Evening star., 1963-01-20
Highway DeferroI

According to administration Of
ficialS, President Kennedy has not
banned the Three Sisters Bridge and
other key elements of the Washington
area freeway system. Instead, they say,
he has merely deferred them until he
can weigh all the arguments as to
whether they should proceed. But no
matter how it is rationalized, this is
at least a temporary victory for the
anti-highway forces.
The mere fact that the White House
has taken such a position, moreover,
suggests that the President or his ad-
visers were considerably impressed by
the sweeping conclusions of the Ma
tional Capital Transportation Agency.
These were to the effect that these
highway projects will not be needed if
an extensive rail transit system is built.
And this is disturbing for couple of
reasons
For one thing, the Meta has dis
played strong hostility toward these
projectS-especially the Three Sisters
Bridge and the east portion of the inner
The Meta conclusion that its studies
now have proved" that these specific
projects are unnecessary came as a
surprise to no one. Nor does the Meta
report imply that there is much room
for question about the validity of its
conclusions.
Such claims of infallibility are good
grounds for suspicion as a general rule.
In the hazy business of estimating
future transportation needs and habits,
they are doubly so. Traffic engineers
have hard enough time merely guess
ing the total numbers of people who
might reasonably be expected to want
to move from one place to another in
the future. Certainly their past record
in this respect is nothing to brag about.
The META report, however, goes much
further. Having arrived at these basic
figures, the Meta has moved on to
specify how many of the total would
prefer to drive, and how many would
find a transit system sufficiently at
tractive to leave their cars at home.
There is no reason to believe that the
META has not searched for the best
techniqueS available to make these esti-
mates. Obviously, however, the result
remains only an educated guess, not a
certainty. And some of the premises
accepted by the Meta in applying its
techniqueS appear dubious, to say the
least.
Among the large number of agencies
which the White House has asked to
review these findings, there are only a
few, unfortunately, that possess suf-
ficient technical knowledge to do a
really competent job. This means that
reviews by such agencies as the Com
merce Department (and particularly its
Federal Bureau of Public Roads, will
be far and away the most significant.
Because the Meta has made its all
important technical data available only
within the last couple of weeks, more
over, the White House should give the
review agencies whatever time is neces-
sary to complete their analyses.
1t is also important that when the
reviews are received, they should be
made public Immediately. For unless
we miss our guess, the highway sections
Of the Meta report are heading for a
real donnybrook. However the White
House may decide, the fight is very
likely to continue on Capitol Hill. II
that should prove to be the case, it
would be well to have the views of
Government agencies spread firmly on
the public record in advance of a noIicv
recommendation by the White House.