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National Boards => General Highway Talk => Topic started by: J N Winkler on August 25, 2013, 10:19:20 PM

Title: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: J N Winkler on August 25, 2013, 10:19:20 PM
Found on Archive.org while looking for other things--the old BPR/FHWA periodical Public Roads is now available (uploaded earlier this year):

http://archive.org/details/publicroads1820offi

Other volumes are available and can be found by entering "Public Roads" in the Archive.org search box.  The run is substantially complete, but there are several gaps.  Aside from a few skipped issues in the early years, the issues from May 1921 to February 1924 (almost three years' worth) are missing.  A total of 11,676 pages are available.

Public Roads has a little something for everyone in the roadgeek community.  There are articles about highway administration and practice in other industrialized countries (France, July 1920; Britain, August 1920; Canada, September 1920), about signing and marking of state trunk highway systems (January 1919:  the author is the then state highway engineer for Wisconsin and the article includes descriptions of the original Wisconsin route marker--isn't Wisconsin traditionally credited as the first in this area?), about highway finance (receipts and disbursements at both the state and federal level were annual features from the mid-1930's onward), visibility of highway signs (articles in September 1933, April 1956, and June 1965), land acquisition, highway capacity, passing behavior, geometric design, traffic diversion curves, international road congresses to which the US sent representatives in the interwar years, Interstate completion status from the late 1950's onward, and many, many other topics.
Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: NE2 on August 25, 2013, 10:38:59 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on August 25, 2013, 10:19:20 PM
the author is the then state highway engineer for Wisconsin and the article includes descriptions of the original Wisconsin route marker--isn't Wisconsin traditionally credited as the first in this area?
Yes, in the U.S. France beat them by many years though.

Anything about the New England routes?
Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: J N Winkler on August 25, 2013, 11:28:26 PM
I didn't see anything on the New England routes specifically, but the January-February 1920 issue has an article on signing and marking which touches on coordination of route numbering across state lines.  There are also descriptions of the Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin route markers as they then existed.  (Illinois used concrete posts with state outline, route number, and milepoint; Michigan used signs on posts; Wisconsin used a triangular design which could potentially be found painted on anything--utility poles, culvert endwalls, bridge wingwalls, billboards, etc.--and was supposed to appear often enough that no motorist would ever lose sight of a marker for the route he or she was on.)
Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: J N Winkler on September 13, 2013, 03:42:41 PM
I am posting a list of articles of interest that I found when I went through Public Roads last month to notate issue coverpages (which I tabulate and use with several article lookup scripts).  It gives an idea of what the magazine has to offer, but is not intended to be a comprehensive index, and is skewed heavily toward my main areas of interest, such as traffic signing, highway economics, and social history.

Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: agentsteel53 on September 13, 2013, 03:48:22 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on September 13, 2013, 03:42:41 PM
July 1940:  Study of motor vehicle drivers and speed in Connecticut.

study conclusion: 10mph below the speed limit, in the left lane, much to the consternation of NY and MA through traffic.
Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: Alps on September 14, 2013, 01:44:44 AM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 13, 2013, 03:48:22 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on September 13, 2013, 03:42:41 PM
July 1940:  Study of motor vehicle drivers and speed in Connecticut.

study conclusion: 10mph below the speed limit, in the left lane, much to the consternation of NY and MA through traffic.

Except on freeways, where they will go 90 to make up for it.
Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: Kniwt on September 15, 2013, 11:26:27 PM
In a similar vein, while looking for these, I found that archive.org also hosts an extensive collection of "Good Roads," the journal started in the 1890s by the League of American Wheelmen.

For instance, here are some issues from 1895:
http://archive.org/details/goodroads713leag

A surprising quantity of photos!
Title: Re: 'Public Roads' (1918-1970) now available online
Post by: HurrMark on September 20, 2013, 06:04:12 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on August 25, 2013, 10:19:20 PM
(January 1919:  the author is the then state highway engineer for Wisconsin and the article includes descriptions of the original Wisconsin route marker--isn't Wisconsin traditionally credited as the first in this area?)

In Jan-Feb 1920, they discuss how WI was in the process of creating mile markers. Basically, the signs were 3 x 6 (about a quarter the size of the NY/VT reference markers) and had two numbers - the "south" number was always one below the "north" number . So if you see 3/4, you are in the 4th mile of the highway. I guess since cars weren't meant to go 65+ mph in those days, it was probably a bit easier to read them...