was used for laying down centerline markings on state highways in the 1920's.
The years before America's entry into World War I also produced the first federal highway aid law, approved by Congress in 1916, allocating $75 million to the states. Michigan was ready to match its share dollar for dollar, collecting nearly S2.2 million of the total.
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