Federal Aid Highway Act Essay

525 Words3 Pages

In 1956, Congress passed a new Federal-Aid Highway Act. Taking about 35 years to build with the estimated cost about $114 billion, thus giving us the outcome of more than 47,000 miles of highway. Now today we have more than ten times that amount. Like then safety was always the government's top priority, but with technology changing more and more everyday we’re not really sure how to safely incorporate into our highway system. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao delivered a speech last year talking about some benefits we could gain from new technology, but of course with that also came many challenges we may have to face, but the question on everyone’s mind is, is there a way we could factor in technology safely, and beneficiary for everyone. …show more content…

From Eisenhower’s point of view highway construction was “an important economic tool.” He also believed that it would make roads safer and easier to transport people and good, furthermore opening more employment opportunities, which indeed did, but now the system needs to be updated to address a new set of problems and to meet the new needs of society. During the 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s open house, Elaine L Chao delivered a speech introducing the idea of advancing the use of technology in the way we travel. Now of course the idea of having self driving cars, trains, and so forth has been around for some time now, but bringing them ideas into reality seems hard to picture it being the most reliable and safest option available. With safety being the Department’s core priority makes many wonder, could we were to proceed with this advancement, and would it be one would could garnet safety from or a easy reversible