Crisis in America’s city traffic

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32777, 30 November 1971, Page 19

Crisis in America’s city traffic

(By Professor JOHN E. OWEN, department of sociology. Arizona State University)

America’s urban transportation problem is moving rapidly to a crisis. It is ironic that the nation which sent a man to the moon cannot find a way to move its city workers to and from their jobs conveniently, safely, and quickly.

■ The nation today has more ■than 100 million automobiles,' .'one for every two persons. 1 have shown that the raverage American spends an Ihour in his cap going to and •from work for every eight ; hours actually spent on the .'Job. From 7.15 a.m. to 8.15 ■a.m. on weekdays, 40 million ‘Americans are on the highways, trying to get to work. ;The journey to work is the -hardest part of the day for ;many, involving fender-to- " fender driving on city highways that are becoming more 'traffic-strangled every year. -Before 1910, horse-drawn traffic in New York averaged ‘ll miles an hour. Today, automobiles there average ; only eight miles an hour.

■ Fifty six thousand people 'are killed on the roads annu- • ally and almost four million rare injured. Road accidents ' are the top killers of United States youths, more than all diseases combined. In 1970 16,500 young people, aged 15 to 24, were killed in traffic accidents, almost four times the number of Americans killed in combat in Vietnam that year. Alcohol is Involved in approximately half of all highway deaths, and official estimates are that one motorist in 20 on United States roads is alcoholic.

Neglected systems \ Many experts have seen the ■ solution to accidents and ‘ crowded highways in a • greater use of mass transit • systems underground and ; elevated railways, trams, and ■ buses. But America’s excess dependence upon the car has resulted in very little being spent on systems of public

In fact, America is the ’ only major developed nation in the world to allow its' public transport system to 1 decay. Only five rapid transit systems operate in America today—in New York, Boston, • Cleveland, Chicago, and 1 Philadelphia. The newest of 1 these began half a century' ago. But current plans will . add to these systems, on the ■ premise that this can inject new economic vitality into deteriorating inner cities. The five existing rail-transit sys- . terns are being extended and • new ones being built or ■ planned for nine other metro- ‘ polises. One argument of the American Transit Association . is that one rail track can move 70,000 persons an hour. . One exclusive bus lane can transport 40,000 riders an : hour, but only 4500 motorists . can travel on one lane of a • motorway in an hour. In ■ Chicago 138,000 persons leave ■ or enter the downtown area ' daily by underground, eleva- . ted trains, and commuter • railroads. If all these people , were to travel by private • cars, the city would have to ’ build (after finding room for) ' 140 additional motorway ■ lanes, 70 in each direction. Rail network . The first completely new rail-transit system since 1905 1 is planned for the spring of s 1972 in San Francisco, a 75 ' mile network that will tie . together three counties (with 2J million people), using ’ trains moving at 80 m.pJi. If r successful, this could stimulate underground transit in . many other communities. J Known as B.A.R.T. (Bay Area ’ Rapid Transit), it will cut • travel time between San ‘ Francisco and Oakland from » 45 to nine minutes, by carry- ' ing 200,000 passengers a , day and reducing peak- - nour commuter congestion ' through major inter-city cor- , ridors by as much as 50 peri

(cent. Eventually serving nine counties, whose population is expected to reach over seven million within 20 years, it will be the world’s first completely automated transit system. Work has also begun on a rapid transit system for the nation’s capital. Washington and Peking are the last of the world’s major capitals to lack such a system. London in 1863 was the first. The first United States underground came in Boston in 1898. Ground was broken at the end of 1969 for the first Washington station, and the central city is scheduled to have underground lines by 1972, with the entire plan completed by 1980. Other

cities now planning new rapid-transit lines are Atlanta, Detroit, Kansas City, and Baltimore. Under an Urban Mass Transportation Assistance Act passed in 1970, over 3 billion dollars is authorised for mass transit aid by 1975, the Federal Government providing up to two-thirds of the funds. New roadways It is hoped that these new schemes will prove attractive alternatives to private car use, but some critics claim that proposed funding is inadequate, in view of the fact that for every baby bom today, two new cars are produced. Despite the excitement generated by futuristic notions of mono-rails, and vehicles floating on cushions of air, the future probably lies with four-wheel cars moving on steel rails. Considerable sums have been spent in America on building new major roadways.

Once a motorist leaves the larger cities, he leaves behind problems of parking, congestion, and traffic delays. In 1956 an interstate highway system was started with federal funds. It envisioned a nationwide network of modem high-speed motor-

ways, 40.000 miles of roads to cost $27,500 million over 10 years. The system has now been expanded to 42,500 miles and the cost will be $77,000 million on completion, scheduled for 1978. It already offers vast stretches of wide highway, free of intersections and traffic lights. By 1972 it should be possible for a motorosit to drive coast to coast without a red light. Washington pays 90 per cent of»the cost, plus half the cost of primary roads that need modernising. Bold plan needed Many engineers claim that it is the city roads that are in most need of improvement and hence more funds should be allocated to them. The immediate crisis is, in fact, localised in 10 cities where the need is for a bold plan to integrate rapid transit systems, highways, trains, and air lines. At present this does not exist, but planners are aware of the urgent necessity for an integrated approach to national transport problems seen as a unified whole.

There is also a trend to smaller compact cars that will consume less petrol and hence create less pollution. During the present decade Detroit plans to put safer cars on the road, with new injury-proof interiors, seat belts and harnesses, and other safety experiments. It has been found, for example, that seat belts can cut down the likelihood of car deaths and' serious injuries by as much as 50 per cent. The official recognition of the problem and the need to cope with it, and to bring to its alleviation imaginative results of research and technology augurs well for the future. If adequate funding can be combined with farsighted planning, the movement to and from United States cities will be made safer and less stressful for their inhabitants.