Announcer this is the American Dream of freedom on wheels. An automotive age traveling on timesaving superhighways, futuramas freeflowing channels of concrete and steel. But these wide lanes of reality actually measure out to just a few miles, scattered far apart, across the friendly face of our land. We have become the nation on wheels. With more motorized mobility even ever dreamed of before. Though we have the greatest in all the world, it cannot carry the mounting traffic of our growing greatness. Announcer we are running out of roads. We did not dream big enough. Here is the problem, all mapped out. 3,300,000 miles of it, unimproved, improved, paved, superhighways, country roads, small city streets, big city , state highways, networking the nation. Announcer and here is the crisis, two thirds of the way is now obsolete, worn out, inadequate in width, inferior in condition, capacity, and safety. Announcer sure, these were good roads 30 years ago, when they were laid out, but nothing lasts forever. The waiting line forms on the right, and at the head of the waiting line is your local highway engineer. Listen to what he thinks about our roads. All over the county, our farm tomarket roads are dying of old age, not anybodys fault, just a matter of time. And not enough time or money to keep them modern. Most were built in the 1920s. Along came the neglect of the war years, beat them up and broke them down. We have use them more and more ever since. What we need is to invest more money in new roads, instead of spending so much patching up wornout ones. Announcer what do the people think who must use these roads . Ask the farmer. Sinkholes and wash boards, come every spring, the bottoms drop out. And the milk truck driver. We pay for roads, whether we have them or not. We pay more for them what we dont have them. Dont have to have hard top, gravel is fine when it is treated to keep down the dust. All the gravel in the county cannot keep a road from caving in, if it has not been graded proper for allweather wear. Wear and tear on equipment, waste of time. Soaks everybody from the farmers right up to the family budget. We are growing more crops, more people, growing more cars and trucks. Trouble is, we have not been growing enough more good roads. And the accident rate rises, too, if you do not watch out. Ask the school bus driver. Yep, you have to be careful driving the kids over these roads. Sharp curves, soft shoulders, narrow bridges, railroad crossings. Spring rains wash out these roads, winter frost rips them up, see you can count on no school those days. Other times you do not know what to expect. Announcer ask the smalltown merchant. Our town has a population of 4002, except on weekends. On friday night and saturday, congestion hits our main arteries like a heart attack. But customers pass us by they if they cannot find a place to stop. What brings up store sales today is parking space. It is as important to volume as shelf space and display windows. Best investment a town could make, lots of parking. Announcer in small town and suburb and cities of all sizes, the situation is the same. All snarled up. The best investment has yet to be made. This is america. Every day it gets worse shopping. It is not just a matter of getting through the congestion, it is impossible to find a place to park. What can i do . Announcer morning and night, around the clock, the sound of our times keeps blasting for a bottleneck. He three quarters of everything for American Families travels at some time on the backs of our 10 million trucks. And what are you planning for dinner, mother . Here it is, expensively bottlenecked. [whistling] to do . Pal, whats load and unload, buddy. Thats whats to do, like a bunch of sheep. Announcer with 4 million vehicles on our roads today, 50 more than before the war. By 1975, they say we will be driving 85 million. 5 00, usa. [horns honking] ah, for the life of the traveling salesman, late for every appointment. This is an alternate route. [horn honking] will you stop honking, we aint going nowhere. This is agony alley. Morning rush and evening wait. Fight your way home from work. You think you got it made. Good job, car nearly paid for. So you get a little home in the suburbs, away from the city smoke, out from the shadows of the factory, into the sun and clean air. Raise a few kids, some flowers and vegetables. A big green coming through. But it backfired into a pipe dream. Exhaust pipe dream. Every night it takes longer to get home, wasting more time on gasoline. No wonder everybody is acting so nervous. What is a citizen going to do . What can a citizen do . Announcer to help find out, a better highways contest was recently conduct it. Purpose, how to plan and pay for the safe and adequate highways we need. Highway experts wrote essays, along with tens of thousands of others who already recognize the highway dilemma as one of our nations most critical problems. I am privileged to present the winner of the grand national award, robert moses of new york. [applause] announcer robert moses, new york City Construction coordinator, is a worldfamous highway planner, a man who knows his business. No stroke of genius, no brilliant advice, no magic will suddenly produce roads. Roads commence a writ commensurate with cars. We have fallen far behind. The remedies are neither easy nor cheap, nor immediately realizable. But the task you will set is not beyond the capacity of the aroused american people. Be sure that they will not stop short of the goal. [applause] announcer mr. Moses went on to compose a 10year construction program. The cost, 5 billion a year. He stressed there was no one new solution for the entire nation. But rather, a combination of many solutions. And there is a solution for each community, within its own capacity to accomplish. A good parking space is any space, close enough. A good road is any road, able to carry as traffic flow safely and adequately. And it does not have to cost 1 million a mile to be a good investment. It earns profit for all the nation. And it is just Good American enterprise to put part of the profits back in the business. Builders now have the knowhow to poor miracles of concrete through the air if supported by the proper financing. They can lift traffic up over city congestion with elevated highways raised by an aroused public. Announcer this expressway speeds over a densely populated area of brooklyn without disturbing life below to deliver traffic through the underwater tunnel to manhattan. Connecting to the north of fort story street will soon be open, with promenades for pedestrians on top, local traffic on the bottom and 21way expressways in between. Fourstoryhere is proof that our modern highway planners, with imagination, and public support can solve our traffic problems. We can have our superhighways in the sky, fabulous, futuristic forms, like this hollywood freeway interchange, which sorts flowing traffic eight ways at once. If we start now, to give our engineers the go sign to Design Dreams instead of detours. Deckspectacular twolevel through seattles busiest section has cut a 20minute traffic battle to three minutes travel time. Announcer and more miles are on the way. The people of the state of washington are using all of an increased gasoline tax and auto license fund for the Faster Development of a better roads program. Announcer many people favor told roads, like the new jersey bondike, financed by a issue and other way to provide funds. It is already paying itself off way ahead of schedule, proving that many of us who drive will pay extra by the mile and pay every trip to travel a good road. Announcer many states already have toll roads, and more are now under construction or in the planning stage. Any roadway must keep pace with the changing character of its community. Dream big and act boldly. Know the best road of yesterday can become the worst road of today just a few miles down the way. Pittsburgh is moving mountains and even relocating a Railroad Yard to get out of its traffic jam. County, city, and federal funds to pay their way. Announcer when completely open to traffic, the Greater Pittsburgh airport, instead of being an hour away, will only be a 15minute ride from the center of the city. As has been done and other cities, pittsburgh is digging a 4 million hole in the heart of the city to provide underground storage for thousands of cars. Above the surface, a beautiful park will camouflage the busy activity below. Or, if not underground, then stacked layer upon layer in modern fireproof sharpshooters. Engineered for easy access and maximum use of downtown space. Announcer in san francisco, the bayshore freeway is getting in shape for tomorrows traffic as part of californias new, 10year 750 million highway program, financed by state tax on gasoline and auto license fees. Announcer chicago is moving a city to build an eight mile log expressway from the city limits to michigan avenue, wide as a city block, into the heart of the loop, which will bring traffic to the middle of the Main Post Office building like a specialdelivery letter. Raiseder chicagoans their share of the 92 million cost by a bond issue. Interest in retirement to be paid by future revenue from motor fuel taxes, backed up by property taxes. Announcer borrowing money to finance expansion is traditional with americans. The time and money saved more than repays your investment. If you wait to pay as you go, you may not go at all. Announcer detroit is borrowing funds to build more miles of expressway and build them today , instead of years from now. Announcer limited access highways, without stoplights, cross traffic, pedestrians, leftturn menace and danger. Spacious roads of divided lanes where freeflowing traffic can see the time, tires, gas, as well as lives. But the way of the green light is not only on an expressway. The green light must shine along improved neighborhood streets. On the sunday way to church, and the pleasure drive to waters sun, the goahead must be far for on the side streets. We must fight for it at every crossroad, widening out congested intersections, rounding square corners for the wheels of the automotive age. We must boldly attack bottleneck and traffic jams with left turn lanes and modern interchanges, service roads and better loading facilities, free ourselves from route and from no place to park. Announcer roads are dying of old age, and come every spring, the bottoms drop off. To be careful driving over these roads. What is a citizen going to do . Announcer our American Dream of futurama on wheels can come true. Our highway engineers know the way. It is ours for the asking, if we will ask and pay our way. Freedom of the road is as old as new as thisn and as moment. Once we fought for it, through forest and river, wild animals and indians, across desert and range we won our right , of way. Now there is another payment to be made on our freedom of movement. It is the price for going greater than our biggest dreams. Today, two miles of highway are wearing out for every one being built. And tomorrow, we will have one million more diverse, not more drivers, not counting those in the backseat. Ahead, is it to be a dead end, or the green light . Dont honk your horn. Raise your voice. Ask for better highways and more parking space. It is your country. Write the green light, your state capital, write washington, d. C. , write your hometown officials, your newspaper editor. Call your radio and tv commentators. Support your highway officials, and when you vote, vote for your rightofway, do not honk your horn. Announcer raise your voice. Its your country. Give yourself the green light. Announcer up next on american ica, a tvs reel amer look at the push for road and highways. Freedom of the american road is a halfhour Ford Motor Company film from 1955. It opens with remarks by henry ford the second, who introduces a ford Company Study of the nations road problems and calls for individual citizens to help solve those issues. Posted by the voice of the march of time radio and tv news reel series the documentary features , a variety of communities working to solve problems through construction and awareness programs. Mr. Ford im henry ford, ii. In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about our highway situation. So much has been said that i feel sure that a great many of