THE DESIGN OF THE HIGHWAY 207 



IRVING HAND. In attending the sessions on highways, one became 

 sensitive to the conflict of speed vs. beauty in the engineering of 

 highways. 



The effective utilization of time is a landmark in the advancement 

 of technology in our Nation. The confrontation we face and must 

 resolve is whether we face an irrevocable conflict in preserving the 

 beauty of our Nation or sacrificing it to the demands of our economic 

 development. This is not to say that manmade environment will not 

 achieve a beauty of its own. Rather, can we retain the natural 

 beauty of our physical environment while gaining the wonders of 

 mankind. 



We must identify the values in our environment in our lives 

 which are significant and which we hope to achieve. This judgment 

 is fundamental to what has been extended as an obvious truth that 

 the traveling public wishes to enjoy the visual scene it experiences 

 when driving vs. the temptation to use high-speed highways for just 

 that purpose high speeds in getting from "here to there." 



A. G. ODELL, Jr. As I stated at the meeting of the National 

 Advisory Committee on Highway Beautification of the Secretary of 

 Commerce, the motivation of the Federal Government in supporting 

 systems of transportation has always been to stimulate and facilitate 

 interstate and intercity transportation. This has been true ever since 

 Thomas Jefferson made a master plan of American roads and canals 

 in 1804. It is true with our interstate highway program and the 

 government's support of air travel. 



Our current concern with the effects of roads in our landscape 

 whether in recognition of automobile junkyards, billboards, over- 

 head utility wires, roadside rest places, or recreational open spaces 

 is a recognition of the fact that we must now plan ahead for all 

 the areas that transportation systems affect. 



Our improved road systems are one of the main reasons our cities 

 enlarge, and are a main reason for the growth of suburbs and subur- 

 ban shopping centers. To merely adorn these phenomena with trees 

 or shrubs is to miss the real problem entirely. 



The real problem is to design all the areas affected by highways. 

 Beautification is, to be sure, an important aspect of design but let 

 us not put the cart before the horse. It may be that our concern 

 over the appearance of auto graveyards is the expression of a national 

 embarrassment with our extravagant waste. 



