Evening star., 1939-12-11
Improved Arteria|
Roads Held Major
Traffic Need
Something Must Be
Done or Industry Will
Suffer, Writer Says

w SSyS
What Americas motorists are
getting for the approximately
t,Do billion dollars they pay each
year in tGreS and the plans that
haze formulated for the eI-
penditure of this money on a CO.
ordinated national motor high
tDdy Development system are de-
scrtbed here in @ series OF three
North American Newspaper Ali
1nce articles, OF Which this is the
first.
BY BLAIR MOODY.
American taxpayers are shelling
out approximately $4,000, 100000 a
year to clear the path for the Goth
century's flexible, personal trans
portation agency-the automobile
and are being short-changed!
They are paying in gasoline, Ii
cense and Federal taxes more for
streets and highways than your
reputedly profligate Uncle Samuel is
superspending on any category of
his long -lopsided budget. And what
are they getting for it?
One thing they are not getting is
what any automobile driver who
uses his car when and where most
drivers do-in metropolitan rush
hour'-knows they need the most
relief from congestion.
Some cities, on some streets, have
made progress in moving mass traf-
fic at the rate it must move if the
public is not to be subjected to a
progressively growing paralysis
which promoted sour dispositions,
higher blood pressures, and a vast
economic and time loss that no one
yet has been able to measure.
Stay in Horse-Cart Age.
But most cities, on perhaps 95 per
cent of the streets on which Amer
lea actually goes to town." have re-
manned in the horse-cart, and. in
many instances, the cow-path age.
Despite sprinklings of intelligence
here and there, such as Detroit S
recent installation of north-south
one-way thoroughfares, the long
lines which pile up behind the
bottlenecks and intersections on the
main streets" and Broad streets"
and Grand River avenues are be-
coming longer.
Taking a Nationwide look at the
problem no one has yet done much
about it, And unless some one does
pretty soon a situation may develop
substantially more serious than
mere annoyance caused by spend
Ing scores of hours year staring
at the tire advertisement on the
car ahead and wondering when in
blazes that line is going to start
moving.
For the automobile industry,
which became the bell-wether of
American prosperity in the 20s, has
remained so. Detroit is dynamic
city on the rise and depressing
one on the drop, because it's motor
factories, the Nations biggest buyers
of raw and partly fabricated ma
terials, lead the way and set the
standard for good or bad business
everywhere-pay rolls, purchasing
power, unemployment and all the
rest of it. If the usefulness of the
motor car is impaired, curtailed or
crippled not only Detroit, but the
whole Nation will suffer.
How About Future?
If congestion already seems in
many cities to be reaching the satu-
ration point, what will happen when
additional millions of cars pour out
on the road, as ali authorities pre-
dict will happen in the next 20
years? Even worse, what will hap
pen if, because foresight has been
insufficient to clear the proper paths
for their use, those additional mil
lions of cars do not pour out? Can
Detroit afford to let problem of
that nature strangle expansion of its
great industry through neglect?
It is not, Heaven knows, because
the taxpayers have been stingy. A
conservative estimate of the amount
poured into roads since 1920 is $20,-
O00.000,000, and that is probably low
1t certainly is not because money
won't be spent in the future A low
calculation of the road and street
expenditures, based on gasoline
taxes, licenses and so on, in the next
20 years is $35, ,0Oo,0 100000. Paul G.
Hoffman, president of Studebaker
Corp. and a moving figure in the
Automobile Manufacturers Associa-
ton. is willing to back an estimate
Of $50,000,000 900.
The difference between the lower
figure and Mr.. Hoffman's figure Is
increase in traffic. If there is nc
increase In number of cars or their
use, the $35, ,000, 100000 estimate is
conservative. With expected axpan-
sion. Hoffmans lover $4,000, 900,
900" Is nearer right.
Revolution in System.
The question is not whether this
money will be spent-but how it
will be spent. And it's sum, as
almost any one would agree, worth
working out program for, instead
Of continuing the present haphazard
largely planless, pork-barrel system
of ladling it out here and there to
whomsoever's district may seem al
the moment to have the votes.