Evening star., 1962-08-22
Highway Planning

A'9H"SI 's
Washington residents owe
Chairman Whitener and the
members of his Special Sub
committee on Traffic, Streets.
and Highways a deep debt of
gratitude for the clear and
incisive report on accelera-
ted highway building and the
one-way street plan. The re-
port is especially valuable
because it focuses attention
upon the manifestly unscien-
tific nature of much highway
planning in the District. Lo-
cal highway planners are par
ticularly fond Of basing vital
planning decisions upon
nothing more substantial
than their own dream-like
projections of a concrete
wonderland. They call these
dreams hard facts" because
they rightfully ascribe to
their own dreams the rigid
ity that is characteristic of
the true fanatic.
Many of the dreams are
rooted in the Mass Transpor-
tation Survey which supplies
intricate technical answers
to irrelevant questions. Ex-
cept for its technical Ian
guage and format, the survey
is really more in the nature
of a theological tract because
it pivotS upon an implicit act
of faith in the salvific power
and ineluctable sweep of
past and continuing trends.
To the man without an un-
questioning faith of this kind.
the Mass Transportation
Survey is babble.
1t is possible to be "crazy
like a fox" and sometimes
profitable to be stupid. For
example, the survey began
with the assumption that all
existing rail facilities in
Washington would be Junked.
This assumption rested on an
act of faith. 1t was mani
festly unscientific and ac-
cordingly was made without
any discussion. Those who
made the assumption were
less interested in being SCI
entific than they were in ef-
fectively wrecking existing
rail facilities in order to con-
front Congress and the peo-
pie with a fait accompli.
The 1860 National Capital
Transportation Act commit
tee reports made it clear that
Congress desired a serious re-
study Of the potential value
of existing rail facilities for
fear that a premature de-
struction might occur. No
such serious study was ever
made and, considering the
circumstances. no such study
was possible, because the
vital decisions on up-grading
existing rail facilities were
abandoned to those whose
animosity toward these facil-
tiles was then, and is now,
notorious. Moreover, their
animosity betrays a passion
that is foreign to scientific
objectivity. 1t is more in the
nature of a theological pre-
conception basic to the traf-
fic-makers credo.
Chairman Whitener's re-
port states that "the D. C.
Commissioners, through the
Highway Department, are
circumventing the expressed
intent of Congress :. ;" but
it fails to outline in full the
dimensions of the fraud on
the people. The purposeful
wrecking Of Washington's
existing rail facilities has
been so carefully integrated
into a broad sociological
scheme that there can now be
no question as to the gravity
of the implications.
The tactics used to destroy
existing rail facilities in this
city demonstrate far more
clearly than highway build
ing that the c1rcumVenClon
of Congressional intent did
not proceed from an honest
mistake or an innocent mis-
apprehension of particular
facts. Certainly the circum-
vention involves much more
than a mere misplaced en-
phasis on highway construc-
ton. Indeed, it encompasses
nothing less than the stimuli
taneous promotion along a
wide front of many inter re
lated policies. all of which
tend to foster a decidedly
Marxist type of develop
ment, a trend whose current
phase contemplateS the de-
struction of the economic
base capable of sustaining
an independent middle class.
When our economically inde-
pen6eOt middle c1oSS nor