Evening star., 1933-12-31
NEW CARS MAKING
ROADS OUT OF DATE
Charles NJ. Upham Says Auto
Shows Will Emphasize
Trend of Times.

The increase in speed, due to modern
engineering, streamlining and other fac
tors in automobile design Is rapidly
making many Of the highways of the
United States, and particularly in the
more congested areas around great met
ropolitan centers, as out-of-date as the
roads Of 1905 were when automobiles
began replacing horse-drawn vehicles.
This trend will be emphasized in the
showing Of new models at the National
Automobile Show which opens in New
York just previous to the opening of
the American Road Builders Associa-
ton convention in the Stevens Hotel in
Chicago
Speed Highways Needed.
"The modern tendency to increase
speed of the automobile can only be
made an effective factor instead of an
interesting industrial toy through the
development of high-speed highways in
congested areas and of roads equipped
for safety in other sections said
Charles M. Upham, director OF the
American Road Builders Association,
in this connection. "A start has been
made in this direction, notably in the
construction of the West Side elevated
highway in New York. the elevated and
beth. N. j., to the Holland Tunnel and
Wacker Drive in Chicago. But so far
the United States possesses a very small
mileage of thoroughfares actually de-
signed for the high-speed automobile.
Considering the original investment in
highway construction and the poten-
tial return on that investment, 1t Is
bad economics to ignore current and
future traffic demands"
An interesting report for all metro
politan centers has Just been completed
in the vicinity of Washington and will
be available for study at the American
Road Builders convention. 1t was made
by a committee formed under the
auspices of the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission the Federal
organization which, with the Fine Arts
Commission, supervises all public de-
velopments in the Capital The report
covers a survey made over period Of
several years in a radius of 20 miles
from the boundaries of the District of
Columbia and is designed to form the
basis for highway construction in that
area for many years to come. 1t Is
the latest and one Of the most COM
plete studies of the sort yet made along
these lines The study was supervised
by T. H. Macdonald. chief of the Fed
eral Bureau of Public Roads, who was
chairman of the committee.
Whitehurst Statement.
Concerning this report, H. C. White
hurst. president of the American Road
Builders Association and director OF
highways of the National Capital, said
Costing $4,000 and covering al
phases Of traffic and highway needs in
all directions from Washington, this
survey should prove invaluable in aiding
solution Of similar problems in other
metropolitan centers In addition to
the resident traffic in the area and the
extra burden placed on the highways
because of an unusual volume Of traffic
originating outside the area. the high
ways surrounding the District OF Colum-
bia serve as large a driver population
as do those Of many cities a great deal
larger The number Of visitors alone
each year equals the population of q
large city. For this reason the survey
is of national importance to every one
interested in the development of modern
highways and traffic control"