Road
A road is a strip of land, smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to
allow easy travel, connecting two or more destinations. Some roads are
streets, chiefly in urban areas.
In the context of railways (railroads in American English), a road is
a single track, which may be part of a multi-track system or may be an
isolated line. In the context of sea transport, a road is an anchorage.
Usage and etymology
Misty road in Australia, entering into a township.In original usage, a
"road" was simply any pathway fit for riding ("road"
is cognate with "ride", e.g.: ships ride at anchor in roads).
The word “street,” whose origin is the Latin strata, was kept
for paved pathways that had been prepared to ease travel in some way.
Thus, many "Roman Roads" have the word "street" as
part of their street name.
However, modern usage does not usually make this distinction and it is
only important since place names often hold the earlier usage in them;
these days, roads are also prepared in some way. This includes, at the
least, the removal of trees and smoothing of the ground. In some dialects,
lower grade roads are called trails and tracks and it is uncertain where
"road" begins and trail ends. Roads are a prerequisite for road
transport of goods on wheeled vehicles.
The word “road” emphasizes its function of transportation
along its length, while a “street” may be considered to have
activity and commerce taking place on it (see street life).
A cobblestone Roman road in Pompeii.
History
The first pathways were the trails made by migrating animals. By about
10,000 BC, these rough pathways were used by human hunter nomads following
these herds.
Street paving has been found from the first human settlements around 4,000
BC.
The oldest engineered road discovered is the Sweet Track causeway in England,
dating from the 3800 BC.
The Ancient Egyptians constructed a stone paved road to help move materials
for the building of the Great Pyramid in about 3000 BC.
The ancient Chinese constructed an extensive system of roads, some paved,
from about 1100 BC onwards. By 20 AD, the Chinese road network extended
over 40,000km.
The Incas built fine highways for couriers through the Andes, and the
Mayans built an extensive network of paved roads in Mexico before the
European discovery of the New World.
In ancient times, transport by river was far easier and faster than travel
by road, especially considering the cost of road construction and the
difference in carrying capacity between carts and river barges. A hybrid
of road transport and ship transport is the horse-drawn boat in which
the horse follows a cleared path along the river bank.
From about 300 BC, the Roman Empire built straight strong stone Roman
roads throughout Europe and North Africa, in support of its military campaigns.
Road construction and maintenance in Britain was traditionally done on
a local parish basis. The poor and variable state of the roads that resulted
lead to the first of the 'Turnpike Trusts' around 1706. These were formed
to build good roads and collect tolls from passing vehicles. Eventually
there were approximately 1,100 Trusts in Britain and some 38,000 km of
engineered roads.
Engineered roads in the age of horse drawn transport aimed for a maximum
gradient of 1 in 30 on a macadamized surface since this was the steepest
a horse could exert to pull a load up hill which it could manage easily
on the flat. Notable road engineers from this period are Pierre Marie
Jérôme Trésaguet (1716-1796) in France and John Loudon
McAdam (1756-1836) in England.
During the industrial revolution,the railway developed as a solution to
the problem of rutting of the road surface by heavy carts. Instead of
trying to build a strong surface across the whole road the cart was constrained
to run either on rails or grooves which could be made of much stronger
, wear resistant material.
Today, roads are almost exclusively built to enable travel by car and
other wheeled vehicles. In most countries, road transport is the most
utilized way to move goods. Also, in most developed countries, roads are
formally divided into lanes to ensure the safe and smooth movement of
traffic.
Funding
Road building and maintenance an area of economic activity (compare military
spending) that remains dominated by the public sector (though often through
private contractors). Roads (except those on private property not accessible
to the general public) are typically paid for by taxes (often raised through
levies on fuel), though some public roads, especially highways are funded
by tolls.
A major road in Japan, where traffic drives on the left.[edit]
Driving on the right or the left
Traffic drives on the right or on the left side of the road depending
on the country. See Rules of the road. In countries where traffic drives
on the right, traffic signs are mostly on the right side of the road,
roundabouts (traffic circles) go counter-clockwise, and pedestrians crossing
a two-way road should watch out for traffic from the left first. In countries
where traffic drives on the left, the reverse is true.
Traffic flow and road design in both cases are each other's mirror image.
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