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Rh Cities important as origin and destination of traffic.—Table 8 presents an analysis of available data on the urban or rural termini of traffic observed on main highways. The data were obtained by the highway planning surveys of typical States in seven regions. The analysis shows that on the average 49.6 percent of all traffic observed was moving from one city to another, and 36.6 percent was bound either from a city origin to a rural destination of from a rural origin to a city destination. Thus nearly seven-eighths of this main highway traffic in these representative States is related in some manner to cities. Either they are its origin or its destination or both. Only 13.8 percent both begins and ends at rural points, and a portion of this movement undoubtedly passes through urban communities en route.

The facts presented in table 8 relate to all main-highway traffic of both long and short range, including passenger cars, busses, and trucks. The data of the planning surveys do not permit a particular examination in this respect of the long-range traffic of all classes of vehicles.

For the States represented in table 8, however, data on motor-truck traffic are available which permit a classification of the movement according to a general indication of length of trip, as intrastate, interstate, and transstate, and a further analysis of each of these classes according to the percentages of each that have their origins or destinations or both in cities.

The term “interstate” is used to refer to traffic bound to or from the State of observation from or to another State. The term “transstate” refers to traffic found to be moving entirely across the State of observation between origins and destinations in other States. The term “intrastate” is used in its ordinary sense.

The classification thus accomplishes an analysis of the total movement approximately into patterns of long, shorter, and shortest ranges. The analysis is not exact with respect to the relative lengths of trip, especially as indicated by the intrastate and interstate fractions. Interstate movements may be, and are in many cases, short movements over a State line. Intrastate movements, though confined entirely to a single State, may be relatively long movements.