(The chart entitled "Daily Vehicles Per Mile on Roads and Streets" is as follows:)

Source: Automobile Manufacturers Association estimates based on U. S. Bureau of Public Roads data.

When large daily traffic volumes concentrate on a small mileage of roads and streets, traffic conflicts multiply and result in extreme congestion and very high accident rates.

These problems call for such highway designs as the freeway or expressway, which cut accident rates from 60 to 90 percent, and carry up to five times as many vehicles on each traffic lane as do ordinary roads and streets.

Traffic studies indicate that comparatively little mileage of such top-design roadways is needed. Most of this mileage is limited to the 40,000-mile interstate highway system, which takes in just over 1 percent of our total road and street mileage.

The interstate system now carries 14 percent of United States traffic. Highway authorities declare that when it is fully modernized it will carry about 26 percent of United States traffic.

Many other roads and streets also have important deficiencies-poor surfacing, narrow traffic lanes, and a need for smoothing out of hills and curves to reduce accidents. But with few exceptions they have ample capacity to handle greater traffic volumes in the future.

In contrast, most of the Interstate System today is so congested that it can handle only about half the traffic desiring to use these key roads and streets.

Source: Estimates by Automobile Manufacturers Association, based on data from U. S. Bureau of Public

Roads.

The traffic volume on the average urban section of the system now exceeds the capacity of a six-lane city street. On two-thirds of the rural part of the system, typical traffic volumes now exceed the capacity of a two-lane rural highway.

Once a roadway exceeds its traffic capacity, congestion and accidents mount rapidly. A further rise in traffic is discouraged by the acute motoring problems. Yet our highway officials estimate that the Interstate System 10 years from now will face traffic demands over twice as large as the traffic volumes now on the system.

(The chart entitled "Interstate System Controls Traffic Growth" is as follows:)

The urgency of the highway problem is further emphasized by the

staggering yearly costs paid by motorists for lack of better roadways. In his message to Congress on highway needs, President Eisenhower pointed to estimates by highway authorities that this cost penalty is about 1 cent per travel mile, or over $5 billion a year.

If the Interstate System is fully modernized over the next 10 years, highway authorities estimate that growth in traffic on this system will account for one-half of the total increase in all United States traffic during the coming decade.

Unless the system is modernized over the next 10 years, it will continue to be the Nation's worst traffic bottleneck and accident hazard. The next chart shows the yearly motoring cost penalties of inadequate roads.

(The chart entitled "Yearly Motoring Cost Penalties of Inadequate Roads" is as follows:)

$2.7 BILLIONS

Source: Automobile Manufacturers Association estimates based on published material on safety and operating economy records of improved roadways, applied to proposed $101 billion road program.

A study by our association supports this estimate. The study indicates that inadequate highways now cost United States motorists $1.7 billion yearly in traffic accidents that would not occur if needed road improvements were made; $1.8 billion yearly in time losses for commercial vehicles with paid drivers; $1.3 billion yearly in wasted gasoline and extra wear on brakes and tires due to traffic delays; and $500 million yearly in extra vehicle operating costs on dirt and gravel roads that carry sufficient traffic to merit improved surfacing.

These figures add up to $5.3 billion yearly motoring cost penalty that needed road improvements would eliminate. This is more than the Nation now spends yearly on all road and street construction. And this cost penalty rises about $200 million a year as traffic increases.

Almost one-half of the total yearly penalty-$2.6 billion-is due to lack of needed improvements on the Interstate Highway System. Now we turn to the employment that is linked to highway transportation, which is illustrated on the next chart.

(The chart entitled "Highway Transportation Employs 10 Million People" is as follows:)

Even aside from the direct effects on traffic, the Nation's highway deficiencies are a serious threat to future growth of the national

economy.

There are now more than 700,000 automotive business establishments in the United States-trucking and tax firms, service garages,

Source: Employment estimates by Automobile Manufacturers Association, based on U. S. Departments of Commerce and Labor data. Travel miles, U. S. Bureau of Public Roads.

500

250

of enterprises. commercial use of motor vehicles. in the Nation are employed in the manufacture, sale, servicing and Some 10 million persons-more than one-seventh of all jobholders gasoline stations, automotive and parts dealers, and many other types

service industries.

(The chart entitled "Highway Travel and 'Service' Industries" is The next chart shows the relation between highway travel and

as follows:)