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tests are supposed to guarantee that technicians don't have the temperament to revolt. Then Gaines realizes that Deputy Van Kleeck was able to move revolution-prone workers into his sector because, as deputy, Van Kleeck had access to the psychological files on the technicians. Gaines accesses Shorty's psychological profile and studies the neurotic traits that have made him a
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Going into the machinery under the roadway that runs it, Gaines takes command of the response. He doesn't order the Road stopped, since that would leave millions of commuters stranded, but instead has the military evacuate the riders, a time-consuming procedure. In command of a hastily gathered corps
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After this initial scene, the point of view shifts – and remains for the rest of the story – to Van Kleeck's superior Larry Gaines, Chief
Engineer of the Diego-Reno Roadtown – at the outset yet unaware of the brewing trouble. He is busy entertaining Mr. Blenkinsop, the Australian Transport Minister,
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Larry Gaines is dining with his
Australian guest in a moving restaurant on the road when one of the moving sidewalk strips stops unexpectedly. This causes a chain reaction of people falling from the stopped strip onto the fast moving strips next to it, and vice versa. The entire length of the Road
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Over the videophone Van Kleeck warns that he has a button rigged to blow up the Road if Gaines doesn't capitulate – which could cause countless deaths, possibly running into millions. Gaines doesn't understand how Van Kleeck has gotten so many technicians to side with him; psychological screening
85:
In the first section of the narrative, a stormy meeting takes place at a
Sacramento Sector Guild Hall of the technicians working "down inside", among the very noisy great rotors which keep the moving roads going. Speakers voice various grievances and call for immediate strike action. "Shorty" Van
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the rebel technicians were persuaded that their role in maintaining the nation's transport infrastructure is more important than that of any other workers and that they should therefore be in control. Blenkinsop is left behind at one of Road stations as Gaines takes charge of the advance on the
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The road's workforce is sharply divided into two classes – the technicians, who are unionized civilians, and the engineers, who are organized as
Transport Cadets, an elite paramilitary organization formed by the US Military to keep this crucial infrastructure running. The technicians feel some
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Asking for a parley, Gaines is taken to the
Stockton office and faces Shorty. There he uses his knowledge of Shorty's psychology to push him into a nervous breakdown and overpowers him, gaining control of the 'suicide' button. The Cadets attack the office and the rebellion is ended.
20:
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Kleeck, the Chief Deputy
Engineer of the Sacramento sector, appears and declares his sympathy with the technicians' demands and effectively places himself at their head. As would become clear later, it was Van Kleeck who instigated the technicians' agitation in the first place.
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section of the road are responsible. The rebels have stopped the strip – heedless of the resulting killing and wounding of numerous people traveling the moving road – as a demonstration to encourage their fellow technicians around the country to rebel against the Cadets.
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becomes a scene of carnage. The reader already knows that this was the result of the ruthless action taken by Van Kleeck and his confederates. Gaines quickly concludes that this is no mechanical failure but sabotage, and that the technicians who maintain the
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hostility to the "arrogant" engineers. Van Kleeck – himself a senior engineer who had "come up from the ranks" manipulates this hostility, with the intention of catapulting himself into a position of personal power.
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Gaines calls the
Stockton office and learns that the leader of the rebellion is his own deputy Van Kleeck, who defiantly declares "The Functionalist Revolution". Holding to a radical social theory,
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who is looking into Road technology with an eye to introducing it in
Australia. Gaines's explanation of the Road machinery to Blenkinsop is a device to bring the reader into the world of the Roads.
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127:. As the military advance proceeds, they arrest rebel technicians and cross connect the wiring of the machinery, motor by motor, to take control away from the rebels in the Stockton office.
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Later, Gaines ponders the changes that will have to be made to make sure there is never a recurrence of these events: more psychological testing, more careful oversight, and more
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77:), advances the idea that one's status and level of material reward in a society must and should depend on the functions one performs for that society.
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driven by cheap and efficient transport, as well as the development of 'pseudopods' of urban development between communities.
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of armed cadets, he proceeds up the underground access tunnel toward
Stockton on "tumblebugs," motorized and
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The story is set in the near future, when "roadtowns" (wide rapidly moving passenger platforms similar to
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23:"The Roads Must Roll" was originally published in the June 1940 issue of
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he calls "functionalism" (which is unrelated to the real-life
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Works originally published in Analog
Science Fiction and Fact
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37:" is a 1940 science fiction short story by American writer
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Union. He also notes that Heinlein successfully predicted
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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964
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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964
181:"The Roads Must Roll" was adapted for the radio shows
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1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein
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268:The Roads Must Roll – Radio Play from 1950
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262:Astounding Science Fiction, June 1940
257:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
709:Short stories by Robert A. Heinlein
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159:The Past Through Tomorrow, Vol 1.
678:The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
226:Silverberg, Robert, ed. (1970),
408:The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
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123:much like the later real-life
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626:The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
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478:Delilah and the Space Rigger
384:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
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10:
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424:The Pursuit of the Pankera
232:, Tom Doherty Associates,
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26:Astounding Science Fiction
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471:The Man Who Sold the Moon
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416:To Sail Beyond the Sunset
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357:The Past Through Tomorrow
325:The Man Who Sold the Moon
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548:The Green Hills of Earth
333:The Green Hills of Earth
400:The Number of the Beast
520:It's Great to Be Back!
513:The Black Pits of Luna
57:Heinlein's themes are
41:. It was selected for
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562:The Menace from Earth
506:Gentlemen, Be Seated!
376:Methuselah's Children
255:title listing at the
253:"The Roads Must Roll"
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656:Andrew Jackson Libby
451:"Let There Be Light"
392:Time Enough for Love
59:technological change
729:Fiction set in 1960
724:Fiction set in 1950
457:The Roads Must Roll
47:anthology in 1970.
35:The Roads Must Roll
714:1940 short stories
527:—We Also Walk Dogs
349:Orphans of the Sky
304:Robert A. Heinlein
39:Robert A. Heinlein
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686:Expanded Universe
634:Delos D. Harriman
111:Stockton office.
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572:If This Goes On—
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81:Plot summary
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661:Hazel Stone
534:Searchlight
317:Collections
190:X Minus One
184:Dimension X
163:Jimmy Hoffa
119:stabilized
703:Categories
613:Characters
197:References
177:Adaptation
445:Life-Line
193:in 1956.
167:Teamsters
133:demagogue
121:unicycles
596:Universe
582:Coventry
165:and the
100:Stockton
670:Related
492:Requiem
437:stories
220:Sources
73:theory
689:(1980)
681:(1966)
589:Misfit
435:Short
427:(2020)
419:(1987)
411:(1985)
403:(1980)
395:(1973)
387:(1966)
379:(1958)
368:Novels
360:(1967)
352:(1963)
344:(1953)
336:(1951)
328:(1950)
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150:Themes
125:Segway
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