Highways as Elements of Transportation

The paper shows that, for handling large volumes of traffic through congested areas, highways should be designed for the main purpose of transportation rather than as adjuncts of the abutting properties. It is pointed out that where congestion of existing city streets interferes with the r easo nably free pass age of vehicles and pedestrians, highways of the type described are necessary, not only to expedite through traffic, but also to restore such streets to their normal uses. The author includes a brief description of the through trunk highway recently built by the State of New Jersey through Jersey City and Newark; discusses the factors which influcnced its location; and develops a general economic theory which governs the relation between cost of construction and the operating costs of vehicles using highways of this character. This theory is based on the principles of Wellington's “E conomic Theory of Railway Location.”