Dirt paths were a pain, but local communities could work together to get them built. Further, travelers would naturally keep simple paths clear, with some maintenance required.
Paved roads are an entirely different story. If you want an early 20th century example of the shitshow that was early modern road construction, look up the Lincoln Highway.

>>295172
In Rome it was later the army and some cunts from the Senate.

In Imperial China it was usually the Ministry of Works.

>>295172
Logic built the roads. A path walked by people enough grew naturally to become a "road". Necessity increased its safety and size. This was good for both man and government. The road is as essential as the plow or town hall. Benefits all

In colonial America, private companies built the roads. This was true until the government took them over in the early 1800s. The same thing happened with the railroad. Private companies built them, until the government took them over.

>>295172
rember if there is enough traffic through a area a "road" will magically appear

If you just want to build a dirt road, all you really need is some way to clear it(scytche to clear vegetation, maybe a axe, and maybe some fire).

And then after that, all you need if some traffic to keep it open.
1-2 people each 2-3 days is enough to permanently clear the vegetation.
20-30 people a week is enough to pound the dirt into solid dirt mass, even in humid areas.

A actual road for transportation will be very even, due the usage. It will also be uniformly flat for the entire width, because people walk everywhere on it.
Contrast to modern tractor paths, which has a path of grass in the middle because the wheels are not all over the place.

>>295172
>Did people know how to use them?
Wait, what? How are you supposed to use a road other than walk/ride/drive over it?

>>296466
Statists think that people are too stupid to build roads on their own without government assistance. Hence the supposedly "slam dunk" argument against libertarians by statists of "but who will build the roads in the absence of government?".

>>297207
I think the "slam dunk" is that people will be ripped off by corporations and private groups (multi-government) controlling roads instead of the single government.
Hell, it's bad enough in America with all their various toll roads. Why would you want every road to be like that?

>>298881
Government ownership and maintenance of roads is the exception in human history, not the rule. Native American tribes didn't have government roads and they did just fine.

>>299055
From what I understand, government ownership of roads has existed since roads were a thing (to some degree at least). Yes there's going to be quite a few routes naturally created by people, but roads as we think of them tend to be created by some kind of government, be it local or larger. Take the Roman roads or the Persian royal road for example.

From what I've heard, Sargon of Akkad created roads between cities to make it easier to move his army around as well.

>>299055
No it isn't. Actual paved roads were often constructed by the government or some other position of authority for a single reason: fast troop movements.

>>299055
No they didn't we crushed them and built massive superhighways on their land. An empire is only as good as its infrastructure once that goes it goes look at Rome and the various chineese dynasties for proof with no one to maintain the infrastructure that brought prosperity to everyone. People decend into barbairity without governments to keep them in check that's why libertarian ideals and anarchism will never work cause assholes like me will eat a family of four without cops to stop me I will break in your house and rape you to death and eat what's left for fun literally my only reason for not doing it is fear of incarceration.

>>297207
That said, you can build some very nice roads with expropriation and some planning.
Or build them in places where people didn't think about it.

The only thing really stopping private companies is that roads is not something they earn money on, or they are not rich enough to undertake the land buy out to do so in the first place.

>>299055
They didn't have roads at all. Nice try, fagit.

>>299190
Nice memes.