Preston Lane of Maryland and Governor James Duff, of the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania. They made a pledge that night—a pledge that
a modern highway be built to connect the cities of Harrisburg, York,
and Baltimore. Today, we see the fulfillment of that pledge, the result of
cooperative highway planning and building between Maryland and
Pennsylvania. Now, the motorist can go from the Baltimore Beltway to the
Susquehanna River without a traffic signal, without a dangerous inter-
section, without facing blind curves or perilous grades.
The value of this road is dramatically and graphically illustrated in the
latest traffic counts made by the State Roads Commission in Maryland
on the Expressway and the Old York Road. During the month of
September, the Baltimore-Harrisburg Expressway-the Maryland section—
carried an average of 6, 886 vehicles a day. The Old York Road—in
Maryland again—carried an average of 8, 142 vehicles a day in the month
of September. Most of that traffic is local in nature while the Expressway
traffic is mostly through traffic. That means the corridor between Balti-
more and York is carrying an average of 14, 028 vehicles a day. That
also means the Old York Road would have had to carry that traffic alone
if the Expressway had not been built. Imagine what a crushing
volume of traffic such as that would have done to the Old York Road. It
would have meant interminable traffic jams. It would have created
conditions in which motorists, frustrated by traffic, would have been
tempted to take chances, leading to the possibility of more accidents.
It would have meant that industry would have been stifled. It would
have meant that trade between the three cities would have been
strangled.
Now, industry can look at this corridor between the three cities and
see increased possibility for expansion because of this great highway.
This is an example of what cooperative planning between states can do
in the highway field, and I, for one, would like to see more of it.
With the rapid urbanization of this eastern part of the nation, there
is a strong need for cooperative long-range expressway planning between
states. The interstate system, of course, takes care of this situation as far
as the big highways go, but what about the routes not contemplated in
the interstate system? Would it not be practicable for neighboring
states to sit down together at a high administrative level and discuss
their long-range highway plans mutually? Would it not be practicable
for the states to talk about design, location and other factors of highway
construction? I know this is done on a regional level through the
various organizations of highway officials. It is done, also when a specific
highway project involving two or more states is planned. It is done, also,
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