Importance of Roads:

1. Roads play a very important role in the transportation of goods and passengers for short and medium
distances.

2. It is comparatively easy and cheap to construct and maintain roads.

3. Road transport system establishes easy contact between farms, fields, factories and markets and
provides door to door service.

4. Roads can negotiate high gradients and sharp turns which railways cannot do. As such, roads can be
constructed in hilly areas also.

5. Roads act as great feaders to railways. Without good and sufficient roads, railways cannot collect
sufficient produce to make their operation possible.

6. Road transport is more flexible than the railway transport. Buses and trucks may be stopped
anywhere and at any time on the road for loading and unloading passengers and goods whereas trains
stop only at particular stations.

7. Perishable commodities like vegetables, fruits and milk are transported more easily and quickly by
roads than by railways.

Due to above-mentioned advantages, the road transport has become very popular and its share is
constantly increasing.

Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments and designs to
prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a
collaborative process that incorporates the input of many stakeholders including various government
agencies, the public and private businesses. Transportation planners apply a multi-modal and/or
comprehensive approach to analyzing the wide range of alternatives and impacts on the transportation
system to influence beneficial outcomes.

Transportation planning is also commonly referred to as transport planning internationally, and is

involved with the evaluation, assessment, design and siting of transport facilities
(generally streets, highways, bike lanes and public transport lines).

Models and Sustainability[edit]

See also: Sustainable transport
Chicago Transit Authority Chicago 'L' trains use elevated tracks for a portion of the system known as the Loop,
which is located in the Chicago Loop community area. This is an example of the siting of transportation facilities
resulting from transportation planning.

A bypass the Old Town in Szczecin, Poland

Transportation planning, or transport planning, has historically followed the rational planning
model of defining goals and objectives, identifying problems, generating alternatives, evaluating
alternatives, and developing plans. Other models for planning include rational actor, transit oriented
development, satisficing, incremental planning, organizational process, collaborative planning,
and political bargaining.
Planners are increasingly expected to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, especially due to the
rising importance of environmentalism. For example, the use of behavioural psychology to persuade
drivers to abandon their automobiles and use public transport instead. The role of the transport
planner is shifting from technical analysis to promoting sustainability through integrated
transport policies.[1] For example, in Hanoi the increasing number of motorcycles is responsible not
only for environmental damage but also for slowing down economic growth. In the long run the plan
is to reduce traffic through a change in urban planning. Through economic incentives and attractive
alternatives experts hope to lighten traffic in the short run.[2]

2.1.1 Design Criteria

Design criteria consist of a detailed list of considerations to be used in negotiating a set of road standards.
These include resource management objectives, environmental constraints, safety, physical environmental
factors (such as topography, climate, and soils), traffic requirements, and traffic service levels. Objectives
should be established for each road and may be expressed in terms of the area and resources to be served,
environmental concerns to be addressed, amount and types of traffic to be expected, life of the facility and
functional classification. Additional objectives may also be defined concerning specific needs or problems
identified in the planning stage.

1. Resource management objectives: Why is the road being built; what is the purpose of the road (i.e.,
timber harvesting, access to grazing lands, access to communities, etc.)?
2. Physical and environmental factors: What are the topographic, climatic, soil and vegetation
characteristics of the area?
3. Environmental constraints: Are there environmental constraints; are there social-political
constraints? Examples of the former include erosiveness of soils, difficult geologic conditions, high
rainfall intensities. Examples of the latter include land ownership boundaries, state of the local
economy, and public opinion about a given project.
4. Traffic requirements: Average daily traffic (ADT) should be estimated for different user groups. For
example, a road can have mixed traffic--log or cattle trucks and community traffic. An estimate of
traffic requirements in relation to use as well as changes over time should be evaluated.
 5. Traffic service level: This defines the type of traffic that will make use of the road network and its
characteristics. Table 3 lists descriptions of four different levels of traffic service for forest roads.
Each level describes the traffic characteristics which are significant in the selection of design criteria
and describe the operating conditions for the road. Each level also reflects a number of factors,
such as speed,travel time,traffic interruptions, freedom to maneuver, safety, driver comfort,
convenience, and operating cost. Traffic density is a factor only if heavy non-logging traffic is
expected. These factors, in turn, affect: (1) number of lanes, (2) turnout spacing, (3) lane widths,
(4) type of driving surface, (5) sight distances, (6) design speed, (7) clearance; (8) horizontal and
vertical alignment, (9) curve widening, (10) turn-arounds.
6. Vehicle characteristics: The resource management objectives, together with traffic requirements
and traffic service level criteria selected above, will define the types of vehicles that are to use the
proposed road. Specific vehicle characteristics need to be defined since they will determine the
"design standards" to be adopted when proceeding to the road design phase. The land manager
has to distinguish between the "design vehicle" and the "critical vehicle". The design vehicle is a
vehicle which ordinarily uses the road, such as dual axle flatbed trucks in the case of ranching or
farming operations, or dump trucks in the case of a mining operation. The critical vehicle represents
a vehicle which is necessary for the contemplated operation (for instance, a livestock truck in the
case of transporting range livestock) but uses the road infrequently. Here, the design should allow
for the critical vehicle to pass the road with assist vehicles, if necessary, but without major delays
or road reconstruction.
7. Safety: Traffic safety is an important requirement especially where multiple user types will be
utilizing the same road. Safety requirements such as stopping distance, sight distance, and
allowable design speed can determine the selected road standards in combination with the other
design criteria.
8. Road uses: The users of the contemplated road should be defined by categories. For example,
timber harvest activities will include all users related to the planned timber harvest, such as
silviculturists, foresters, engineers, surveyors, blasting crews, and construction and maintenance
crews, as well as the logging crews. Administrative users may include watershed management
specialists, wildlife or fisheries biologists, or ecologists, as well as foresters. Agricultural users
would include stock herders and rangeland management specialists and will have a different set of
objectives than timber objectives. An estimate of road use for each category is then made (e.g.,
numbers of vehicles per day). For each category, the resource management objective over several
planning horizons should be indicated. For instance, a road is to be built first for (1) the harvest of
timber from a tract of land, then (2) access for the local population for firewood cutting or grazing,
and finally (3) access for administration of watershed rehabilitation activities. The planner should
determine if the road user characteristics will change over the life of the road.
9. Economics: The various road alternatives would undergo rigorous economic evaluations.
10. The Importance of Our Roads
Meg Low•
Wed, Aug 31, 2016
11. Editor’s note: I would like to thank Meg for her sharing her insight and opinions of the
community we live in and for her dedication to the Ledger. We wish her the best of luck as
she heads to college in Floriade.
12.
13. Unless you happen to be a hermit, an agoraphobic, or a homeschooler, chances are you use a
road pretty much on a regular basis. Roads are the age-old land connection of people, and
therefore resources, from one area to another.
14.
15. Despite the importance of transportation, however, the lack of buzz-worthy hype associated with
roadways often leaves them on the back burner until a sinkhole appears in a road somewhere.
16.
17. Nonetheless, roads are an important issue for voters and citizens to consider when making choices
for the organization of a community. Transportation is important for safety, efficiency, and
community.
18.
19. The safety of roads is one of the biggest topics that drive people to the issue. Often, however,
attention is drawn to the fact when it becomes too late.
20. According to The World Health Organization, the leading cause of death among young people ages
15-29 is road-traffic injuries. The driving force for this statistic is often distracted driving, but factors
such as unkempt, dated roads and road traffic can also contribute. Roads are a necessary yet often
dangerous fact of life, and improved safety on roadways should be a top priority.
21.
22. The ease by which people can use roads also contributes to their life in the sense of time
management. More lanes and well-planned roadways create an easier time with less traffic, more
road space, and more incentive for consumers to not rely on Amazon for their daily needs, forcing
those wallets to ride to an actual store.
23.
24. The need for better roads in response to transportation needs is connected to the rising population
and density of cities. Transportation, specifically the system of roads, are what creates more time
efficiency in the life of citizens and the city as a whole.
25.
26. There has been some concern over if funding for roads would be detrimental to the environment
as public transportation is discouraged and car traffic is made easier. However, a car idling in traffic
for two hours is far more detrimental than one which had reached its destination in half the time.
Public transportation is a great thing, but it can be made more efficient with roads that those who
travel by car can also use.
27.
28. This world isn’t getting any smaller. On the small scale, a few minutes here and there can give
people more time in their day to accomplish and succeed. On the larger scale, transportation is
what allows commuter-cities to exist: workers can live in better areas for less money and still
commute to work in a larger city each day.
29.
30. Don’t overlook the need for roads as an important point: attention to this issue and issues like this
will impact your everyday life, in the short term as well as the long term.