Your answers are:
1) Roadways are more convenient because it provides a door to door service.
2) It cost less to build railroads than railways
3) Roads can travel across more complicated physical features on the land.
4) The roads can be used as transportation to other transportation options, to train stations, airports, and etc.
5) Roads can be easily built on heavy slopes, in which railways have a trouble in doing so.
Definitions:
Roadways:
A source, or route, for transportation purposes. The roadways could have cars, buses, motorcycles, and any other sources of transportation on it.
Railways:
A source of transportation. The railways only have trains on them.
Explanation:
The first reason on why roadways have an edge over railways is because roadways are more convenient because it provides a door to door service. Roadways are everywhere around the world, no matter where you go, you would at least see a couple or more of roadways on the land. Roadways are very convenient, since it could be accessed at any day at any time. You could use the roadway to go to places around town or somewhere far away. The roads will never disappear, since everyone is currently using them. Since more people are owning vehicles, they use the vehicles on roadways. Roadways also provide a door to door service, meaning that it's easy to access, typically from a personal car or things like Uber, Lyft, or a Taxi cab. Railways can't do things like this. People would need to travel to a train station in order to take a train, which takes time to travel to. Trains have only one route, and will keep the same route for the time it's there. Railways don't have the option to go to many places, since they're restricted in destinations.
The second reason why roadways have an edge over railways is because it cost less to build railroads than railways. Because it costs less to build roadways, you would see more of them because the government or whoever is planning the transportation system wants to save money for the economy, and they could use the money saved from the economy for repairing things or use it for other purposes. Railways cost A LOT of money, that's why you don't see a lot of railways and railway options because it costs so much money. It's better to go cheap for the economy because it's so convenient, and the money will be put to good use since everyone will be using the roadways.
The third reason why roadways have an edge over railways is because Roads can travel across more complicated physical features on the land. It is very easy to make roadways on very complicated features on land, like uneven land, slopes, and etc. It's very easy to make roads because you would just even put asphalt over the land, which is not a complicate task to do for construction companies. For railways, the roads smut be even in order for the train to operate on the railway. If the land is uneven for the railway, the train that weighs a lot could possibly tip over, and that is very unsafe, and trying to even out the land for long distances is very complicated.
The fourth reason why roadways have an edge over railways is because The roads can be used as transportation to other transportation options, to train stations, airports, and etc. When you want to go to an airport, or train station, what do you use to get there? You would most of the time use roadways to get to an air port or train station. This is where roadways become more convenient, since it provides easy access to other transportation services. Railways have limited options in taking people to places of other transportation services, since they're restricted to the destinations they have due to the lack of railway routes. This makes roadways more convenient.
The fifth reason why roadways have an edge over railways is because roads can be easily built on heavy slopes, in which railways have a trouble in doing so. This brings back to the explanation in the third answer. Roadways are more easier to put down than railways, due to the fact that roadways could be easily laid out onto flat surfaces, especially on heavy slopes. When you see roadways, some of the roadways go up a very steep hill, and that is an advantages of a roadway. Railways are very hard to be put on steep hills, and it would be hard for the train to go up the hill because the train is carrying tons of pounds, in which hit would be hard for the train to take all the weight up a very steep hill. Roadways are more flexible when it comes to the physical appearance of a land.
-Julie
