# Toll Roads and Free Roads

Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, pages I–X
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MESSAGE
FROM THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
TRANSMITTING
A LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, CONCURRED IN BY THE SECRETARY OF WAR, ENCLOSING A REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ON THE FEASIBILITY OF A SYSTEM OF TRANSCONTINENTAL TOLL ROADS AND A MASTER PLAN FOR FREE HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT
April 27, 1939.—Referred to the Committee on Roads and ordered to be printed with illustrations
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1939
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. . . . Price 75 cents
CONTENTS
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
To the Congress of the United States:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, concurred in by the Secretary of War, enclosing a report of the Bureau of Public Roads, United States Department of Agriculture, on the Feasibility of a System of Transcontinental Toll Roads and a Master Plan for Free Highway Development.
The report, prepared at the request of the Congress, is the first complete assembly of data on the use being made of our national highway network. It points definitely to the corrective measures of greatest urgency and shows that existing improvements may be fully utilized in meeting ultimate highway needs.
It emphasizes the need of a special system of direct interregional highways, with all necessary connections through and around cities, designed to meet the requirements of the national defense and the needs of a growing peacetime traffic of longer range.
It shows that there is need for superhighways, but makes it clear that this need exists only where there is congestion on the existing roads, and mainly in metropolitan areas. Improved facilities, needed for the solution of city street congestion, are shown to occupy a fundamental place in the general replanning of the cities indicated as necessary in the report “Our Cities,” issued in September 1937 by the National Resources Committee.
The report also pomts definitely to difficulties of right-of-way acquisition as obstacles to a proper “development of both rural highways and city streets, and makes important and useful recommendations for dealing¢ with these difficulties.
I call the special attention of the Congress to the discussion of the principle of “excess-taking” of land for highways. I lay great emphasis on this because by adopting the principle of “excess-taking” of land, the ultimate cost to the Government of a great national system of highways will be greatly reduced.
For instance, we all know that it is largely a matter of chance if a new highway 1is located through one man’s land and misses another man’s land a few miles away. Yet the man who, by good fortune, sells a narrow right-of-way for a new highway makes, in most cases, a handsome profit through the increase in value of all of the rest of his land. That represents an unearned increment of profit—a profit which comes to a mere handful of lucky citizens and which is denied to the vast majority.
Under the exercise of the principle of “‘excess-taking”’ of land, the Government, which puts up the cost of the highway, buys a wide strip on each side of the highway itself, uses it for the rental of concessions and sells it off over a period of years to home builders and others who wish to live near a main artery of travel. Thus the ​Government gets the unearned increment and reimburses itself in large part for the building of the road.
In its full discussion of the whole highway problem and the wealth of exact data it supplies, the report indicates the broad outlines of what might be regarded as a master plan for the development of all of the highway and street facilities of the Nation.
I recommend the report for the consideration of the Congress as a basis for needed action to solve our highway problems.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.
The White House, April 27, 1989.
LETTER OF SUBMITTAL
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, April 11, 1939.
The President, The White House.
Dear Mr. President: In accord with your suggestion, the report of the Bureau of Public Roads which is now before you has been revised to present more clearly the need for a system of interregional through highways and the important relationships of such a system to the requirements of the national defense. The report has for its foundation the wealth of factual data collected through the highway planning surveys operated in cooperation between 46 of the State highway departments and the Bureau. Now consolidated, the Nationwide pattern, qualitative and quantitative, of highway usage is developed for the first time.
In part I, the report in its present form, defines the locaton of three east–west and three north-south highways conforming to the description of section 13 of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1938, approved June 8, 1938, and indicates conclusively that financing of the full costs of such highways by direct-toll collections is not possible.
In the second part, the report discusses at length the development to date of the composite street and highway system of the country, and presents the general outlines of what in effect is a master highway plan for the Nation. The details of the plan outlined will be supplied progressively by continued studies already arranged for in cooperation with the State highway departments.
Pointing out clearly that the carrying out of the composite plan calls for appropriate and coordinated contributions by the Federal and State Governments and by all county and municipal subdivisions, the report proposes definite joint action by the Federal Government and the States.
Primary importance is attached to the designation and progressive improvement of a system of direct interregional highways designed to facilitate the long and expeditious movements that may be necessary in the national defense, and similarly wide-ranging travel of motorists in their own vehicles—a travel which, in addition to its immediate recreational benefits, is a powerful force for national unity.
In addition to this new activity the report proposes continued cooperation with the States in the modernization of the Federal-aid highway system, the elimination of hazards at railroad grade crossings, and the improvement of secondary and feeder roads properly integrated with programs of desirable land-use.
The report emphasizes the limitations hitherto placed upon highway and street improvements by inadequate provision for the acquisition of appropriate rights-of-way, and the fundamental importance of suitable provision for dealing with the right-of-way problem in ​connection with the more elaborate improvements that will be required in the future. To this end it proposes the creation of a Federal Land Authority empowered to buy, sell, lease, and hold land required for the various improvement projects of the Federal Government, and similarly to aid, through loans and leases, the acquisition of needed rights-of-way for important highway and street improvements of the States and cities. In an appendix it indicates the possibility, and legal status of methods of recovering the cost of highway improvements, in whole or in part, by the resale of land acquired in excess of the amount needed for the construction and protection of the highways.
Tentative location of the system of direct interregional highways proposed is indicated in the report, but the recommendation is made that final determination of the location of such highways should be made after further study in which the Bureau of Public Roads would cooperate with the War Department and the State highway departments.
In 1921 the War Department at the request of the Department of Agriculture made a comprehensive study of the highway routes important to the national defense. All of these routes were included in the Federal-aid system then established. In 1935 a restudy was made by the War Department to develop the revisions desirable and to establish priorities of route improvements. Since then the two Departments have maintained active liaison in relation to the general highway programs and the advancement of particular projects needed by the Military Establishment. Just recently a committee has been established by the War Department to work with the Bureau of Public Roads and the American Association of State Highway Officials to coordinate both the structural design and volume capacities of highway development with the requirements of the several major branches of the Military Establishment. In general terms it is the position of the War Department that a system of highways that is adequate to serve the industrial and commercial demands of the Nation will serve also the military requirements. However, the scale of the development of motorized military equipment and ordnance, and the changes in military practices taken in conjunction with the tremendous increase in the general public use of the highways, have created major problems that now require joint consideration by the two Departments.
Since it is the purpose of the report to provide a broad foundation for a sound future highway program, I recommend it be forwarded by you to the Congress with such comments as you may wish to make.
Very respectfully,
H. A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture.
I concur in the recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture that you forward the report on highways to the Congress for consideration.
Very respectfully,
Harry H. Woodring, Secretary of War.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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