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In the United States, a farm-to-market road or ranch-to-market road (sometimes farm road or ranch road for short) is a state road or county road that connects rural or agricultural areas to market towns. These are better quality roads, usually a highway, that farmers and ranchers use to transport products to market towns or distribution centers. Specifically, in the state of Texas, the terms Farm to Market Road and Ranch to Market Road indicate roadways that are part of the state's system of secondary and connecting routes, built and maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Texas established this system in 1949 to improve access to rural areas. The system consists primarily of paved, two-lane roads, though some segments are freeways, including a segment of (the Emmett F. Lowry Expressway between Interstate 45 and Texas City, Texas). These roads are signed with route markers that contain the words ''FARM ROAD'' or ''RANCH ROAD'', but the formal name is ''Farm to Market Road'' and ''Ranch to Market Road'' (hence the abbreviation "FM" and "RM" on signs). The only road that explicitly uses the name ''Ranch Road'' is Ranch Road 1, which runs near the former ranch home of former President Lyndon B. Johnson. As with other state-maintained highways in Texas, all Farm or Ranch to Market roads are paved. Speed limits along these roads vary, but may be as high as 75 mph in rural areas, such as in Andrews and Pecos Counties (for example, along , , and ). ==History== The first farm to market road in Texas was completed in January 1937. It connected Mount Enterprise and the former community of Shiloh in Rusk County. The route was long and was constructed at a cost of $48,015.12. This route is now part of Texas State Highway 315.〔 The first highway officially designated as was authorized in 1941, connecting near Pineland to a sawmill belonging to the Temple Lumber Company. In 1945, the highway commission authorized a three-year pilot program for the construction of of farm-to-market roadway, with cost shared equally by the state and federal governments. As the program grew, efforts were made by legislators from rural areas, including State Senator Grady Hazlewood of Amarillo, to expand the farm-to-market road network in the late 1940s. The funding was to have come from an increase in the gasoline tax, as proposed by State Senator Grover Morris in 1947; however, this measure was stymied by lobbyists, who indicated that such funding should go to arterial routes. Nonetheless, the popularity of the program and the perceived need to connect the vast, isolated central and western areas of the state prompted the passing of the Colson-Briscoe Act in 1949, sponsored by State Senator E. Neveille Colson and State Representative Dolph Briscoe. This legislation appropriated funding for the creation of an extensive system of secondary roads to provide access to the rural areas of the state and to allow farmers and ranchers to bring their goods to market, reserving a flat $15 million per year plus 1 cent per gallon of gasoline sold in the state for local highway construction.〔 In 1962, the Texas legislature increased this amount to no less than $23 million annually, through federal fund matching, and expanded the farm-to-market system from .〔(【引用サイトリンク】Texas Department of Transportation">title=TxDOT History: 1970 to 1951 )〕 The system now accounts for over half of the mileage in the Texas Department of Transportation system. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Farm-to-market road」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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