Answer:
it is used as a pathway that vehicles can use to reach their destination efficiently.
Explanation:
Land Vehicles can still move without roads, but roads provide an ideal surface and spacing that accommodate a lot of vehicles to move at the same time without being stucked or collided with one another.
Canals have similar function with this, but it is designed specifically to accommodate water vehicles (boats or ships). We rarely see canals in Untied States. But cities like Venice in Italy implemented canals really well.
John Kay was the inventor! :)
Hiope I helped!
The theory which states that when there are multiple possible explanatons of an event or a phenomenon, the simplest is the best would be Occam's razor.
However, it's important to note that this idea actually states that we shouldn't necessarily multiply ontological entities, which doesn't really mean the easiest solution necessarily.