Evening star., 1946-12-15
Master Highway Plan
Looks to D. c. Future
Yet to Be Integrated, However,
With Overall Plan for Area

Yet to Be Integrated, However,
With Overall Plan for Area
By Rudolph Kaurmann II.
Every one in the Nations Capital
should consider with the greatest care
the multimillion dollar plan of high
way and transit improvements for the
District made public Friday by its En-
gineer Commissioner.
What Brig. Gen. Gordon r. Young
and Highway Director H. G. Whitehurst
have done is to point to the kind of
answer which must be found II the
Capital is not to be seriously blighted
by traffic congestion.
As Capt. Whitehurst points out, the
plan may seem bold but is far less bold,
and expensive, than that adopted in
many cities, some of them smaller COM
munities than Washington.
The plan is doubly worthy in that 1t
has taken into consideration, at least
insofar as this can be done at the pres
ent time, the views of professional and
civic interests, the Washington Board
Of Trade. the Capital Transit Co, as
well as basic studies by the National
Capital Park and Planning Commission.
But the program should not be viewed
as plan to end all plans and it must be
remembered that it is purely a trans
portation plan, primarily aimed at solv-
| ing traffic congestion in the National
Capital and preventing the type of city
blight which stems from that conges-
| ton.
1t may. or it may not, prove to fit in
well with the overall master plan for
the city which is to be prepared by the
National Capital Park and Planning
Commission during the next two years
under the Districts new slum-clearance
and redevelopment act.
| y X Il
| This master blueprint will include .
| transportation plan. It is now in its
early stages and is receiving the at
tention of Harland Bartholomew, ma
tionally known city planner from st.
Louis, who is acting as consritant for
the planning commission.
This master plan and its transporta-
| ton section may indicate that the plan
| brought out Friday by Gen. Young is
in some respects what city planners
call "compartmental planning"
| This term is used to designate plan
| ming done for one phase Of city de-
| yelopment only without relation to other
| phases, such as location and size Of
public buildings, slum clearance, zoning.
business decentralization, waterfront
| problems, park and recreation programs,
school locations and others.
| But it is too early to know whether
| this will be true
As was pointed out above, the special
District committee headed by Capt.
| Whitehurst which brought out the plan,
together with able Baltimore and Chica-
go consultants, took into consideration
some of the basic views of the planning
commission However, when the work
was started Is months ago the planners
asked to be allowed to sit jointly with
the committee in drafting the plan.
|. This suggestion was not adopted by the
District government, but perhaps 1t
would have been better If the planners
had been included, because they are now
left In the position OF bringing out q
competing plan.
True, they were asked to submit their
views to the special committee, but
they were also denied funds to hire a
staff to make comprehensive analysis
of the proposals under consideration.
/ r + + 4
Now the planners hope to get these
funds under the authority of the new
slum act, which enjoins them to prepare
city master plan before planning
specific slum projects.
When their plan comes out, It may
carry convincing proof, for example,
that the first unit Of the Fort Drive,
from a point near Loughborough road
and Macarthur boulevard to Ward Circle
at Massachusetts, and Nebraska avenues.
would serve better as the westernmost
arm of a proposed belt highway through
the outlying portions of the city than
the Arizona avenue. expressway proposed
in Gen. Young's report. a.
The latter would travel through
Glover-Archbold Park, whose donors
gave it to the public expressly as park
and recreation area which may be badly
needed by surrounding residential sec
tions in future time.
Again, the master plan now IN its
early stages may indicate that the mid
city expressway proposed in the plan
announced Friday will have to be
changed to At in better with the slum
redevelopment projects through which
1t is to run. ~
There are many other aspects Of the
far-reaching transportation plan which
have to be modified when their relation,
ships with other developments are care-
fully analyzed. But until the projected
master plan is brought forth the new
transportation plan provides healthy
basis for improving the Capitals con-
gested situation. Il.
The least 1t can do Is set Washington
residents thinking Of their streets and
transit service In terms of modern trends
and it is fair conclusion that it will
do far more than that.
to the advisability of Americanizing
English railway systems. Travel In the
| British Isles is in several respects un-
comfortable as compared with that in
America and of late wears the man.