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Jlamjly Weekly j February 5, 1961
SUPERHIGHWAYS OBSOLETE?
ARE OUR
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By DONALD MacDONALD
Pack up the car and head for anywhere. Chances
are your route soon will take you onto a smooth,
new, four-lane divided highway.
Distance melts as you bypass towns, duck under
intersecting roads, and flash by slower traffic.
Everyone relaxes. Most of the little emergencies,
. once part of every trip by car, never happen. There
are no stop lights, no sharp-curves, no steep hills.
No one can blunder out of a driveway and into
your path.
Problems were engineered out of this road, for
it is one stretch of the more than 10,000 miles al
ready completed in our projected 41,000-mile Na
tional Interstate Highway System. Not a bad record
for only 4V4 years, especially so when you add
another 14,500 miles currently under construction
and still another 11,500 miles surveyed and de
signed. Almost every city, large or small, will be
affected by this network in some way. These sta
tistics make some experts proud, others angry.
"In the past few years we have shown the Amer-
The American
safety, speed, and
ican public that highways can be built which will
handle our rising traffic problem," says Bertram D.
Tallamy, Federal highway administrator. "The new
highways have stimulated industry, business, hous
ing, and recreation, and have raised land values.
New industrial parks, new shopping centers, new
housing developments, and revitalized central
cities are another plus for the program in an ex
panding economy."
Not so, say other highway authorities; we are
strangling ourselves in concrete and asphalt rib
bons, they point out. A report by the National
Research Council of the National Academy of
Sciences claims that the nation's transport system
is in a mess. Its conclusion: "The transportation
system has grown up so haphazardly, often without
full realization of its economic, social, and cultural
impact, that it is in need of almost total review."
Who is right? Are we spending hundreds of mil
lions of tax dollars for highways that are as ob
solete as the horse and carriage? Or are we building
byways that will last as long as the roads of Rome?
Those who take the negative view cite Los
Angeles county as an example of our "highway
strangulation." This area has by far the biggest
and most highly developed freeway system of any
area in the country. Yet last November when a
strike of bus and trolley mechanics turned 400,000
'additional motorists loose a number smaller than
the projected population growth in the next five
years the system collapsed. "The traffic jam was
so monstrous," said an observer, "that if one more
car had arrived, we would have had to pave over
the stalled autos and start all over again."
The National Research Council points out that
the highway problem is not just a matter of private
automobiles, but affects all means of transportation.
Urban bus service is mushrooming while com
muting rail lines are dying on their steel vines;
freight carrying is shifting from boxcar to semi
trailer and truck.
What does the Council suggest? Here are some
major recommendations:
Use of more pipelines and belt conveyors to
move bulk freight.
Automatic and crewless trains and subways.
Developing to a practical reality the high
speed monorail train.
Automatically controlled highway vehicles.
taxpayer has spent millions for a dream motoring on roads that offer
comfort; instead, he may
Automobiles that ride on a cushion of air over
both paved and unpaved roads, rough terrain, and
water.
These devices already exist, but actual produc
tion is slowed by staggering financial problems, re
sistance to automation, and the fact that transpor
tation policies at the Federal level are divided
among 30 agencies.
Obviously, highway-using citizens won't benefit
much in the next decade or so from any of these
"egghead" proposals. And by then, highways being
built today will handle a third again as many cars
and trucks as the 72 million now in use!
Among the authorities who believe we are
headed in the right direction in our highway
building program is John C. Mackie, Michigan
highway commissioner. Mackie has a waiehouseful
of statistics and an electronic computer to sort
them out. He concludes:
"The highways we are building now for the
National Interstate Highway System will never
be obsolete, and we have projected traffic volume
into the 1980s, based on a comprehensive study of
land-use patterns and population growth."
These highways, which Mackie and other experts
believe will carry mobile America for years to
come, call for a 300-foot-wide right-of-way. This
leaves plenty of room for four 12-foot-wide traffic
lanes in each direction, the optimum number for
safety and speed. These lanes can handle 1,500
vehicles an hour compared with less than 400
on the old two-lane roads.
Safety records bear out the efficiency of our pres
ent system. There has been a 70-percent reduction
in accidents on these highways, along with de
creased travel time and easier driving conditions.
Police records indicate that 10 lives will be saved
annually for each 100 miles of superhighway in
service which means 1,000 motorists will miss a
date with death this year alone.
The new highways have been designed to build
community business, too in both big and small
communities. Unlike some older toll roads, the
interstate system is not designed to go straight
from one major city to another. Instead, the rout
ings serve as many cities as possible certainly
each one with a population of 100,000 or more.
Experience has shown that an area's economy
grows in direct proportion to its accessibility. This
have invested in a traffic nightmare
is the first consideration of an industry looking for
a new home or expansion. As industry develops
along the highway, new population is attracted.
These people become customers for housing devel
opments, and with that come the shopping and
recreational centers. Over a period of time, rela
tively small cities should be stimulated in growth
by the service provided by superhighways.
It's hard to deny that our current highway pro
gram is geared for the future. Yet it would be
unfair not to consider what are bound to be prob
lems someday. The time eventually will come when
we probably will have to do more than just build
highways; we may have to automate them for freer
flow of traffic and safety. How?
The simplest device, available now but as yet
unused, is a low-frequency radio warning device.
Haven't you sometimes passed a truck on a freeway
just as it obscured the exit sign you were looking
for? This gadget is for you!
Transmitters located along the roadside would
broadcast a taped message receivable on a slightly
altered car radio. If your radio was on, the message
would be superimposed over the regular broadcast,
regardless of station. If it were turned off, the
message would automatically come in anyway. The
device could warn of countless highway dangers
that lay ahead, whether of temporary or permanent
nature. Cost would be relatively nominal for both
car owner and highway department.
More forward-looking is research into simplified
car controls, which lead, in turn, to a car that could
be controlled automatically from periodically
spaced centers, much as military missiles are now.
We already have prototype vehicles that can be
driven easily without benefit of steering wheel,
brake, or gas pedal. The driver uses only a single,
airplane-like control. Forward pressure accelerates
the car; pulling back the control brakes it; and
movement to either side steers it. Test personnel
say that 15 minutes' experience makes an expert
of the average driver. The control, however, is
still complicated and bulky.
Other devices in the prototype stage include a
signal wire imbedded on either side of a highway
that would actuate a light or buzzer in the car
to warn you if you strayed off course, and radar
actuated braking devices that would take over if
you approached an obstruction. One trouble with
the latter is that so far, when approaching a curve,
it cannot distinguish between a harmless stationary
metallic obstruction on the side of the road and a
stalled car actually on the highway.
State highway officials arc watching the progress
of these devices, but they are understandably re
luctant at this stage to commit public funds to
experimentation. Even the practical radio warning
device still requires an expenditure by each car
owner something, in the view of these officials,
that should not be forced. Therefore, they are
unwilling to equip new highways with the neces
sary imbedded wiring.
Actually, most officials feel our present course in
highway construction is adequate, except in and
around major cities. In these cases, they feel the
answer is more highways, with states and cities
bearing a greater share in paying for the limited
access mileage used mostly by local taxpayers.
Next time you find yourself wheeling down one
of our superhighways, play the role of "expert"
yourself. More than likely you'll agree that our
highway system won't be out of date for a long
time. Meanwhile, like any expert, you'll find your
self thinking of ways to improve it.
Family Weekly, February 5, J961
7