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A short history of roads



A large part of the road system in Europe originates from Roman-times, even though there were of course, also roads before then. Last but not least, a factor not to be underestimated, was the benefit of a new concept of roadways for military purposes. The Romans gave us paving stones and an efficient method of having the water run off by cambering the surface.

Right up to just before the beginning of the industrialisation around 1830, the roads in central Europe were basically about the same as in the middle ages. One exception was the artistry of the French road builders who, from the mid 16th century onwards, introduced the Route National, mainly in France. In the rest of Europe the Roman structures were neglected and allowed to go to ruin.

The trunk roads were built mainly from the materials found in the region. That they became sodden when it rained and had deep ruts caused by the iron-clad wagon wheels, was common. Except in the mountainous regions, only short distances were needed for heavier transport. Goods and wares were often produced locally and agricultural products were sold in the nearby vicinity. A lot of the other transporting was done with ships or boats.

Longer distances were serviced by stagecoaches, these roads were called postal-routes. They were also important as through-roads to neighbouring countries, where again the military interest was also obvious. This, and the position of mountains, e.g, folded ranges, had an important influence concerning the laying out of roads.

Thereby, the period after the Napoleonic wars was a real growth-phase. The industrialisation which started in England earlier on, with the event of the steam engine, spilled over to the continent. There, the Scotsman, John Loudon McAdam, developed a, road-topping, using various types of gravel in a very complicated production process.

With this surface, a quick road-drainage after downpours of rain was achieved. Not only was this a safety factor, it also protected the road surface against frost damage in winter. The later introduced method of sealing the surface with tar or bitumen was also named after the Scottish inventor (Macadam or Tarmac).

Artistic streets, or the so called 'Causeways' were created. Thereby it must be recognised, that the construction of roads not only connected existing economic areas, but also, at least in the following century, made it attractive for, among other things, the developing of settlements. When building the streets, one often also took the opportunity to straighten their course. The main roads were now, more than wide enough to cope with two wagons or coaches abreast of each other.

There were as yet no cars. Everthing rolled along at the same, moderate speed. It wasn't unusual for the coachman to have a short nod, most of the time the horses found their way by themselves. There wasn't much dust being churned up either. The new roads also vastly improved the economic performance.

The industrialisation meant specialisation anyhow, thus, a higher product output and a smaller variety of goods. This by the way, was also valid for agriculture, where the mechanisation was just beginning. It should be clear that because of this, the demands made on the traffic routes were becoming higher. There were still hardly any cities or towns with a population of more than 40.000. This would quickly change, and with it the supply situation.

It was nothing unusual, that in 25 years, during the second half of the 19th century, the overland road-grid was tripled. A dividing of the responsibilities followed, similar to the existing mode here, between federal-, provincial and county roads. Suprisingly, the railways, which were in the meantime state-owned, also went through a similar tempestuous development period.

Politics also made sure that a certain ranking order was maintained. In their eyes, the railways would be the number one in long distance haulage until the middle of the following century. This was regulated through the concessions agency by limiting the number of hauliers and also stipulating the number of hours that they were allowed to drive. Later on, with the registration of trucks, these interventions would become even more drastic.

Politics had however, very little against individual traffic, indeed, the prosperity of whole regions depended on it. Then there were also the civil duties, e.g., festive occasions, parades and alarm-, or police tasks, and of course the demands, which were increasing in leaps and bounds, that accompanied the urban development. The predecessor of the trams or underground railways (only in bigger cities), was the horse-drawn tram.

The subject of inter-connection, which always plays a role when systems like this are built up, must be mentioned. In road construction, it's the side-streets or the connections to foreign borders, with the railways, it's the so-called branch-lines which sometimes also use a different gauge, as far as shipping was concerned, the canals made it possible to move from one river system to another. In addition, also the degree of navigability of natural waterways like the Rhine, is taken into consideration.

Trucks which could after all, even transport up to 5 tons and motorcycles, were far more seldom. After the turn of the century, the amount of motor vehicles in Germany increased by between 33% and 50% annually. It carried on like this up to the start of the First World War, that was then the end of private usage of motor cars. After that, there was the big inflation, which lasted until 1923.

Only after this period did the motor car overtake the horse and carriage. In 1925, there was one motor vehicle for every 200 inhabitants in Germany, in the rural areas, sometimes even less and in the urban areas, a bit more. Compared with the south of Europe, Germany was in the lead, compared with France and even with England, Germany was clearly lagging behind. Alone, in the front of the field, with a tenfold lead, also over Europe's two leaders, was the USA.

The buying of motorcycles at the beginning of the 20th century, started a little earlier than it did with the motor car. Later it was more a sign of the beginning of the economic upswing. In the second half of the century, e.g., during the 'economic miracle', as soon as the people had a bit more money in their pockets, the motorcycle would fade into the background, except for leisure purposes.

The trucks had a hard time right from the word go, and with Diesel engines, even much later. This was the case with buses as well, their first climax only occured around 1936. At first they were unwieldy vehicles, not much faster than the horse and carriage and also pretty expensive on top of that. All in all however, one can say, that after 1900, the motor vehicle was used for commercial purposes more than before.

In rural areas, similar to electricity, the motor car only appeared relatively late, roughly from 1925 onwards, then with an only slowly rising trend. By the way, it was not for nothing, that one of the first cars which was sold in larger quantities, was known as the 'Doctor-car'. There's the answer to the question of who could afford to drive to work in a motor car.

As long as the combustion engine had not edged out the horse-drawn vehicle, the facilities of the roads had to serve both 'partners'. Concrete, as was used, e.g., for motorway building after 1923, was considered to be unsuitable for horses hooves. The result was overland country roads with a cobble-stone surface. Tar was used as a sealing, but not everywhere, only in the fugues.

Through the consumption of fuel, the traffic created this possibility itself because bitumen is obtained during the distillation of fuel. It's quite interesting, that with the modernisation of these roads, up to 1930, a speed limit of under 60 km/h was imposed. Thus, they were made straighter, freed from unnecessary little humps and sometimes even bypassing villages. Also astonishing, was the relatively early introduction of curbs and cycle- paths. 05/12







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