UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 390 



Contribution from the Office of Public Roads and Rural 

 J^^'^^U Engineering, LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director 



Washington, D. C. ▼ January 12, 1917 



PUBLIC ROAD MILEAGE AND REVENUES IN THE 

 UNITED STATES, 1914. A SUMMARY. 



(Based upon Bulletins 386, 387, 388, and 389) 



Showing for Each State Total and Surfaced Mileage of Public Roads at the close 

 of 1914, Revenues for Roads and Bridges in 1914, State and Local Road and 

 Bridge Bonds Outstanding on January 1, 1915, and Other Related Data. 



Prepared Jointly by the Division op Road Economics of the Office of Public 

 Roads and Rural Engineering and State Collaborators. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



In 1904 the Office of Public Roads adopted the policy of con- 

 ducting at five-year intervals an investigation to determine the 

 mileage of improved and unimproved roads, the revenues for road 

 purposes, and other related data. In accordance with that policy, 

 Bulletin No. 32 of the Office of Public Roads was issued for the 

 calendar year 1904, and Bulletin No. 41 for the calendar year 1909. 

 Both bulletins were based largely on data obtained by correspond- 

 ence. The investigation made for the year 1914 followed somewhat 

 different Hues. A closer cooperation with State highway depart- 

 ments was maintained, and wherever practicable' the information 

 was collected directly by collaborators named by the respective State 

 highway departments and acting under specific instructions from 

 this office. This poUcy was not practicable in connection with 

 earlier bulletins owing to the fact that most of the States then had 

 no estabHshed highway departments. 



In several of the States, either because no highway departments 

 existed in 1914 or for other reasons, information was collected by 

 this office directly from local authorities. In the course of the 

 investigation it was found necessary to enUst the aid of local and 

 State road associations, chambers of commerce, automobile clubs, 

 postmasters, and private individuals in order to obtain even reason- 

 ably complete information. Highway accounting systems and 



66074°— Bull. 390—17 



