The Romans had realized that a coordinated system of roadways connecting the major areas of their empire would be of prime significance for both commercial and military purposes. In the modern era, the nations of Europe first introduced the concept of highway systems. In France, for example, the State Department of Roads and Bridges was organized in 1716, and by the middle of the 18th century the country was covered by an extensive network of roads built and maintained primarily by the national government. In 1797 the road system was divided into three classes of descending importance: (1) roads leading from Paris to the frontiers, (2) roads leading from frontier to frontier but not passing through Paris, and (3) roads connecting towns. By the early 1920s this general plan remained essentially the same except that a gradual change in class and responsibility had taken place. At that time the road system was divided into four classes: (1) national highways, improved and maintained by the national government, (2) regional highways, improved and maintained by the department under a road service bureau appointed by the Department Commission, (3) main local roads, connecting smaller cities and villages, built and maintained from funds of the communes supplemented by grants from the department, and (4) township roads, built and maintained by the communities alone.
The United Kingdom
While the British recognized the necessity for national support of highways and a national system as early as 1878, it was the Ministry of Transport Act of 1919 that first classified the roadway system into 23,230 miles of Class I roads and 14,737 miles of Class II roads. Fifty percent of the cost of Class I roads and 25 percent of the cost of Class II roads were to be borne by the national government. In the mid-1930s the need for a national through-traffic system was recognized, and the Trunk Roads Act of 1939, followed by the Trunk Roads Act of 1944, created a system of roadways for through traffic. The Special Roads Act of 1949 authorized existing or new roads to be classified as “motorways” that could be reserved for special classes of traffic. The Highways Act of 1959 swept away all previous highway legislation in England and Wales and replaced it with a comprehensive set of new laws.
The United States and Canada
The mammoth U.S. Interstate Highway System (formally, the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways) developed in response to strong public pressures in the 1950s for a better road system. These pressures culminated in the establishment by President Dwight Eisenhower of the Clay Committee in 1954. Following this committee’s recommendations, the Federal Aid Highway Act and the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 provided funding for an accelerated program of construction. A federal gasoline tax was established, the funds from which, with other highway-user payments, were placed in a Highway Trust Fund. The federal-state ratio for funding construction of the Interstate System was changed to 90 percent federal and 10 percent state. It was expected that the system would be completed no later than 1971, but cost increases and planning delays extended this time by some 25 years. The system grew to a total length of more than 45,000 miles, connecting nearly all the major cities in the United States and carrying more than 20 percent of the nation’s traffic on slightly more than 1 percent of the total road and street system.
The Canadian Highway Act of 1919 provided for a system of 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) of highways and provided for a federal allotment for construction not to exceed 40 percent of the cost. By the end of the century, more than 134,000 kilometres (83,000 miles) of highway had been built, of which approximately 16,000 kilometres (9,900 miles) were freeway.
