Away from Highways

In the greatest public works program since the pharaohs piled up the pyramids, the Government since 1956 has laced the U.S. with 33,000 miles of multilane highways. Nearly all of the $47 billion cost has been paid from the Highway Trust Fund, which lives off the 4-c--a-gallon federal gasoline tax. The highway program has created much convenience for drivers, countless jobs for workers--and untold profits for auto, oil, tire, cement, construction, motel and other companies. Lately the program has also earned much criticism.

In Baltimore, Washington, San Antonio, New Orleans and other cities, protesters have challenged about 200 highway projects. Commuter groups complain that too much is spent on highways and not enough on mass transit. Civil rights groups complain that new highways cut down old urban neighborhoods. Environmentalists complain that the highways, by stimulating auto travel, aggravate air pollution. Protests are rising in Congress. Says Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr., Connecticut Republican: "It is inconceivable that we have hundreds of thousands protesting the war, but we placidly accept 55,000 highway deaths a year."

New Makeup. Last week, in a surprise move, Transportation Secretary John Volpe proposed making Highway Trust Fund money available for mass transit. The fund now provides about $5 billion a year for federal roads. Under Volpe's plan, the Government would allow $1 billion of this to be spent on mass transit in 1974, $1.85 billion in fiscal 1975 and $2.25 billion in subsequent years. Chances of winning congressional approval this year appear dim, but it is important that the Nixon Administration is striving to spread the money around, and it seems inevitable that just that will be done some time in the future.

The plan faces opposition of varying intensity from the myriad companies that benefit from highway building, as well as automobile clubs and state highway officials. Together, these forces make up a powerful highway lobby, jokingly dubbed in Washington the "Highwaymen" or the "Road Gang." Yet some of the major beneficiaries of highway building recognize that changes should and will be made.

Call to Conserve. Chiefs of General Motors and Ford favor diverting at least some of the Highway Trust Fund to subsidize buses and other mass-transit systems that use highways, but not rail transit projects. Ford is promoting a high-speed-bus system, based on a network of guideways built over existing highways that use computer-controlled, Ford-built mini buses capable of carrying ten passengers. The company is building an experimental two-station system for Transpo 72 at Dulles Airport outside Washington.

Officers of oil companies--notably Jersey Standard and Mobil--argue that some trust-fund money should be spent on rail as well as highway transit projects. These executives are worried about a future shortage of oil, which they want to conserve. It is remarkable that some top businessmen are contemplating means to reduce demand for their basic product. Even more remarkable, this rejiggering of the oilmen's past philosophy puts them in the same camp as their most outspoken critics--the environmentalists.

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