Freedom of the American Road (1955)

[Music] I am Henry Ford second in recent years there's been a lot of talk about our highway situation so much has been said that I feel sure a great many of you must have wondered as I did whether there was anything a private citizen could do about a problem so big that's why we decided to study the situation the results are published in this book we call it freedom of the American Road simply because we Americans always have liked plenty of Elbow Room freedom to come and go as we please in this big country of ours the first thing we found was that you can't talk about highways without talking about traffic and safe driving too we found that there are many experienced Highway and traffic safety experts who are doing a great service to the public what they need is public understanding and support but the most important thing we discovered was that already many private citizens and states and communities Across the Nation have gotten together to tackle their local problems with real success we present a few of their stories in this motion picture we do so with pride for here it seems to me is real democracy in action and now for a firsthand report let's go to our traffic safety and Highway Improvement department and our reporter Westbrook van vhe thank you Mr Ford for our first story on what a community did about a dangerous local highway situation we take you to fast growing California where Highway problems have multiplied with the increase of population and of travel this is San Francisco see how it is located on the northermost tip of the peninsula its only access from the north is the Golden Gate Bridge from the East the Bay Bridge now you are looking south from downtown San Francisco below you is bayaw Highway the traffic artery of the peninsula city after City for 30 Mi flowing into each other in a continuous line out of San Francisco let's go back to June 1951 to the California highway police station at Jefferson Avenue in bayaw Highway okay I've got it Redwood number four Redwood number four and 1179 at Bayshore and Harbor Boulevard and 1179 at Bayshore and Harbor Boulevard an 1179 is the police code for collisions involving fatalities as accidents piled up bayaw got a new name bloody bayaw they called it two lanes for that Peak rush hour traffic 50,000 drivers all trying to get out of San Francisco at the same time and after the nerve-wracking delay when you get past the real jams what's a man to do but open up make up for lost time beat the speed limit just a little H Alto number three Palo Alto number three and 1179 on Bayshore and imp paradero Palo Alto number three paloalto number three 11 1179 somebody's number some people besides the police kept a record of those 1179 like the managing editor of the Palo Alto Times Jean Paulson you know we've been trying to do the job a newspaper should do to keep the community alert we've written editorials we've headlined the ACT accidents we publish photographs here take a look at some of these these were run over about a 60-day period here's an editorial by editor elanar cogwell who's been writing them every couple of weeks read these bore statistics and shudder Father and Son killed in B Sure crash three others injured every time you're out with the children and are half an hour late I start thinking of ambulances and accidents somebody's just got to do something the couple talked it over decided to do something about it and Dr oelle a university Professor wrote an open letter to the governor sent it to the paper Dear Mr Governor we have been rudely impressed by the traffic conditions on Bayshore Highway our acquaintances freely referred to it as suicide Lane and murder role that open letter to the governor was what pson had been looking for he reprinted it the next day on the front page of the Palo Alto Times there appears to be no indignation about a condition which endangers the lives of all of us having just returned from a trip to both Chicago and New York I have thought to compare the driving in those communities with ours nowhere did I see such reckless driving as one can see on Bayshore Governor I do not know what I shall do when my children now too young to drive I will venture forth upon the California highways people got the idea the ball got rolling 3 hours after the paper hit the stands the time switch board was swamped with calls hundreds of letters poured in the paloalto Chamber of Commerce called an emergency meeting editor cogwell kept punching away with the editorials the times was keeping the pot boiling almost overnight Highway commissioner Peterson had five additional patrol cars out on bore and for each patrolman put on there was one death less a month reduced speed limits were posted at hazardous points traffic lights were installed at dangerous intersections m minor access roads were closed no left turn signs were placed at intersections with records of left turn accidents and the headlines continued without let up in 60 days deaths and injuries had dropped from 67 to 38 and accident from 110 to 65 the campaign kept Gathering momentum and the palala Chamber of Commerce started a drive to sign petitions for extending the Bayshore freeway the people got the idea that in addition to better traffic control they needed to solve the basic problem a badly overloaded Highway radio and TV stations in San Francisco itself took up the campaign petitions were circulated at the hospital Times Reporter Francis Moffett on the left there tried to get the signatures of four people injured in an auto crash the entire Hospital staff signed up a petition to extend the six Lane freeway sign here please and they did 30,000 of them in the big towns and the small ones in Sunnyvale San Carlos Mountain View Los Altos Belmont all signed and sealed and ready to be delivered 2 weeks later a delegation of citizens presented the petitions to Governor Warren this public support was what the state officials needed within 30 days the legislature acted here it is the new bayaw freeway a highway of modern design six Lanes instead of four one stretch of the American Road made safer because the community took constructive action what you have just seen was accomplished in 1952 but the job was not finished it still goes on as a matter of fact what happened here in paloalto stimulated many California communities to similar efforts and today California has a state highway program that is one of the most advanced in the nation elsewhere there are Highway problems of another kind that have to be solved like traffic congestion for example ever been downtown in that 6:00 bumper-to-bumper Madness called a traffic jam it's worse in our older cities and so for our report on how one big city is successful y solving it let's go east across the country to Pittsburgh where the manaila and the alany river join that's where Pittsburgh was born 200 years ago you're looking at what pittsburghers call the point the area where the rivers joined to form a triangle the Golden Triangle they called it squeezed between two rivers squeeze is the word all right this typifies downtown Pittsburgh as it was 10 years ago a maze of streets no wider than when the city was a foner town traffic experts and police could arrange and rearrange the traffic pattern but all they were actually doing was rearranging a nightmare pittsburger knew that the traffic problem couldn't be solved without at the same time rebuilding in the very Heart of the City the alany conference on Community Development went to work on the problem in 1943 its roster had names from every section of Pittsburgh life the melon interests the steel industry and the unions HJ hindes and Company department stores and the governments of the city as well as of the surrounding towns the average pittsburger was tempted to think well here we go again but he began to be impressed by 194 5 but that was the year when the city realized there was a force behind the paperwork and the plans you can't use halfway measures a big problem needs a big answer you tear down the old and put in the new with modern muscles modern tools but the big prime mover that got things going in Pittsburgh bigger and more powerful than the crane the ettl and torch and the bulldozer was people the members of the alag conference they had to overcome the old ingrown attitudes of resignation of doubt that so gigantic a change could actually be accomplished and they did and proved it could pay if you know Pittsburgh you'll recognize this it's the old downtown Point District dead and gone now and no one to mourn for it and this is the plan for the new now coming to life there's a new horizon now looking toward the alany a new landscape new towers a New Horizon and for the increased thousands who work downtown there are municipal underground parking garages going down six stories you park your car yourself and pick it up yourself going home and you go home going out of town along the new Expressway that's part of the same master plan for Pittsburgh you can drive smoothly and safely in and out of the city now and so you can say that the American Road as it goes through Pittsburgh is being opened up is being made free in paloalto you saw how public support could help solve the problem of a dangerous and overloaded Highway in Pittsburgh it was downtown traffic congestion that was strangling a great metropolitan area now let's look at at what Community Action did for Boston Boston is the Hub of a very complex highway system in New England all roads lead to Boston and Boston has kept growing swelling the towns around it today its metropolitan area extends over 42 cities and towns with a population of 2 and2 million once Country Road served the outlying communities adequately but overnight they became city streets with through traffic hopelessly entangled as you see it here it became so bad that a trip of 15 miles say from stonum North of Boston to Newton on the South Side actually took over an hour at the state house there was a highway on paper which could have alleviated all that traffic congestion lack of public support had kept it in the files until the people of Essex County through their Board of Trade got it out into to the light of day here you see it on the map highway 128 starting from Gloucester the old fishing port it swings in a wide 80m Arc around the rim of greater Boston all the way down to dadam with its last section now nearing completion today John Smith of Gloucester can leave his family in the morning and travel safely and quickly over a modern Express Highway to his job because New Roads like magic Art iies pump increased values into adjacent land he now travels past property whose value has increased a 100 times over along this highway have sprouted seven great industrial centers occupied by some of the country's leading manufacturers and other centers are now being developed new wealth and new revenues have come to the old New England towns along the highway and not to forget our Mr Smith and thousands more like him here he is arriving at his place of work without once having had to fight the Boston traffic when the people of Essex County pushed for the construction of 128 in order to relieve traffic congestion they didn't know they were going to ring Boston with a golden semicircle and that's what highway 128 is called today Boston's golden semicircle so far you've seen what improved highways and traffic control mean to a metropolitan area but all good roads are part of one great pattern the interstate system that serves the whole nation the great primary roads that connect the cities and then the roads that feed into this system we need good secondary roads to serve the rural population and small towns of America for that story we go to North Carolina why North Carolina well only a few years ago the rural population lived largely in the back country far from the few main highways in what was called dirt road isolation but then the people of North Carolina decided on a bold rural roads program let's see how this investment is paying off you're now in a typical Farm Home in North Carolina it's morning and the family's day has begun father and son are on their way one to the farmers's market the other to his Factory job daughter has a few seconds longer everybody's on the Move now once life was lived pretty much around the farm but now 21,000 M of good secondary roads connect the farm to a wider world the old dirt road isolation is ended North Carolina's children no longer trudge to the old one room country Schoolhouse nearly everybody in the state lives close to good new highways like this one and good highways mean a good school transportation [Music] system good roads mean that children from scattered Farms can be picked up at all outlying points every morning they're on their way to Modern schools the New Roads mean that the farmer's son can travel as far as 50 Mi to his job at the new Factory and the factory itself could not have been built here if it weren't for the New Roads the road family can now work in Industry as well as on the land at one time remote from the Big Town the farmer now drives directly to the city market over good roads a saving in time and effort making possible new and diversified crops that can be delivered quickly a big factor in the rapid growth of North Carolina one of the dramatic changes in rural life is in the school schools the old one room Schoolhouse has been replaced by the big Central School 15 years ago these youngsters living 20 mi apart would never have known one another nor would they have had the specialized equipment and training in one of the finest rural school systems in the country for the farm housewife the highway leads now to the modern Shopping Center to the variety of goods and services she never had before Farm life has been transformed by the road The Horizon is constantly widening the rural family looks beyond the nearby Crossroads for its social life and [Applause] amusement the good road leads to things people couldn't think of years ago it connects the life of the farm with the life of the town with the varied activities of people everywhere this is the payoff on the investment in good roads in North Carolina a fuller life for country people but North Carolina isn't stop with its program of secondary roads its people have already decided to embark on a new program to improve their system of primary highways the first big investment is paid off and North Carolina will invest again confident of a return but good roads alone are not always enough we need proper traffic regulations to promote efficient travel and we need one more thing too we're talking of safe driving cars and roads have have improved but the driver must improve too almost as great a challenge to communities as the road itself just how can communities go about a safety program to find out we set our camera Crews to a middle-sized American city in the middle west to St Joseph Missouri population 79,000 the chief Industries are meat packing and grain processing other products are work clothing locomotive Parts wire rope and safety yes they work on safety here and they sell it hard in St Joel It's a town that hates accidents maybe because they used to have 2,000 a year they don't let you forget safety in St Joel safety is everybody's business it is one business where we can't say let George do it daylight hours are growing shorter day by day and the danger to pedestrians is increasing drivers cannot see you as well in the early morning hours or in the dusk of evening so cross streets with extra care they don't let you forget safety in St Joel they run it like a million advertising campaign but there's no million dollars behind it only the voluntary activity of lots of people like the members of this Safety Council Walter lad is its manager we use the three for Traffic Safety e for Education e for engineering e for enforcement but the Big E is education education of the public education of the individual this takes a lot of pick and shovel work it takes coordination and organization we try to bring every organization and all citizens into it and we work a lot with the children in St Joel they believe in the educational principle of starting them while they're young maybe when this generation grows up safety will be embedded in its Consciousness school children learn about safety at firsthand right in traffic court I arrested the defendant at approximately 5:40 p.m. for passing through a red light your honor it's late and I'm trying to make this last delivery because I know if I don't get this in I'm jammed up I know I didn't go through any red light in fact I'm positive I after court sessions the kids get a chance to ask questions well when he comes to court and he and he still says he is not guilty what happened then it is up to the court to decide by the testimony offered by the defendant and by the police officer as to whether or not he is guilty that is the burden of the Court they teach driving as a regular part of the high school curriculum in more ways than one teenagers have to learn about themselves that includes a knowledge of the machine they will drive and of the normal limitations of human judgment when driving you got to learn to put on your brakes a second sooner not a second later and I'm sure a lot of good will come from our discussing these various problems and now I believe we have a few more reports to sum up the discussion in my set you're now looking at the annual teenager safety conference delegates from all of the high schools participate the next report please we know that there are not enough traffic officers to enforce the laws our committee this is how the adult sense of responsibility develops this is where Community attitude is born in St Joel safety isn't a one-time broadside not something for Tuesday to be forgotten Wednesday it includes campaigning against that tried and true Adventurer the jaywalker the busy women's day in St Joe includes safety both in committee meetings and in working up programs like this one they helped police and car dealers organize this car checkup and they saw it all the way through enforcement of sensible traffic regulations has the support of the people and there are fewer accidents and fewer traffic violations in St Joe the prospect is for still less next year a few years ago St Joseph had an average of 17 traffic deaths a year The Last 5 Years the average has been less than five and last year we had one how did we do this it was done by awareness of the public in this problem and by an effective program led by the Safety Council a full-time organization the price of such a program is cheap compared with the price of accidents in St Joseph they have learned a lesson that as with Liberty the price of safety is continual vigilance you have seen how in various ways people in their own communities are getting together to do something about our highway situation freedom to travel safely and quickly and comfortably on our highways is not a little freedom but a big one as you must realize every time you get caught in a traffic jam or read the accident figures in many states in many cities beside those you have just seen people are finding real answers to traffic problems their stories have been collected in this book Freedom of the American Road published by the Ford Motor Company it is available in your community this book gives you many workable ideas and tells you where to get expert advice if your community needs help we hope it may show how you too can help secure for all of us the freedom of the American [Applause] [Music] Road