When the Texas Highway Department was established in Texas in 1917 there were only about 200-thousand cars in Texas.
And those drivers only had fewer than a thousand miles of paved roads in the entire state.
Today the Texas Department of Transportation, TxDot, is responsible for more than 80,000 miles of state paved roads that accommodate more than 25 million vehicles.
The highway department is literally where the rubber of public policy meets the road. And the 100 year history of that traction is told in the new book “Miles and Miles of Texas – 100 years of the Texas Highway Department.”
Roger Allen Polson is the co-author of the book “Miles and Miles of Texas – 100 years of the Texas Highway Department. It’s published by Texas A&M University Press
