TRANSPORT: ROADS

TRANSPORT

A. ROADS Roads are found everywhere in every form. Earliest roads were paths made by constant passage of human beings and animals. The first major road was the Persian Royal Road, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea over a distance of 2,857 km and was used from about 3,000 to 300 BC The" Amber Routes" were the earliest European roads and extended from Greece and Tuscany to the Baltic Sea. In East Asia, the Chinese built a road system that linked its major cities and had a combined length of about 3,200 km.
The Romans were the first to construct roads system­atically. However, with the decline of Rome, its roads fell into disrepair, and other than some interest in municipal street paving in the 15th and 16th centuries, there was little road-building activities in the West for more than 1,500 years.

Construction of roads was revived in the eighteenth century when systematically built and surfaced roads came into existence. The names of Telford, Metcalfe and McAdam are associated with pioneering efforts at road building in Britain. It was only when the motor came to be widely used that the majority of roads were widened, surfaced and improved. Roads are most suitable for short and medium distances. Other advantages are flexibility, reliability, speed and door-to-door service.
One of the first countries to establish a nationwide highway network was Germany. It was on Hitler's idea that.

a large mileage of highways in Germany called autobahns were developed. Autobahns are straight roads cutting directly across country, and have a good surface. Other European nations such as Belgium, Italy, France and Britain have also c,onstructed major ltighway networks known by various names such as autoroutes (France), autostrade (Italy), motorways (England) and highways (America). The construc­tion of good, long-distance roads has benefited tourism in many countries. T

he Pan-American highway, and the Brasillia-Belem roads across Brazil, for example, link the south to the Amazon ih South America. Trans-Canadian Highway links Vancouver in British Columbia (west coast) and St. John City in Newfoundland (east coast). Likewise, Alaskan Highway links Edmonton in Canada and Anchor­age in Alaska. Trans-Continental Stuart Highway in Aus­tralia connects Darwin in north and Melbourne in Victoria via Tennanat Creek and Alice Spring.

The prototype of the modern' superhighway was the Bronx River Parkwa.y, which was completed in 1925 in New York city.