Growth of the automobile road

In the period of the popularization of the automobile both Europe and the United States built networks of roads and highways. In 1924, in Rome, the first modern automobile-oriented road, the autostrada, was opened to the use of fast traffic in the city. Speed was limited. In the years after World War I, Germany experimented first in 1922 with the six-mile Avus highway near Berlin, a similar limited-access road used to give rapid access to the suburbs.

In the 1930s Germany began to build the Autobahns, free-flowing roads with grade separations and limited access, allowing motorists rapid departure from cities. Hitler saw great military value in these roads and began to construct a network to reach all Germany's borders, though it was still incomplete in 1945. Only after World War II did other European countries begin to copy these automotive roads. Rising levels of automobile ownership after the war led to the residential suburbs and outlying shopping centres of the sort that had appeared in the United States in the 1930s. This enlargement of the market for cars caused major restructuring of automobile manufacturing, ending the era of the special car for the wealthy.

In the United States the earlier creation of a mass market for automobiles meant that urban roads were crowded with cars by the 1930s. It was this demand rather than military objectives that led to the “superhighway.” Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California were leaders in this effort. Highways of four driving lanes, grade-separations at route intersections, and channelized turns at such intersections were in existence by 1937 when limited access was introduced.

The dominant role of the automobile in American transportation arose despite a transportation infrastructure that was initially not at all conducive to such an outcome. Since the Middle Ages in Europe residents had been required to build and maintain roads in their own local areas. When English settlers arrived in America this system was continued. This practice assured that roads were highly parochial in interest as well as in origin. The development of railroads in the United States allowed the parochial roads to survive, because the railroads could provide for longer-distance connections. In essence, roads did no more than lead to the nearest railroad depot. Central governments in Europe created systems by which the local networks of roads could be coordinated. The legal structure in the United States, and the substantially larger areas to be traversed, prevented such a development in North America until after World War I. On his return from Europe after the war, General John J. Pershing was asked to head a committee to organize a system of national defense highways. In 1922 the so-called Pershing Map was published designating roads of national importance, which were eligible for both federal designation and support. In this indirect manner a way was found to create a national highway system. Authorizations during the 1920s and '30s increased aid, but it was essentially restricted to rural roads, leaving increasingly costly urban road improvements entirely to the states or to the cities themselves.

In 1956 Congress adopted the Interstate Highway System, which was structured to meet two needs: the creation of a national system of automotive highways (which ultimately was to have a network of about 44,000 miles) and to allow federal financing for the extremely costly stretches of urban mega highways (which were beyond the resources of the increasingly impoverished cities).

Canada began a more modest effort fitted to the linear nature of Canadian geography in the 1960s. In other parts of the world, the advent of the automobile found a similarly primitive natural road system that has only over a full century been brought up to the standard called for by automotive travel.

Since the improvement of infrastructure has taken place, most human beings have at last gained a level of mobility that has been an objective of human effort since before the historical record was first kept.

II. Look through the text again and answer the following questions:

1. What did the rising level of the automobile lead to?

2. Why do you think the roads in Europe were highly parochial?

3. Why did the development of railroads in the USA allow the parochial roads to survive?

4. Who and why published a map of the roads of the national importance?

5. Why was the Interstate Highway System adopted in 1956?

6. What has changed in human life with the improvement and enlargement of roads since the early times?

III. Match the words with their definitions and make up your own sentences with these words:

1. highway a) a road junction or crossing ;

2. traffic b) to give a name, to indicate or specify;

3. border c) relating to the country life;

4. intersection d) an arrival or coming;

5. to designate e) narrow or tight;

6. parochial f) sanction or permission;

7. to restrict g) a main road esp. one that connects towns and cities;

8. authorization h) to confine or keep within certain limits;

9. rural i) the vehicles coming and going in a street, town, etc.;

10. advent j) the frontier between geographic regions;

IV. Read the following statements and discuss them with a partner:

1. Major restructuring of automobile manufacturing was caused by the enlargement of the market for cars.

2. The earlier creation of a mass market for automobiles made the urban roads crowded with cars.

3. In some parts of the world, the advent of the automobile found a similarly primitive natural road system.

4. Since the beginning of the automobile age most human beings have at last gained a level of mobility.

Giving your opinion you may find the following expressions helpful:

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