Information.
—The last sentence brings us to an important topic. The tourist at the present time inquires at the nearest garage or hotel for information relative to routes and condition of roads, detours, accommodations, etc. This is well, but all these people do not have at hand a knowledge of the information sought, so the traveler must pass on and trust to luck that he may get through. Chambers of Commerce and automobile clubs have endeavored to fill the want, and in the Middle West these places are sought by hundreds of people daily. Some of the large newspapers have drawn on their advantageous news-gathering facilities and publish each morning a statement of road conditions and detours.
The Minneapolis Journal says that when it established its bureau of travel and resort information, “the new agency was overwhelmed from the start with eager inquirers for facts and advice.” Information is the one thing that a tourist fairly yearns for, even more than for food, gas, and oil; he knows where to go to satisfy these wants. The manager of the Journal, Perry S. Williams, who is also vice-president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, has in mind a plan for “dotting the whole countryside with little information bureaus, where the traveler can learn what’s what and feel easy in relying on what he learns. Every community under this plan is to have its own bureau and to make it easily accessible to the wanderer.”
But the state of Wisconsin which has long been among the foremost in the development of new road ideas, has beaten them to it, for already the Commission conducts a department of “Highway Information Service.” A blueprint map of the state trunk highway system is furnished weekly to all subscribers. The map shows the type of road on every mile of the system, the location of all construction jobs and of all detours and the condition of the detours. The map is revised weekly. Information up to Tuesday is mapped and in the hands of subscribers by Thursday, in time to supply information for week-end motor trips. This information is sold by the state to hotels, commercial associations, automobile clubs, garages, and other places where touring information is sought. The map is 54 by 60 inches in size and mounted on a frame or bulletin board to be placed in a conspicuous place. A charge of ten dollars is made for this service for the season from June 1 to September 15. The charge barely covers the cost of blueprinting.
While it may be the duty of the state to furnish the roads and do all possible to promote transportation, local bureaus will be able to supplement the State’s information in a very acceptable manner.