HIGHWAY BONDS. 7 
v 
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 saying 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 
