For the trucking industry the system was a boon. Trucks had been siphoning business from the railroads for decades, and the interstates contributed to a further withering of the nation's rail network by enabling trucks to travel hundreds of miles overnight to make a delivery. By the end of the 20th century, more and more American manufacturers had adopted a Japanese production system that dispenses with big stockpiles of materials. Instead, parts and supplies are delivered to a factory—generally by truck—at the exact moment when they are needed. This so-called just-in-time approach, which yields big savings in inventory expenses, turned the nation's highways into a kind of virtual warehouse. Sometimes trucking firms partner with railroads by piggybacking trailers on flatcars for long-distance legs of their journeys, but America's highways have the upper hand in freight hauling, as they do in the movement of people-far more so than in most other developed countries. Today, about 70 percent of all freight deliveries in the United States are made by trucks. For the trucking industry the system was a boon. Trucks had been siphoning business from the railroads for decades, and the interstates contributed to a further withering of the nation's rail network by enabling trucks to travel hundreds of miles overnight to make a delivery. By the end of the 20th century, more and more American manufacturers had adopted a Japanese production system that dispenses with big stockpiles of materials. Instead, parts and supplies are delivered to a factory—generally by truck—at the exact moment when they are needed. This so-called just-in-time approach, which yields big savings in inventory expenses, turned the nation's highways into a kind of virtual warehouse. Sometimes trucking firms partner with railroads by piggybacking trailers on flatcars for long-distance legs of their journeys, but America's highways have the upper hand in freight hauling, as they do in the movement of people-far more so than in most other developed countries. Today, about 70 percent of all freight deliveries in the United States are made by trucks. Highways continue to engender more highways by their very success. As traffic grows, engineers are working to improve pavements, markings, crash barriers, and other design elements, and they wage an unending war against congestion, sometimes by tactics as simple as adding lanes or straightening curves, sometimes with megaprojects such as the digging of a 3.5-mile, eight-lane tunnel beneath downtown Boston. It's a journey with no end in sight; Americans crave mobility, and wheels will always need roads.
1905 Office of Public Roads The Office of Public Roads (OPR) is established, successor to the Office of Road Inquiry established in 1893. OPR’s director, Logan Waller Page, who would serve until 1919, helps found the American Association of State Highway Officials and lobbies Congress to secure the Federal Aid Highway Program in 1916, giving states matching funds for highways. 1905 Office of Public Roads The Office of Public Roads (OPR) is established, successor to the Office of Road Inquiry established in 1893. OPR’s director, Logan Waller Page, who would serve until 1919, helps found the American Association of State Highway Officials and lobbies Congress to secure the Federal Aid Highway Program in 1916, giving states matching funds for highways. 1910 Asphalt manufactured from oil-refining byproducts Gulf Oil, Texas Refining, and Sun Oil introduce asphalt manufactured from byproducts of the oil-refining process. Suitable for road paving, it is less expensive than natural asphalt mined in and imported from Venezuela. The new asphalt serves a growing need for paved roads as the number of motor vehicles in the United States soars from 55,000 in 1904 to 470,000 in 1910 to about 10 million in 1922. Garrett Morgan, an inventor with a fifth-grade education and the first African-American in Cleveland to own a car, invents the electric, automatic traffic light. 1913 First highway paved with portland cement The first highway paved with portland cement, or concrete, is built near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 22 years after Bellefontaine, Ohio, first paved its Main Street with concrete. Invented in 1824 by British stone mason Joseph Aspdin from a mix of calcium, silicon, aluminum, and iron minerals, portland cement is so-named because of its similarity to the stone quarried on the Isle of Portland off the English coast. 1917 Wisconsin adopts road numbering system Wisconsin is the first state to adopt a numbering system as the network of roads increases. The idea gradually spreads across the country and replaces formerly named trails and highways.
1919 MacDonald appointed head of federal Bureau of Public Roads Thomas MacDonald is appointed to head the federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), successor to OPR. During his 34-year tenure he helps create the Advisory Board on Highway Research, which becomes the Highway Research Board in 1924 and the Transportation Research Board in 1974. Among other things, BPR operates an experimental farm in Arlington, Virginia, to test road surfaces. 1919 MacDonald appointed head of federal Bureau of Public Roads Thomas MacDonald is appointed to head the federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), successor to OPR. During his 34-year tenure he helps create the Advisory Board on Highway Research, which becomes the Highway Research Board in 1924 and the Transportation Research Board in 1974. Among other things, BPR operates an experimental farm in Arlington, Virginia, to test road surfaces. 1920 Yellow traffic lights William Potts, a Detroit police officer, refines Garrett Morgan’s invention by adding the yellow light. Red and green traffic signals in some form have been in use since 1868, but the increase in automobile traffic requires the addition of a warning signal.
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