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State Highway Systems Transportation

Posted by aditya | 2:10 PM | , , | 1 comments »



In each state a system of roads has been designated by the legislature as a state highway system. Rural proportions of the total most important arteries; at the other they have assumed responsibility for almost all rural roads, including some with gravel or soil surfaces. It is common for rural state systems to incorporate the Interstate System, the federal-aid primary system and some routes from the federal-aid secondary system, and possibly other important highways as well. The combined length of the 50 state highway systems is 704,000 mi rural and 87,000 mi urban. ADT, including In-terstate System traffic, was roughly 2300 rural and 22,000 urban in 1978.
Only 12% of the urban mileage is on state highway systems. This is a continuation of the viewpoint from early days that streets are primarily a local responsibility.

County and Township Roads
In the 3000 counties of the United States there are 1.7 million mi of rural roads not in the state highway systems. A relatively small portion of this mileage is in the federal-aid secondary system. These are commonly classified as local rural roads, although in large urban areas, county roads may include major traffic arteries. In addition, there are some 17,000 townships and other jurisdictions that have distinct and separate rural road systems. Their mileage totals 519,000.
The various secondary, federal, and local rural road systems constitute 86% of the nation's road mileage, the vehicle- miles accumulated on them are less than one-fourth the total. Their function is largely that of land service, and traffic averages about 110 vehicles per day or about one vehicle every three minutes in the peak hour. Many carry far lower volumes. In less populated areas, improvements are often of a low' order; nationwide, some 651,000 mi are primitive or are only graded and drained. Land- use studies have revealed that many rural agencies have mileage in excess of that needed for proper land service and many are making efforts to abandon some of it. 

Urban Streets
As noted, some important urban streets have been incorporated into the federal- aid or state highway systems. There remains 607,000 mi of streets and alleys in
18,0 urban communities that are under local control. Some serve primarily as arteries for local traffic and others mainly provide access to property. Traffic on them varies widely, but averages about 800 vehicles per day. Volume on purely residential streets would be far lower.

Title Post: State Highway Systems Transportation
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Author: aditya