Across the United States historic roads are being lost through demolition, neglect and poor management. Sometimes this is due to policy, sometimes external pressures and sometimes simply ignorance. These losses can be swift and devastating or slow and incremental—hardly noticed until it is too late.

It is important to recognize and preserve historic roads. One need only consider the lost resources of earlier transportation eras now lamented. Canals, railroad stations and the pony express route. We have already lost long stretches of Route 66 and pieces of the Columbia River Highway—losses lamented as much by historic preservationists as travel promoters now seeing the value of these resources for tourism marketing.

While it is fair to say that no one organization or group is responsible for these losses, it is also fair to say that the basic “idea” of a historic road, much less the preservation of historic roads, is not well understood in the United States. In some instances state transportation offices, historically charged with the safety and efficient movement of the traveling pubic, may not consider the historic aspects of a road during their planning process or may even consider historic preservation an impediment to progress. Conversely historic preservationists may “trump up” the value of a questionable historic road resource to serve ulterior motives—preventing a new highway project or blocking the development of a proposed housing subdivision, for example. Local residents may lobby for the demolition of an historic brick road because the ride is too rough for their precision automobiles while their neighbors may argue the historic pavement serves as a traffic calming (speed reducing) device.

Historic preservation is not, however, about a smoother ride, slower traffic, or lost opportunities. It is about the preservation of legitimate historic resources that represent unique attributes of the American experience or are valued elements of a community. In some instances the preservation of a historic road may, indirectly, calm traffic, enhance safety, or provide some other secondary, even unexpected, benefit. What must be remembered is that these benefits should evolve from the planning process to manage and preserve a road that has been determined historic—not as a means to justify historic preservation.

The benefits of preserving and managing a historic road are significant and diverse. They may include opportunities for heritage tourism and economic development, improved safety and efficiency, restoration of historic structures and features, and simply the civic pride associated with a better and more comprehensive understanding of a community’s transportation heritage.

Increasingly, communities across the United States and beyond are beginning to recognize that their roads are historic. Historic freeways, transcontinental highways, parkways, farm-to-market roads and traffic circles are being studied, inventoried, debated and discussed in the newest movement in the historic preservation world.