Which Came First – the Automobile or the Roads?

Today, one can easily travel by automobile from one edge of the country to another given the time, patience and resources. Today’s vast roadway infrastructure combined with ever improving automobile manufacturing technology gives motorists of the United States travel options that were unheard of just a few decades ago. Drivers can now navigate thousands of miles on paved roads through rural areas and metropolitan cities with equivalent ease, though such widespread road accessibility has not always been the case. Road building is not by any means a new phenomenon, and can be traced back thousands of years. But the modern techniques and materials used in road construction today have given us safer, more durable roadways capable of enduring increasing traffic and lasting years longer than roads of the past.

Primitive road building relied mostly on conglomerates of gravel and sand. When commercially available automobiles were introduced and began to experience increasing popularity, shortfalls of the few roads that existed became apparent. Dirt roads throughout America soon proved inadequate for even the bicycle and wagon travel of the time. Booming popularity of Henry Ford’s Model T in the early 1900s spurred federal involvement in road development. A series of legislative acts throughout the years following facilitated the construction of new, asphalt paved roads that would expand America’s horizons for leisurely travel and commerce alike. Evolving military needs during World War II shifted the focus of road construction, prompting the proliferation of military use roads that were capable of withstanding heavier loads.

After World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized a “National System of Interstate Highways,” though a lack of funding prevented progress on the construction of an interstate highway system until several years later when President Dwight Eisenhower approved the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. With federal funding finally in place to back the plan, construction began on the vast system of interstates that now connects major cities throughout the country and gives Americans access to modern roadways for both long and short commutes.
Residents of the United States are all affected in some way by the intricate system of roadways that now exists throughout the nation, either directly as travelers or indirectly through the use of products which are transported thousands of miles along U.S. roads and interstates to reach consumers. Road construction and the automobile industry have significantly influenced one another as they have both risen to unprecedented importance to the culture, lifestyle and commerce of America today.

About the Author: Greg Chapman, of Greg Chapman Motors, is a provider of used cars in Austin TX. For more information please visit Greg Chapman Motors.