224 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



sonable protection of park lands. In California, we have some laws 

 in our statute books now which we are trying to get rid of. The 

 provision I have suggested might very well provide a leverage to help 

 us eliminate such laws. 



Another approach could be pressure applied to universities to have 

 the schools of engineering include in their requirements basic train- 

 ing in aesthetic highway design and basic principles of conservation. 



One of the very best approaches for States which are not able to 

 convert a great number of their beautiful highways into parkways 

 is to develop a State scenic highways system such as has been estab- 

 lished in California, largely to the credit of Senator Fair who 

 introduced the authorizing legislation. 



A map that shows this system is displayed in this room, which I 

 hope you will look at later. There is also, among the publications 

 available, material on the scenic highway system. This system 

 divides the responsibility between the division of highways, the 

 agency responsible for bringing the roadways and the comple- 

 mentary developments up to high standards, and other agencies 

 of the government which are responsible for protecting the scenic 

 corridors. Unless both those conditions are met, the highways 

 will not be admitted officially into the scenic highway system. 



This system is just beginning, but we think it has great promise. 



Mr. LYNCH. I would like to make a proposal that the concept of 

 the scenic road and scenic corridor be applied to the city itself, 

 directly to the urban area. This may seem a strange idea to put 

 forth. Everyone knows that cities are very ugly places and city high- 

 ways are some of the more ugly parts of it. Who would want to 

 drive for pleasure on a city highway? 



It may be that there are more people driving for pleasure on our 

 city highways than we think and, whether that is true or not, certainly 

 it is on these channels that the great majority of our citizens are 

 moving back and forth every day in the course of their other business. 

 Surely what they see is of some consequence to us. 



It is not possible to separate the visual experience into a little box, 

 to say one looks only when one is on vacation. We are striving to 

 improve the whole visual experience, the whole world that surrounds 

 us. 



I would go further, and say that the city is potentially just as fas- 

 cinating as a forest or a piece of rural landscape perhaps more so 

 because it is much richer in human connotations. We have the 



