ECONOMY IN HIGHWAY TRANSPORT

Roy D. Chapin
The New York Times
January 4, 1920

By Roy D. Chapin
Chairman Highways Committee, National Automobile Chamber of Commerce

In a day when every expenditure should be rigidly scrutinized and every effort made to overcome the burden which the world war has saddled upon us, the need of a national highway system stands out more clearly than every before.

Intelligent improvement and maintenance of our highways, at a comparatively insignificant cost, would save enough money in transportation costs to pay off the nation's war debt within the lifetime of the present generation and leave a handsome residue in the treasury.

This is a large statement. There are 6,500,000 passenger cars in the United States today. Assume that a national highway system of 30,000 miles should be constructed and maintained by the Government. If each of these cars traveled but 1,200 miles a year on the national system a saving of one and a half cents a mile in gasoline and tire costs would easily be effected or a total of $117,000,000 a year.

Government figures show that a saving of 17 cents a ton mile in commercial traffic is made when roads are improved. The Congressional investigation of 1912 deduced an annual highway traffic of 700,000,000 tons. A conservative statement would place the total today at 1,000,000,000 tons. On the assumption that but one-fifth of this traveled over the national system (and an improved road always draws much more) there would be a ton-mileage saving of $123,000,000. Since the average haul is ten miles an hour the actual saving per ton of merchandise would be $340,000,000 a year.

Thus in two items we have arrived at an annual saving of $457,000,000, or more than is asked for over a period of four years in the bill introduced by Senator Townsend of Michigan proposing the construction of such a system.

The vision of the United States bound together by a network of durable highways is one which we should seek to make a reality at the earliest possible moment.