PUBLIC THOROUGHFARES 193 



It is unfortunate that in locating highways better 

 judgment was not exercised. While our system of 

 dividing land into sections one mile square and frac- 

 tions of sections is admirable for describing land 

 areas, the location of roads on the boundaries of 

 these sections is often a mistake from a practical as 

 well as an aesthetic point of view. Many farmers, 

 on account of section line roads which often go up 

 hill and down, have had to lift all the produce hauled 

 to market many feet unnecessarily and travel many 

 miles farther than would have been the case had the 

 roads been laid out wisely. Some of the mistakes 

 can perhaps be corrected in the building of state 

 roads. 1 



Curved highways, while in most cases shorten- 

 ing the distance to be traveled, and allowing roads 

 on easy grades to be constructed economically, have 

 the additional merit not only of looking better than 



1 A. R. Hirst, State Highway Engineer of Wisconsin, in his Presidential 

 address at the fifth annual meeting of the American Association of State High- 

 way Officials at Louisville, Ky., December, 1919, states, as reported in "Good 

 Roads," that the value of a mile in highway distance saved where there are 

 only one hundred vehicles a day would be $3650.00, which, capitalized at five 

 per cent, would be $73,000.00. If there were two hundred and fifty vehicles, 

 the saving a mile on the same basis would be $182,500.00. It is not at all 

 uncommon for a thoroughfare entering one of our larger cities to accommodate 

 one thousand vehicles or more. For a mile saved on such a thoroughfare the 

 gain would be $730,000.00 or more. With this inducement for making "short 

 cuts," it seems probable that many roads will be changed. 



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