6
Wednesday. October 10, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Interstate Catalyzes Changes in U.S.
By LARRY FISH
Kansas Staff Reporter
If the glory of Greece is in her temples, the glory of 20th Century America probably is in her interstate highway system. Just as Greek civilization found its fullest expression in ancient Rome, it is some reason American about the images the interstate highway evokes:
Big trucks roll by night through the mountains of western Pennsylvania. Kids too young to be away from home hitchhike from an interchange in Des Moines. A car with Maryland license plates pulls off the highway at a Denny's in Idaho. And a Chevrolet with a family from Boston heads towards Disney World in Florida.
The lure of the open road wasn't uppermost in President Eisenhower's mind when he proposed the beginning of the interstate system in 1950, however. Besides desiring to improve the highway at the time, which saw a $30,000 lives loss, he would need a need for improved roads in the interest of national defense.
ESENHOWER wasn't alone in his cold-war thinking. The New York Times editorialist economic age requires accession and routeways to avoid deadly congestion."
Congress won't slow to act, although some time was lost in determining how the project was to be financed. On June 27,1966, the House and Senate unanimously bill calling for a $250 million funding packageled $23 billion for the interstate system.
The project was suitably American in scale. Called the largest governmental construction project in the history of the world, the plan called for 41,000 miles of
mostly four-lane controlled access roads, nearly enough to circle the earth twice. Every major city in the country would be linked, and 90 per cent of the American cities of 50,000 people or more would be served.
THE NEED for a unified system to replace the existing patchwork of U.S. state and local highways was evident. The number of cars on the road had increased dramatically since the end of World War II. Four-lane roads of the type contemplated by Congress were virtual extinct outside the United States in the Northeast during the beginning of Southern California's freeways. Overland travel was slow, tedious, and dangerous.
Congress rejected President Eisenhower's plan for floating special bonds to pay for the construction. Instead, the costs were to be paid almost entirely through usage taxes. The new tax included an increase in the gasoline tax from two cents to a gallon, new taxes on commercial highway users and taxes on tires.
In 1986, these increases were computed to come between six and nine dollars a year for the average highway user, and it was said that this amount would cost $700 per mile plus a decrease in the amount of wear-and-tear on vehicles using the new roadways.
THESE TAXES were to be funnelled into the Federal Highway Trust Fund, along with other sources of highway revenue already in existence. The federal government was to pay for 90 per cent of the total cost for the interstate system, the remaining 10 per cent coming from state funds.
Construction of the new super-highways began almost immediately. By 1970, the
latest year for which figures are available,
31,500 miles of interstate were open across
the country. Meanwhile the system had
admitted slightly to call for a total of
42,558 miles.
Every state in the union has benefited from the system except for Alaska. Even Hawaii has 19 miles in the interstate highway, so it makes a mockery of the word "interstate."
BUT in the continental United States, at least, the term "interstate" has a larger meaning than simply being descriptive of the course of a roadway. The new highways link the states in more than a physical sense.
Vacationers now trace the route of the ill-fated Donner party of pioneers at 70 miles per hour. Where the Donners eventually were brought to cannibalism to survive, motorists now cross the High Sierra without so much as a vapor lock. No place in the town where they could tell it that it can't be reached by three days driving time from anywhere else.
Students at the University of Kansas think nothing of spending their one-week spring break in California, New York, Texas, or Florida. Although documentation as to how well-traveled the American public is today does not include that opportunity exists as it never did before.
BUT THE interstate has been shaping American culture in more subtle ways, too. The interstate highway, with its uniform design and a few iconic landmarks, has nurtured the franchise craze, with its uniform standards of restaurants and gasoline stations. It is said that it is possible to cross the country without hitting a stop sign or coast without stopping at McDonald's.
Whatever one thinks of the Big Mac, franchises and the interstate have given America a type of unity had never before. Some say that the view of America from the
*inherent* is plastic and hence "not the real thing." Others agree that it may be plastic, but they question which is the real America and which is the myth.
THE INTERSTATE highways are certainly safer than the older routes. In 1955, there were 6.3 deaths per 100-mile vehicle rules; by 1970 that figure had declined to just 2.8 deaths per 100-mile. The improved highway system undoubtedly deserves most of the credit.
Although the interstate system as it was originally projected is nearing completion, the future doesn't look quite as rosy as it did in the past. The National System of Interstate and Defense System called for roads to be built to the specifications that would be required 20 years in the future. Thus some of the older systems are or soon will require remeeding.
Voices of portest are beginning to be heard about the continued expenditure for highways in a society suffering from the crisis of low-quality roads. Attempts were made by the Congress to take money from the Federal Highway trust fund for developing other forms of mass
SEN. LOWELL E, R-Comn., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., proposed taking more than $2 billion for the fun for nonhighway usage. Under pressure from firms with higher revenue, we more modest expenditure of $800 million was authorized, but the hole was in the dike.
The trend toward using money from the trust fund seems likely to continue. Almost certainly, enough money will be reserved for future needs and maintenance of the existing roadway far into the future. But any significant upgrading or enlarging of the interstate system will probably not meet with the needs of the population with which Congress acted in 1956.
Hitchin'
by Mayo
AWRIGHT! WHO'S THE SLOB WHO HIT ME WITH THIS BEER CAN?
Women Voters Confer byTelephone
Members of League of Women Voters throughout the state will be able to participate in a Teleten conference on political campaign financing tomorrow.
Telenet is a conference-type telephone
machine that enables league members
to listen and communicate.
Sponsored by the Lawrence League of Women Voters the conference will be at 9:45 a.m. Thursday in the Continuing Education Building at 7th and New Hampshire streets.
Earl Nehring, professor of political science, will moderate the program which seeks to provide students with a
Another meeting will be at 8 p.m.
tomorrow at 600 Louisiana St. for members
who can't attend the morning Teleten
program.
Selling your bike? Advertise in the Kansan. Call 864-4358.
BIG BLUE BEER BLAST
Union Tunnel/X-zone
Friday, October 12 8:00 p.m.
Football Team, Yell Leaders, Coaches
Sponsored by Board of Class Officers
MUSIC by QUITT'IN TIME
COOLFIRE
Downtown Lawrence
High Court Ruling Declined On Impoundment, Sexism
WASHINGTON (AP)——The Supreme Court yesterday sidestepped rulings on women's rights and presidential impoundment of federal funds, rebuffing in each case the pleas of the Nixon administration.
Over the objection of Justice William Douglas, the court refused to interfere with a decision by the U.S. circuit court in Philadelphia which upheld differing wage scales for men and women at the Robert Hall clothing store in Wilmington, Del.
The Labor Department brought the unsuccessful appeal. Women's department employees are paid less than those in the men's department, where the sex of the employee conforms with that of potential customers.
In the impoundment case, the state of Georgia asked the high court for permission to set up a temporary facility.
Robert Hall contended that the pay differential was based on experience that indicated that the men's department had more revenue than the women's department.
the justices to shake loose congressionally appropriated funds.
Although named as a defendant, the administration endorsed the request.
Also yesterday, the high court agreed to decide;
- Whether California may deny the vote to ex-felons. A lower court said no.
—Whether the federal government may delve into records held by banks on their customers.
80c
Pitchers
Tonight
8-Midnight
THE BALL PARK
Hillcrest Shopping
Center
IOWA STATE EXCURSION
INCLUDES
*round trip transportation to Ames
*football ticket to Iowa State game
*chicken dinner
*free beer & mix*
COST: $21 for class card holders
$25 for guests and non-card holders
Excursion will leave Union Tunnel, X-Zone,
7:00 a.m., Saturday, October 27
For Reservations mail this ad, name, address and check to Class Headquarters, 103 Kansas Union, Lawrence, Kansas.
For further information call 864-4760
MUMS
A KU Homecoming
Tradition
Order Early From The Pep Club
Marsha Oyer 843-3508
Gloria Doyens 864-1554
Liz Botkin 843-0414
Your Thoughtfulness Is Our Business
Nye's Flowers AND Picture Framing BILL NYE, OWNER
939 Mass.
843-3255