This manual has been prepared to guide Bureau of Public Roads field offices, the States, and local governments in preparing estimates of needs on consistently defined functional systems using uniform procedures. The objective of the study is to provide reliable data upon which consideration of future highway financing and responsibility can be based.

Declining revenue and increasing costs of highway construction and maintenance have had a severe impact on State and local transportation programs, forcing emphasis to be placed upon preservation of existing roads, improved traffic flow, and increased capacity on the established networks. As a result, highway officials are searching for more efficient and effective means of managing the highway program. Functional highway classification, which has been defined as the process of assigning streets and highways to classes or systems according to the service they perform, has proved to be a useful management tool in this rapidly changing statewide transportation planning and programming environment.