Roadways
are enormously important to all countries. Without roadways, farmers can't get their produce to
market, factories can't transport goods to retail outlets, and people can't get from one point
to another without a lot of difficulty. Countries or regions without adequate roadways cannot
function. That is why all governments place a great deal of emphasis on infrastructure: because
if people, goods and services can't get around, than an economy can't function and a society
can't evolve.
One of the earliest known roadways is the Appian Way,
constructed in ancient Rome as a means of transporting military supplies to soldiers in the
field. The Appian Way was begun in the 4th Century B.C., and was the precursor to a major push
for more and better roads for both military and commercial purposes.
In the
United States, the Federal Highway Act of 1956, considered one of then-President Dwight
Eisenhower's crowning achievements, provided what was then the most extensive and impressive
interconnected highway system in the world. Its construction enabled the more efficient, and
less costly, transport of goods between cities and states, and allowed for an increasingly
mobile population to travel the country more widely and quickly. Today, the country's roadways
remain as vital as ever. The United States Department of Commerce, citing the American Trucking
Association, states that "trucks moved 9.2 billion tons of freight, or about 67 percent of
all freight tonnage transported domestically" during 2011. Clearly, use of the roadways
remains vital to the functioning of the economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment