192 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



literally to a fine art. Certainly some of the latest work I think is 

 just as good as one could hope for anywhere. 



On the urban freeways, this is a much more difficult problem. 

 As I have seen it, you have done some very good work at the same 

 time, you won't mind my saying so, terrible things have happened. 

 You seem to be in the position of having pulled yourself to a halt 

 just to take stock of the situation, and this seems to be a wise thing 

 to do. 



I think the really important thing is the integration of the urban 

 highway with the land use and city pattern. This is the crux of the 

 problem. 



But to me, this question of freeways and movement of traffic on 

 freeways is only part of the problem. You could call it the primary 

 problem, but I think there is an extremely important secondary prob- 

 lem. This is how you deal with the motor vehicle in its intimate cir- 

 culation around buildings how you arrange for its parking, how you 

 deal with all the paraphernalia that the motor vehicles need how 

 you assure that the people in the back streets do not suffer from it. 



This, I think, is a very, very difficult problem and one that seems 

 to be arising more in American cities. If I can be quite blunt, if you 

 look at American cities over-all and you add up the total amount of 

 excruciating ugliness associated directly or indirectly with the motor 

 vehicle, then I think it is staggering. If you are going to have beau- 

 tiful American cities, you've got an enormous job on your hands in 

 that direction alone. 



Mr. BABCOCK. I would like to direct one short question to Mr. 

 Pushkarev relative to expanding a little bit about his ideas on how 

 you are going to use landscaping to break the monotony of these wide 

 open swaths you refer to. 



Mr. PUSHKAREV. The question here is the charm of the old small 

 country roads that when one drives over them one is in the land- 

 scape. The trees come right up to the edge of the pavement and 

 you are enveloped by trees and by the landscape, whereas on our 

 freeways, for safety reasons, we have to set the trees back so that 

 cars out of control do not hit them. As a result, on each side of 

 the pavement we have a minimum of 30 or up to 80 feet which are 

 denuded of all vegetation for the purpose of safety. 



The design issue here is to select those spots where trees can be 

 brought as close to the pavement as possible and still not conflict 

 with the safety criteria. Two such plausible spots are upward slopes 



