Road

A highway; an open way or public passage; a line of travel or communication extending from one town or place to another; a strip of land appropriated and used for purposes of travel and communication between different placos. See Stokes v. Scott County, 10 Iowa, 175; Com. v. Gammons, 23 Pick. (Mass.) 202; Hutson v. New York, 5 Sandf. (N. Y.) 312; Stedman v. South-bridge, 17 Pick. (Mass.) 164; Horner v. State, 49 Md. 283; Northwestern Tel. Exch. Co. v. Minneapolis, 81 Minn. 140, 86 N. W. 69, 53 In R. A. 175; Hart v. Town of Red Cedar, 63 Wis. 634, 24 N. W. 410.

In maritime law. An open passage of the sea that receives its denomination commonly frdm some part adjacent, which, though it lle out at sea, yet, in respect of the situation of the land adjacont, and the depth and wideness of the place, is a safe place for the common riding or anchoring of ships; as Dover road, Kirkley road, etc. Hale de Jure Mar. pt. 2, c. 2.

— Law of the road. See Law.

— Private road. This term has various meanings:
(1) A road, the soil of which belongs to the owner of the land which it traverses, but which is burdened with a right of way. Morgan v. Livingston. 6 Mart. O. S. (Lat) 231.
(2) A neighborhood way, not commonly used by others than the people of the neighborhood, though it may be used by any one having occasion. State v. Mobley, 1 McMul. (S. C.) 44.
(3) A road intended for the use of one or more private individuals, and not wanted nor intended for general public use, which may be opened across the lands of other persons by statutory authority in some states. Witham v. Osburn, 4 Or. 318, 18 Am. Rep. 287; Sherman v. Buick, 32 Cal. 252, 91 Am. Dec. 577 ; Madera County v. Raymond Granite Co., 139 Cal. l28, 72 Pac. 915.
(4) A road which is only open for the banefit of certain individuals to go from and to their homes for the service of their lands and for the use of some estates exclusively. Civ. Code La, 1900, art. 706.

— Public road. A highway; a road or way established and adopted (or accepted as a dedication) by the proper authorities for the use of the general public, and over which every person has a right to pass and to use it for all purposes of travel or transportation to which it is adapted and devoted. Cincinnati R. Co., v. Com., 80 Ky. 138; Shelby Co.unty v. Castetter, 7 Ind. App. 309, 33 N. B.986; Abbott v.Duiuth (C. Ct) 104 Fed. 837; Heninger v. Peery, 102 Va. 896, 47 S. E. 1013.

— Road districts. Public or quasi municipal corporations organized or authorized by statutory authority in many of the states for the special purpose of establishing, maintaining, and caring for public roqds and highways within their limits, sometimes invested with powens of local taxation, and generally having elective officers styled "overseers" or "commissioners" of roads. See Farmer v.' Myles, lO6 La. 333, 30 South. 858; San Bernardino County v. Southern Pac. R. Co.., 137 Cui. 659, 70 Pac. 782; Madden v. Lancaster County, 65 Fed. 191, 12 C. C. A. 066.

— Road tax. A tax for the maintenance and repnir of the public roads within the particular jurisdiction, levied either in money or in the form of so many days' labar on the public roads exacted of all the inhabitante of the district. See Lewin v. State, 77 Ala. 46.