A back road is a secondary type of road usually found in rural areas.
A back road is a secondary type of road usually found in rural areas.
Back roads are less safe than other roads, with much higher fatality rates. A 2015 study by TRIP (a national transportation research group) in the United States found that back roads have a traffic fatality rate of 2.18 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, while the average across all US roads is 0.38. Of all vehicle miles traveled in the United States, 22% are driven on back roads, but 43% of vehicle collisions in 2015 (15,132 out of 35,092) occurred on back roads. In 2015, Texas had the highest number of rural non-interstate traffic deaths at 1,259, with California in second place at 1,219 deaths. [1] Back roads tend to have narrow lanes, limited or non-existent shoulders, inconsistent pavement with gravel patches, sharp curves, steep slopes, and poor visibility. The majority of American back roads were built early in US road history, prior to modern safety standards and vehicle designs. [2]
In North Carolina, where they are also referred to as "blue roads", back roads are one- or two-laned roads off of larger roads such as parkways and are often made of gravel. [3]
In Vermont, the Natural Resources Conservation Service has established a Better Back Roads program to help towns and organizations deal with road-related soil erosion problems through grants. Both paved and unpaved back roads are eligible for these grants, which seek to protect water quality from sediment accumulation caused by road and ditch erosion. [4]
Many back-roads in North Carolina were created when the state's rural transportation system began investing in urban factories to relocate to rural areas. This created a system of back-roads that allowed for factories to disperse away from busy urban areas. This was done in the late 1940s under Governor Kerr Scott and was known as the states rural farm-to-market road system. The idea for the farm-to-market road system was to connect farms out in rural areas to the markets in which they sold their produce, which would allow for easy transportation for those who transported their goods to market places. Ultimately these types of roads became state highways or nice quality roads, but the importance of their beginnings is that they began as rural back-roads for agricultural purposes. [5]
A road is a thoroughfare for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles and pedestrians. Unlike streets, whose primary function is to serve as public spaces, the main function of roads is transportation.
A shoulder, hard shoulder or breakdown lane is an emergency stopping lane by the verge on the outer side of a road or motorway. Many wider freeways, or expressways elsewhere have shoulders on both sides of each directional carriageway—in the median, as well as at the outer edges of the road, for additional safety. Shoulders are not intended for use by through traffic, although there are exceptions.
A single-track road or one-lane road is a road that permits two-way travel but is not wide enough in most places to allow vehicles to pass one another. This kind of road is common in rural areas across the United Kingdom and elsewhere. To accommodate two-way traffic, many single-track roads, especially those officially designated as such, are provided with passing places or pullouts or turnouts, or simply wide spots in the road, which may be scarcely longer than a typical car using the road. The distance between passing places varies considerably, depending on the terrain and the volume of traffic on the road. The railway equivalents of passing places are passing loops.
Rumble strips are a traffic calming feature to alert inattentive drivers of potential danger, by causing a tactile fuzzy vibration and audible rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the vehicle interior. A rumble strip is applied along the direction of travel following an edgeline or centerline, to alert drivers when they drift from their lane. Rumble strips may also be installed in a series across the direction of travel, to warn drivers of a stop or slowdown ahead, or of an approaching danger spot.
A dirt road or track is a type of unpaved road not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick, or stone; made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes, known to highway engineers as subgrade material.
A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. Gravel roads are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. In New Zealand, and other Commonwealth countries, they may be known as metal roads. They may be referred to as "dirt roads" in common speech, but that term is used more for unimproved roads with no surface material added. If well constructed and maintained, a gravel road is an all-weather road.
A runaway truck ramp, runaway truck lane, escape lane, safety ramp, emergency escape ramp, or truck arrester bed is a traffic device that enables vehicles which are having braking problems to stop safely. It is typically a long, sand- or gravel-filled lane connected to a steep downhill grade section of a main road, and is designed to accommodate large trucks or buses. It allows a moving vehicle's kinetic energy to be dissipated gradually in a controlled and relatively harmless way, helping the operator stop it safely.
Minnesota State Highway 74 (MN 74) is a 34.956-mile-long (56.256 km) highway in southeast Minnesota that runs from its intersection with U.S. Highway 52 and State Highway 30 in Chatfield and continues north to its northern terminus at its intersection with U.S. Highway 61 at Weaver along the Mississippi River. It is the only remaining road in the state highway system that is still partially unpaved.
Transportation safety in the United States encompasses safety of transportation in the United States, including automobile crashes, airplane crashes, rail crashes, and other mass transit incidents, although the most fatalities are generated by road incidents annually killing 32,479 people in 2011 to over 42,000 people in 2022. The number of deaths per passenger-mile on commercial airlines in the United States between 2000 and 2010 was about 0.2 deaths per 10 billion passenger-miles. For driving, the rate was 150 per 10 billion vehicle-miles: 750 times higher per mile than for flying in a commercial airplane. For a person who drives a million miles in a lifetime this amounts to a 1.5% chance of death.
Louisiana Highway 26 (LA 26) is a state highway located in southwestern Louisiana. It runs 75.86 miles (122.08 km) in a northwest to southeast direction from a junction with the concurrent U.S. Highways 171 and 190 southeast of DeRidder to LA 14 in Lake Arthur.
North Carolina Highway 30 (NC 30) is a 15-mile-long (24 km) primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. NC 30 runs from US 13 and NC 11 near Bethel to NC 33 near Pactolus. While signed east-west, the highway physically travels along a southeast-northwest alignment. NC 30 is primarily a two-lane rural highway which serves communities northeast of Greenville entirely in Pitt County.
State Route 270 (SR 270) is a state highway in Whitman County, Washington, United States. It connects the city of Pullman to U.S. Route 195 (US 195) at its west end and Idaho State Highway 8 near Moscow, Idaho, at its east end. The 10-mile-long (16 km) highway is one of the main roads in Pullman and connects the campuses of Washington State University and the University of Idaho.
North Carolina Highway 157 (NC 157) is a 29.3-mile-long (47.2 km) primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The highway runs in a north–south direction from Interstate 85 (I-85), U.S. Route 15 (US 15), US 70, and US 501 in Durham, to US 158, US 501, and NC 57 in Roxboro. The highway serves the cities of Durham and Roxboro, along with the communities of Caldwell and Hurdle Mills. NC 157 is named Guess Road between its southern terminus and Hurdle Mills, and Hurdle Mills Road between Hurdle Mills and the Roxboro city limits. NC 157 does not directly parallel US 501, however, the two highways generally follow a similar alignment between Durham and Roxboro. NC 157 serves the counties of Durham, Orange, and Person.
86 percent of people in the United States use private automobiles as their primary form of transportation to their workplace.
U.S. Route 6 (US 6) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. In Indiana, it is part of the Indiana state road system that enters the state concurrent with the Borman Expressway between Lansing, Illinois, and Munster, Indiana. The 149 miles (240 km) of US 6 that lie within Indiana serve as a major conduit. Some sections of the highway is listed on the National Highway System. Various sections are rural two-lane highway and urbanized four-lane divided highways. The easternmost community along the highway is Butler at the Ohio state line.
U.S. Route 33 (US 33) is part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Richmond, Virginia, to Elkhart of the US state of Indiana. In Indiana, it is a state road that enters the state at the Ohio state line between Willshire, Ohio, and Pleasant Mills, Indiana. The 106.217 miles (170.940 km) of US 33 that lie within Indiana serve as a major conduit. All of the highway is listed on the National Highway System. Various sections are rural two-lane highway, urbanized four-lane divided expressway and the Lincoln Highway. The northernmost community along the highway is Elkhart. The highway ends at an interchange in southern Elkhart after serving the northeastern region of Indiana. US 33 passes through farm fields and urban areas.
U.S. Route 136 (US 136) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway that runs from Edison, Nebraska, to Speedway, Indiana. In Indiana, it is part of the Indiana State Road system that enters between Danville, Illinois, and Foster, Indiana. The 75.30 miles (121.2 km) of US 136 that lie within Indiana serve as a major conduit. Some sections of the highway are listed on the National Highway System. Various sections are rural two-lane highway and urbanized four-lane divided highways. The easternmost community along the highway is Speedway, near Indianapolis.
North Carolina Highway 124 (NC 124) is a 9.2-mile-long (14.8 km) primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Entirely in Edgecombe County, it travels east from NC 42 near Bridgersville through Macclesfield to NC 42 and NC 43 near Old Sparta. NC 124 is a two-lane road which primarily runs through a rural area of Eastern North Carolina. It provides access from Macclesfield to Wilson and Greenville using NC 42 and U.S. Route 258 (US 258).