Pros And Cons: The Interstate Highway System

Britain’s first motorway , the 13 km Preston bypass was opened in 1958, and following this the Goverment planned to improve 6750km of road to at least dual carriageway standard to form strategic inter-urban network for England. This network was marked as a national commitment, which would enhance road safety, be easily connected to all major centres of population, promote economic growth and regional development.

I agree that the interstate and highway system was one of the major progresses of the 1950s. This supplied jobs not only to construction workers building the roads, but also to the fast food restaurants and the motels jobs that opened to be convenient for the travelers. These new interstates gave the Americans new found freedom if they purchased a vehicle. Owning vehicles and houses because a social status statement. I believe that is why many Americans accepted the idea of debt so easily. Excellent post on some of the positive of the progress/prosperity of the

Evidence: A study presented by the white house on its website reported that 65% of roads rated in less than good condition. 25% of bridges require significant repair or cannot handle today's traffic. Also because certain roads cannot be used there is more traffic. The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that American commuters in urban areas collectively lost 5.5 billion hours stuck in traffic in 2011, meaning the average commuter lost nearly a week to traffic. their calculations further suggest that traffic congestion caused American commuters to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel, costing them more than $120 billion in added fuel costs and wasted time.

With many of those places, you get the sense that they are exactly what they always wanted to be, a warm and human-sized, comfortable places to live. An interstate would never give you that feeling. When you are on a highway, you find things that you may never find anywhere else. The businesses are owned by people who live in that area, you could not find their business anywhere on an interstate. The author pointed out "I could drive for days and never find anything else just like it because it's only made of that small town by those particular people." That's a pro on why you should take a highway rather than an

The Missouri Supreme Court has interpreted “highway” to apply to any roads where the public is accustomed to travel. Covert, S.W.3d at 75. The Missouri courts will look at the following factors to determine if a road is a highway: its (1) accessibility by (a) emergency vehicles, (b) delivery vehicles, and (c) members of the public; (2) its regulation, Id. at 74,75; (3) maintenance of the road, and (4) its usage for travel and as a thoroughfare, State v. Gittemeier, 400 S.W.3d 838, 844 (Mo. Ct. App. E.D. 2013). Furthermore, the courts have determined that a privately maintained road may still be considered a highway if it is still accessible to the public. Covert, S.W.3d at 77.

While the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1956 created the U.S. Interstate system and brought a nation together, the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1973 would later create division in federal and state political parties over future funding concerns. In the short run, President Nixon considered this act as a positive step for transportation and the economy. However, in the long run, this act led to the eroding of HTF’s, leaving both state and federal government debating over how to proceed in funding a transportation infrastructure that is at present time slowly crumbling. Political differences between federal and state agencies have brought the modernization process of the transportation infrastructure to a snail’s pace. In addition, the lengthy

Eisenhower's goals as president had involved downsizing the military. By spending less money on defense, Eisenhower had believed Americans could spend more on infrastructure and the quality of living in the United States. And he did just that with the creation of America’s first interstate highways system. General Eisenhower went from coordinating the largest military operation the world has ever seen, to pushing the world's largest work project which would be known as the Federal Highway Act of 1956. With this act, General Eisenhower had changed the face of America, creating one of the largest cultural changes in the history of the United States. He had organized that 90% of the cost for this project would handled in the Highway Trust Fund, which came from taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, while 10% of the cost would come from the states. Eisenhower’s endorsement for the Federal-Aid Highway Act can be directly credited to his experiences as a member in the U.S Army’s first Transcontinental Motor Convoy across the United States. At 28 years of age the young Lieutenant colonel had written a chapter in his book At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends about his experiences traveling cross country. His experience had convinced him to support an interstate system. He had supported highways for the purpose of a national defence. “In the event of a ground invasion by a foreign power, the U.S Army would need good highways to transport troops across

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 pushed for transcontinental highways across America to connect the nation in a safer fashion. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law to improve “speedy, safe transcontinental travel” through a 40,000 mile interstate highway. Since the Cold War pressured Americans into building the highways, support for their construction grew as they provided quick evacuation routes for cities that could be target areas from the impending threat of the Soviet Union. The Act provided that the federal government would pay 90 percent of the cost for building the highway and the law portioned out $26 billion to pay for the construction. The government collected the money for the construction by increasing the

Do you know wear the longest rode on Earth can be found? The Pan-American Highway begins in Alaska. It passes through Canada, the United States. and Mexico. Then it continues down the west coast of South America all the way to Chile. Altogether, the highway passes through 12 countries. It passes through jungles and mountains the road is about 16,000 miles long. At this time, only one 54-miles stretch of the road remains to be completed.

In the third debate in class, we talked about Tollway vs. freeway. A tollway is an open or private road for which a free or toll is evaluated for passage. It is a shape of road pricing typically executed to help recover the cost of road maintenance and construction. Tollway requires vehicles to stop or back off; manual toll gathering sits wastes time and raises vehicle working expenses. The activity redirection coming about because of the tolls expands congestion on the road system and makes it less useful. A freeway is a controlled-get to a multi-path expressway that does not have tolls. Traffic flow on a highway is unhindered in light of the fact that there are no moving signals, convergences, or at-level crossings with different railroads, streets, or passerby ways. Ways out and entrances to the highway are given at interchanges by slippy streets, which consider speed changes between the interstate and collector streets. Opposing directions of travel are for the most part isolated by a focal reservation containing a traffic obstruction, grass, or a median strip. This eliminates the contentions with other directions and enhances safety and limit.

If the construction process of the highway were to occur today, these factors would be put in consideration. Notably, the route experienced heavy traffic jams since it was very narrow and passed through towns, which had heightened economic opportunities. The new construction process would project the possible traffic flow along the road and construct it wide enough. For instance, having four to eight lanes would ease the traffic flow, unlike the two-lane system. Although the road was meant to connect the small town to major road networks, it was not necessary that the main highway goes directly through the towns. A new construction of the route would probably have it pass outside the towns and have feeder roads connecting the main route and the commercial

The Construction of The Alaskan Highway started in Lieu of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Originally, the initial construction was to start February 1942, however finding the right crew to construct such a highway was more difficult than originally anticipated. In March 1942, the first blades dug into the ground. This was a very daunting task; a task that only the US Army Corps of Engineers could handle. Through some of the toughest and most desolate wilderness this country has to offer. Through freezing temperatures to swamp like conditions the Engineers prevailed, The Alaskan Highway was built. It was not without its many difficulties, additional missions added to the already daunting task, trial and error situations, and

Under MAP-21, the enhanced National Highway System (NHS) is composed of approximately 220,000 miles of rural and urban roads serving major population centers, international border crossings, intermodal transportation facilities, and major travel destinations. It includes the Interstate System, all principal arterials (including some not previously designated as part of the NHS) and border crossings on those routes, highways that provide motor vehicle access between the NHS and major intermodal transportation facilities, and the network of highways important to U.S. strategic defense (STRAHNET) and its connectors to major military installations. The NHPP is authorized at an average of $21.8 billion per year to support the condition and performance

In the national government there are variety of policy issues that involve the expenditure of money. One of the most important government issues involving the expenditure of money is transportation funding. The nation’s transportation system includes the highways, transit, and rail systems that the people use. It is critical to the economy and affects the lives of the American people. However, the system has its flaws. The cost to repair and update the transportation system to meet future and current demands is exceeding billions of dollars. The 18.4 cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline enacted,more than 20 years ago is not worth as much today. This trend will continue as there are more fuel-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles. Funding

As America enters an era of development in transportation, people are bound to tackle traffic congestions. Today, Americans spend 14.5 million hours every day in traffic because the roads have more vehicles than they can hold. Heavy traffic is mainly caused by the economy and school systems as they require people to go to work or school around the same time (Morgan, "The Costs of Highway Congestion"). There are many public transportation systems that can help reduce vehicles on the road; however, people choose to use private vehicles. People find private cars more efficient, comfortable, and faster than public transportation. One of the traffic congestions that provoked a dispute sits in the city of Pacifica.