Word: highway
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Transportation experts generally agree that in most cases a huge highway- building program is not the answer. "We cannot pour asphalt and concrete on the ground fast enough, and in the face of today's political and social environment, I am not sure that people would accept it," says Robert Farris, chief of the Federal Highway Administration. As a practical matter, the cost of buying up suburban houses worth at least $250,000 apiece for a right-of-way would be prohibitive...
...Chicago's long-neglected Dan Ryan Expressway that is being rebuilt and widened in places from eight lanes to ten will cost $210 million for just three miles of road. Illinois is getting 90% of the money from the U.S. Government, but that source is not expanding. Federal highway outlays -- financed mostly by gasoline and other excise taxes -- increased from $6.1 billion in fiscal 1977 to $12.8 billion in 1987, barely keeping up with inflation. TRIP estimates the cost of repairing the 278,400 miles of highways in poor to very-poor condition at more than $164 billion. That means...
Until cities can revamp their streets and highways, they will have to work harder to manage the traffic flow. Authorities in Los Angeles, Chicago and other metropolitan areas have installed electronic sensors in the pavement to get a continuous reading of traffic speed and volume. When a highway becomes clogged, controllers can adjust the timing of stoplights on the on-ramps to reduce the flow of vehicles. In Virginia traffic supervisors use remote TV cameras installed along stretches of I-66 and I-395 to spot breakdowns, to which they immediately dispatch tow trucks that dispense free gasoline...
...have sometimes been reluctant to support them -- the added cost would mean higher fares or squeezed profits. But the major carriers have formed a lobbying group, Partnership for Improved Air Travel, which among other things is urging the Government to lead an airport-building program similar to the interstate- highway push...
...pave over the problem. Says Burnley: "Because we are a free country, people are able to change their travel patterns overnight. So the challenge is to be able to think more creatively." But meanwhile, taxpayers and travelers will have to shoulder the cost for a prudent amount of highway patching and airport building. The longer such work is postponed, the more chronic the gridlock will become. If America still hungers to move, it will have to pay the fare...