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[Minority]

Do roads actually do anything? apart from make the king come?
The wiki states that "Roads are most commonly used to give caravans a reliable path to your fortress from the map's edge"
Does this mean that caravans will always come from the map edge where it joins a road if one goes right to the map edge? what about migrants, sieges ect?

[Corai]

Roads just make you look pretty, increases speed, king no longer needs it.

[Loud Whispers]

Caravans will spawn on any path that will give them a route to your fortress. Roads aren't special in any fashion whatsoever, other than them stopping trees from growing/blocking the path, useful in large forest biomes. Migrants and sieges will also spawn on any valid map edge.

[KodKod]

If you're not cutting down trees on the surface they can occasionally grow this enough to completely block the passage of wagons, which need three tiles wide a space in order to pass.

Paved roads solve this problem by preventing tress from growing.

[Patroclus]

The only advantage of paved roads is that trees won't grow up on them, blocking wagon access to your fortress.  But if there are other places along the map edge where wagons can spawn and still reach your fortress, they can spawn there.

I made 3-wide roads to all four edges of the map, but wagons would still spawn elsewhere and zigzag through the trees to get to the door.  After about 5-6 years though, enough trees had grown that the caravans pretty much all spawn at most a few tiles away from the road.   

[rtg593]

If you're not cutting down trees on the surface they can occasionally grow this enough to completely block the passage of wagons, which need three tiles wide a space in order to pass.

Paved roads solve this problem by preventing tress from growing.

Sane for underground paths once the caverns are breached.

... What? The stone floors of every level of your fort aren't covered with mud, too?

[NecroRebel]

Roads don't force caravans to spawn anywhere, and the method used to force caravans to spawn in a particular spot can be done without roads. Roads are mostly used to pave large areas that won't have anything actually built on them, like, appropriately enough, roads, with a minimum amount of materials used - you could use constructed floors to do everything you can do with roads, but constructed floors take 1 material per tile while roads take 1 per 3, similar to bridges. They also can take less time to build, since they use fewer materials that have to be hauled to the build site, though since only one dwarf can work on a road and many on a block of floors it isn't always faster.

[Meph]

For that purpose you can also use stockpiles that accept no materials. They look different, are free and easy to set up and block tree growth. The sepling actually grows underneath them, so as soon a you undesignate the stockpile the tree will pop up. But just to keep sand/soil/clay free of plants, use stockpiles.

[mikelon]

I use gold to pave my roads and line them with masterwork statues of things dying: dwarf, elf, human, gobbo, whatever is available, just has to be domething dying.

The roads after a few years are splattered with blood, a perfect image of all my forts.

So i use them to make my fort dwarfy

[Loud Whispers]

The only advantage of paved roads is that trees won't grow up on them, blocking wagon access to your fortress.  But if there are other places along the map edge where wagons can spawn and still reach your fortress, they can spawn there.

Never cut down trees on your map edge, helps speed this process up.

[NedeN]

Well other than being fancy, roads always do not show garbage, such as when using them for xbow training all the broken bolts that normally create a mess, won't show up. Keeps things nice and tidy

[Talvieno]

Roads are better than floors in these ways: Fewer resources, less build times if covering a large area
Floors are better than roads in this way: You can build them without solid ground under them.

Roads cannot "float", unlike floors.

[Mr Frog]

Roads are better than floors in these ways: Fewer resources, less build times if covering a large area
Floors are better than roads in this way: You can build them without solid ground under them.

Bridges are better than both in these ways: Fewer resources, can be built without solid ground, and can be used as an impromptu catapult.

[Loud Whispers]

/architecture bonus/

[Johuotar]

Bridges and roads can be broken. Floora all the way.