Road Infrastructure Development

Since the 1910, the rapid growth of the automotive market raises significant growth of the road network. In 1913, the United States decided to build a highway, called Lincoln Highway, crossing for the first time the country between the cities of New York and San Francisco. The work is largely financed by the automakers époque.

But the road world takes another dimension in the 1960. The United States is particularly involved in development projects of their "Interstate Highway System" (motorway). The federal government passed successively in 1944, 1956 and 1968 "Federal Highway Acts" legislation implementing the expansion of the network (65 000 km in 1968). Moreover, "American life is organized around the road" for the benefit of the automotive industry and pétrolière46 (see the great American streetcar scandal). McDonald's opens for the first time in 1953 in Phoenix a restaurant dedicated solely to restoring rapide while there is already the concept of drive-thru.

In Europe, while Germany continues to expand its motorway network ("Autobahn") began during the Second World War, France is rooted in its "economic and social conservatism" and its highway network is summarized for years one section west of Paris.