What role do right-of-way maps serve in highway planning?

Right-of-way maps play a crucial role in highway planning by showing land ownership and usage. These maps provide detailed information about the property boundaries along a proposed or existing roadway, identifying who owns the land and how it is currently being utilized. This information is essential for planning purposes as it helps transportation agencies to determine the feasibility of a highway project, assess potential impacts on existing properties, and engage with landowners regarding any necessary land acquisition.

In highway planning, understanding land ownership is pivotal for securing rights-of-way, which are necessary for the construction and maintenance of roads. By depicting the relationships between different parcels of land, right-of-way maps help planners and engineers coordinate efforts, ensuring that the development respects property rights and minimizes disruption. This contributes to smoother execution of highway projects and facilitates negotiations with property owners.

The other options focus on elements important to highway planning but do not capture the primary function of right-of-way maps. Distributing highway funds pertains more to budget allocation processes, locating barriers is related to safety and engineering design, and indicating traffic patterns involves traffic engineering rather than land ownership specifics.