UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
j| BULLETIN No. 390 
Contribution from the Office of Public Roads and Rural 
Engineering, LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director J&p'&SU 
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 of 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 lines. 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 policy was not practicable in connection with 
earlier bulletins owing to the fact that most of the States then had 
no established 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 enlist 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 
