THE RECOMMENDED INTERREGIONAL HIGHWAY SYSTEM
The general location of the routes comprising the recommended interregional highway system is shown on the map, figure 1.
The total length of the system is approximately 33,920 miles. This represents 1.04 percent of the 3,267,717 miles of rural roads and urban streets in the United States.
The approximate length of rural sections of the system, 29,450 miles, is 0.99 percent of the 2,964,677 miles of rural roads.
The approximate length of urban sections, 4,470 miles, is 1.48 percent of the 303,040 miles of urban streets.
By regions[1] (fig. 2) and States, table 1 shows the approximate lengths of the recommended system and of its rural and urban sections, and the percentage relations of these lengths to the total length of all road and streets and to the total lengths of all rural roads and all urban streets, respectively.
Located for Service
In relation to cities.—The recommended system connects[2] directly all cities of 300,000 or more population. It is the smallest system that provides these connections.
It reaches 59 of the 62 cities of population between 100,000 and 300,000 persons, and is superior in this respect to the 48,300-mile and 78,800-mile systems previously investigated by the Public Roads Administration.
The recommended system reaches directly only 82 of the 107 cities of population between 50,000 and 100,000. The 48,300-mile system reaches only 91 and the 78,800-mile system only 95 of the cities of this size, and hence are little superior to the recommended system.
- ↑ For purposes of its study the Committee considered the United States as divided into regions. These regions are composed of contiguous States grouped together by the U. S. Bureau of the Census because of generally similar population and economic characteristics (see appendix I, tables 1 and 2).
- ↑ Table 2 summarizes the numbers of cities of each size reached by each system in each region.
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