Abstract:
STRAIGHT LINE DIAGRAMS HAVE PROVIDED A MEANS OF RECORDING IN ONE PLACE THE PERTINENT DETAILS AND FEATURES OF A NON- UNIFORM LENGTH OF HIGHWAY. THE PRINCIPAL FEATURE OF THESE DIAGRAMS IS THE HIGHWAY MAP, STRAIGHTENED OUT ACROSS THE TOP OF THE SHEET. ARRANGED ON SEPARATE HORIZONTAL LINES BENEATH AND APPROPRIATELY SPACED ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE ROAD WERE NUMERICAL, WORD, OR SYMBOL NOTATIONS INDICATING TYPE AND WIDTH OF ROADBED AND SHOULDERS, TRAFFIC VOLUMES, CURVES, GRADES, SIGHT RESTRICTIONS, ACCIDENT LOCATIONS AND SIMILAR PERTINENT DATA. BECAUSE OF THE NUMBER OF ITEMS TO BE RECORDED, THE SPACE ALLOWED FOR EACH WAS LIMITED VERTICALLY, AND THE INFORMATION WAS OFTEN SHOWN BY ABBREVIATED WORDS TO KEEP THE LENGTH OF THE DIAGRAM WITHIN LIMITS. A MAJOR ADVANTAGE OF THE STRAIGHT LINE PORTRAYAL IS THE FACT THAT ALL THE DATA PERTAINING TO A POINT ON THE ROAD IS SHOWN DIRECTLY BENEATH IT ON THE OTHER LINES OF THE CHART. HOWEVER, MANY OF THE DETAILS WERE NOT EASILY RECOGNIZED BECAUSE THEY WERE EXPRESSED IN NUMBERS OR WORKS. IT WAS THOUGHT THAT IF THESE DETAILS COULD BE GRAPHED OR PLOTTED, THEIR SIGNIFICANCE WOULD BE MORE APPARENT. /AUTHOR/
Supplemental Notes:
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