Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1939-02-24
HIGHWAYS in
THIS COUNTRY
ARE SUBSIDIZED


BY those who pay taxes on homes,
farms and other property, is the con-
elusion reached by three of Ameri-
cas- most eminent and experienced
highway engineers, in a special study
for the Association of American Rail-
roads made public today by John J.
Pelley, president of the association.
For public carrier trucks of three
ton capacity and up, the subsidy
ranges from 1915 to $2,047 a year,
according to the report of Clifford OLD
en- C. B. Breed and w. S. Downs, the
engineers making the study.
Mr.. Older, as chief of the Illinois
Highway Department, had charge of
the famous Bates Road Tests in which
the fundamentals of present-day high
way design were developed. Profess
sor Breed is head of the School of
Civil Engineering of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Professor
Downs is professor of highway engi-
neering at the University of West
Virginia. All three engineers have
had wide practical experience in high
way construction, maintenance and fl
nance in various sections of the coun-
try.
In their study, Messrs. Breed, Old
ar and Downs considered the system
Of streets and roads as great state
public utility, of which every road
open for traffic is part. each road
and street in this public highway sys-
tenn of a state receives or delivers
most of its traffic to or from some
other highway" the engineers said.
The state system as whole, they said
lis not unlike q railroad system" in
that the main trunk highways are de-
pendent for their traffic upon the use
Of city streets and secondary rural
roads as terminals and feeders.
The cost of improvements on this
system made for the use of motor
vehicles, in the view of the three en-
gineers, should be met by ian equit-
able charge upon the motor vehicles
which use them, just as the costs of
telephones, electric power, water and
gas, railroads and other public utili-
ties are met by those who use their
services"
That this cost has not been met by
highway transport is their conclusion,
after an examination of the period
1921-1932, for which complete data
are available, with close approxima-
tions for later years. During the
twelve years ending in 1882, the study
finds that highway users failed by
almost ten billion dollars to pay fully
for the facilities provided for their
use. For the one year 1882 the de-
ficiency amounted to $6S2,000,000 a
subsidy which was not diminished for
the succeeding years up to and in
Guiding 1887, according to the report.
The report also deals with the 4ues-
ton of whether the different types
or classes of motor vehicles pay i'm
posts commensurate with the cost of
facilities required and provided for
the special benefit of each class" The
study points out that the overwhelm-
ing majority of vehicles have a maxi
mum load of less than 1900 pounds
per axle and an overall width of not
more than six feet.
Additional costs incurred in build
ing roads thicker, stronger, wider,
gtraighter and flatter than would be
needed for vehicles of this class, and
additional maintenance costs incurred
because of the operation of heavier
and larger vehicles, should be met by
the classes of vehicles whose opera
ton makes necessary these added
costs, in the view of the engineers.
From complete figures for the year
1882, they find that the subsidy for
heavier vehicles ranges from $876 a
year for three-ton truck or a twen-
ty-passenger bus up to $4,000 a year
for the heaviest permissible truck,
Complete figures are not available
for later years, the engineers report,
but fair approximations for the year
1887 show similar results.
1.-The report of Messrs. Older
Breed and Wowns," Mr.. Policy said in
making it public, "does not apply in
detail to any particular state. It does
show the highway as a whole, how
ever, and demonstrates beyond any
doubt that highway transport is be-
ing substantially subsidized by those
VINO pay taxes on homes, farms and