HIGHWAY BONDS. 7 



Office of Public Roads are given in Table 2. Actual traffic count 

 was made four times for seven consecutive days on all the roads. 

 The traffic areas, traffic estimates, and the hauling-cost data were 

 determined in the field. The weight derived from loaded teams and 

 motor trucks only is entered in this table, and the ton-mile hauling 

 costs include a slight increment for loading and unloading. 



Highway improvement with borrowed money must be regarded as 

 an investment. The only way, however, that a measurable income 

 arises from the investment is by the reduction of hauling costs. 

 From the standpoint of public economy the annual cost of hauling 

 represents the operating expenses of the road system. The direct 

 return upon the highway investment, then, is the reduction in oper- 

 ating expenses. This difference between the old hauling costs and 

 the hauling costs over the improved roads is a real saving to the 

 community. In the language of railroad bookkeeping, this differ- 

 ence is an operating income to the community. It is invariably 

 true that the ' improvement of market roads is followed by an 

 increase in annual tonnage, so that estimates based on the existing 

 tonnage are usually conservative. Doubtless much more money 

 can be spent for well-planned and well-built roads without over- 

 capitalizing them. 



The unit in which hauling costs are measured is the ton-mile. The 

 cost of hauling a ton 1 mile on a pOor road probably varies on an 

 average from 20 to 35 cents. (See Table 2.) It depends on the con- 

 dition of the road and changes greatly during the year. Recent 

 figures for hauling over unimproved roads in the mountain regions 

 of West Virginia and Kentucky also show seven instances where the 

 cost per ton-mile varied from 23 to 37 cents. Ton-mile costs as low 

 as 10 cents are common in Europe on first-class highways. Even 

 with the extreme variations of wages it is doubtful if the cost per 

 ton-mile anywhere in this country on an adequately improved road 

 exceeds 15 cents. Cross ties were hauled over improved gravel 

 roads in Spotsylvania County, Va., in April, 1913, for about 12.7 

 cents and less per ton-mile, and apples were hauled by motor trucks 

 on good roads in Jackson County, Oreg., in October, 1913, for a little 

 more than 11 cents a ton-mile. 



To understand how many tons a highway can carry in a year, 

 assume a market town from which radiate six roads uniformly dis- 

 tributed and 12 miles long. There is then a circular traffic area of 

 12 miles radius and each road serves theoretically one-sixth of this 

 area, which is 75.4 square miles. The average haul for each separate 

 road is about 8 miles. (See p. 8.) If each acre tributary to this 

 road supplies only 200 pounds of produce, which must move to 

 market an average distance of 8 miles, the road carries an annual 

 traffic of at least 38,605 ton-miles. Another way to view this traffic 



