Roads

A postcard of the Motel Inn, circa 1940s.

The World’s First Motel Was a Luxury Establishment, Not a Dive

The first motel was supposed to turn into a chain, but it was quickly overtaken by cheaper competitors.

New Underpass Helps New Zealand Penguins Cross Busy Road

The blue penguin colony in Oamaru can now cross between their nesting area and the ocean without dodging traffic

On a majority of American roads, potholes and bumps are the norm.

These Places Have the Nation’s Worst Roads

Bumps and potholes are par for the course on more than two-thirds of America’s roads

A model for how suburbs could one day be designed. The white objects on the left are delivery drones.

Suburbia Gets No Respect, But It Could Become a Very Different Place

For starters, driverless cars would mean a lot less pavement

A rainbow-colored crosswalk in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Federal Highway Administration Says Stop to Crosswalk Art

Street art will no longer color crosswalks in St. Louis, Missouri

Henry Ford is at the wheel with John Burroughs and Thomas Edison seated in the back of a Model T.

When America’s Titans of Industry and Innovation Went Road-Tripping Together

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and their friends traveled the country in Model Ts, creating the Great American road trip in the process

Topmix Permeable

This Concrete Can Absorb a Flood

A UK company has developed a permeable pavement that can drink 1,000 liters of water per square meter in a minute

Take a Historic Ride Along California's Famous Route 1

Here are seven of the most interesting historic stops along California's scenic highway

A mock-up of an electric road

England Is Going to Test Roads That Actually Charge Electric Cars

Highways of the future may have special lanes that recharge the batteries of electric cars as they go

A map of nitric oxide pollution in Denver's Highlands neighborhood

Google Street View Cars Are Mapping City Air Pollution

Google, Aclima and the EPA team up to add sensors to cars, first in Denver and then in the Bay Area, that monitor air quality throughout the day

America's Road Trip: Route 66's Most Fascinating Museums

Take a drive on Route 66 and encounter the wonders of the road

Hiram Bingham called Machu Picchu “the most important ruin discovered in South America since the Spanish conquest.”

What It's Like to Travel the Inca Road Today

A rocky rollicking journey to Machu Picchu along one of the greatest engineering feats in the Americas

Cyclists won't have to look away from the road with head-up display.

Five Tech Ideas That Could Improve City Bike Commuting

A group of London designers imagines Google Glass-like visors and buses that project outlines of their blind spots on the road

Here you see the tweeting pothole device in place.

The Tweeting Potholes of Panama

In Panama City, potholes have taken to Twitter to ask for repairs

A monarch feasting on milkweed.

Migrating Monarch Butterflies Might Actually Take to the Highway

Threatened pollinators get a trans-continental right of way

Traffic control centers like this one in Boston—a room cluttered with computer terminals and live video feeds of urban intersections—represent the brain of a traffic system.

Will We Ever Be Able to Make Traffic Disappear?

City engineers make changes in the timing of signals to keep cars moving, but cell phone data and vehicle-to-vehicle communication could ease the task

Changes in California’s Roadkill Linked to State’s Drought

The California Roadkill Observation System studies wildlife by mapping out crowd-sourced roadkill sightings

More than half of the drivers queried in a 2014 insurance industry survey said their cars had been damaged by potholes.

The War on Potholes Has a New Weapon

Researchers at Northeastern University have outfitted a van with sensors, microphones and cameras that can spot the early stages of potholes

This is how you build the world's first solar bike path.

A Bike Path Near Amsterdam Is Now Generating Solar Power

As cyclists ride above, solar panels embedded in the pathway pump energy into the power grid

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

Page 3 of 5