You must have wondered, as i did, whether there was anything a private citizen could do about a problem so big. That is 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 great country of ours. The first thing we found was that you cannot talk about highways without talking about traffic and safe driving, too. We found many 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 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, lets go to our Traffic Safety and highway Improvement Department and our reporter westbrook. Estbrook thank you, mr. Ford. Our first story on what a community did about a dangerous local highway situation, we take you to california, where highway problems have multiplied with the increase in population and travel. This is San Francisco. See how it is located on the northernmost tip of the peninsula. Its only axis from the north is the golden gate bridge. From the east, the bay bridge. Now, you are looking south, from downtown San Francisco. The traffic artery of the peninsula. Four 30 miles, flowing into each other into a continuous line out of San Francisco. Lets go back to june, 1951, to the highway California Police station. Ok, ive got it. Redwood number four, at redwood number 4, 1179 nine at bayshore harbor boulevard. 1179 nine at bayshore harbor boulevard. 1179s police code for fatalities. As accidents piled up, bayshore bloodyw name bayshore. Two lanes for that peak rush hour traffic. 50,000 drivers all trying to get out of San Francisco at the same time. After the nerveracking delay, what is a man to do but open up. Make up for lost time, beat the speed limit just a little. Palo alto number three. Palo alto number 3, 1179 on bayshore and embarcadero. Palo alto number three. Palo alto number three. 1179, somebodys number. Some people beside the police kept a record of those 1179s. We have been trying to do the job a newspaper should do to keep the community alert. We have written editorials. We have headlined the accidents. We have published photographs. Here take a look at some of , these. About are run over 60day period. Father and son killed in a crash. Every time you are out with the thinking aboutt accidents. They decided to do something about it. A University Professor wrote a open letter to the governor and sent it to the paper. Rudely depressed by the traffic on the highway. Refer to it ases suicide lane and murder row. That letter was what he was looking for. Front page ofhe the palo alto times. There have been no conditions that endanger the lives did having returned from new york, i have compared the driving, nowhere did i see such reckless driving. Governor, i do not know what i drivedo, now too young to on the california highway. People got the idea and the ball got rolling. Three hours after the paper had the stands the times was flooded with calls, hundreds of letters poured in. Almost overnight they had patrol cars out on the shore. Less for one death every patrol car. Reduced speed limits were posted , traffic lights were installed and dangerous intersections. Minor access roads were closed. No left turn lanes were placed. The headlines continued. Death and injuries have dropped from 67 to 38. Campaign cap gathering momentum and the chamber of commerce started to sign petitions for extending the bayshore freeway. Inpeople got the idea addition to Traffic Control they needed to seller solve a basic problem. Franciscos in san that of the campaign. Petitions were circulated, at gethospital they tried to people injured in a car crash. The entire hospital staff signed up. Extend the sixo lane freeway. Sign here, please. Them, inid, 30,000 of the big towns and the small ones. In send carlos, los altos, all signed and sealed and ready to be delivered. Citizens later presented the petition to the governor. This public support was what the state officials needed, within 30 days the legislature acted. Here it is, the new freeway. A highway of modern designs, three lanes six lanes instead of four. Make safer because a community took constructive action. What you have just seen was accomplished in 1952 the job was not finished, it still goes on. As a matter of fact what happened here in palo alto simulated stimulated many other highways. This is one of the most advanced in the nation. There are highway problems of another kind that have to be solved. Downtown with that bumper to bumper madness called a traffic jam . It is worse in the older cities. On one citigroup has excess weight solved it was go across the country to pittsburgh. The Allegheny River joint. That is where pittsburgh was born 200 years ago. Theng out what they call point, where the rivers form a triangle. Squeezed between two rivers. Squeezed is the word all right. A maze of streets with a frontier town. Experts have arranged and rearranged the traffic patterns. All they were doing was rearranging a nightmare. People knew the traffic problem could not be solved without rebuilding the very heart of the city. The Allegheny Conference on Community Development went to work on the problem in 1943. The Steel Industry and the unions, Department Stores and governments as well as the surrounding towns. The average person was thinking, here we go again. The city realized you cannot use halfway measures. A big problem needs a big answer. We tear down the old and in the new with modern muscles and modern tools. The members of the Allegheny Conference had to overcome the old attitudes of reservation and doubt that so major a change could be accomplished. If you pittsburgh, you will recognize this. This is the plan for the new now coming to life. There is a new horizon, a new landscape, new towers. For the increased work downtown, there are municipal Downtown Parking garages going down six stories. You go home going out of town along the new expressway. You can drive smoothly and safely in and out of the city now. The american road, as it goes through spark, is being opened up, being made free. In palo alto, you saw how public support could solve the problem of an overloaded highway. Downtown Traffic Congestion was strangling a great metropolitan area. Now lets look at what Community Action did in boston. In new england, all roads lead to boston and boston has continued growing. The metropolitan area extends over 42 cities and towns. Once country roads serve the outlying areas adequately. Overnight, they became city streets. Traffic hopelessly entangled. At the statehouse, there was a highway on paper which could have alleviated all of the congestion. Lack of public support kept it in the piles until the people of essex county got it out into the light of day. Highway 128, starting from gloucester, it swings in a wide 80 mile arc around the ring of greater boston. The last section is now nearing completion. John smith can leave his family in the morning and travel safely and quickly over a modern express highway to his job. Because new roads pump increased values into adjacent land, he travels past property whose values have increased 100 times over. It sprouted seven Industrial Centers occupied by some of the countries leading manufacturers. Other centers are now being developed. New revenues have come to the old new england towns along the highway. Not to forget mr. Smith and thousands more like him, here he is arriving at his place of work without having had to fight the boston traffic. The people of essex county pushed for the construction of 128, they did not know they would ring boston with a golden semicircle. So far, you have seen what improved highways in traffic means to a metropolitan area. All good roads are part of an interstate system that serves the whole nation. The great primary roads that connect the cities, we need good secondary roads to serve the small towns of america. For that story, we go to North Carolina. Why North Carolina . Only a few years ago, the rural lived in the back roads. Lets see how this investment is paying off. You are now in a typical farm home in North Carolina. The familys day has begun. Father and son are on their way, one to the Farmers Market and the other to his factory job. Daughter has a few seconds longer. Everybody is on the move. Once life was lived pretty much around the farm, but now 21,000 miles of secondary roads connect them. The old dirt road isolation has ended. North carolinas children no longer trudge to the oneroom country schoolhouse. Good highways mean a good School Transportation system. Good roads mean that children from scattered farms can be picked up at all outlying points. Every morning, they are on their way to modern schools. The new roads mean the farmers son can travel as far as 50 miles to his new job at the factory. The family can now work in industry as well as on the land. The farmer now drives directly to the city market, a savings of time and effort. Making possible new and diversified crops that can be delivered quickly. One of the dramatic changes is in the schools. The old oneroom schoolhouse has been replaced by the big central school. 15 years ago, these youngsters would never have known one another. Nor would they have had the specialized equipment and training in one of the finest School Systems in the country. For the farmhouse wife, the highway leads 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 family looks beyond for its social life and amusement. The good road leads to things people could not think of years ago. With the activities of people everywhere. This is the payoff on the investment in good roads in North Carolina. North carolina is not stopping would this program of step secondary roads. Its people have decided to embark on a new program. The first big investment has paid off. North carolina will invest again. Good roads alone are not always enough. We need proper traffic regulations. We need one more thing, too. We are talking about safe driving. Cars and roads have improved. The driver must improve, too. Almost as great a challenge as the road itself. Just how can communities go about a Safety Program . To find out, we sent our camera crew to a midsized american city. Population 79,000. The chief industries are meatpacking and grain. They work on safety here and they sell it hard. It is a town that hate accidents. They do not let you forget safety in saint joe. Safety is everybodys business. It is one business where we cannot say, let george do it. The danger to pedestrians is increasing. Drivers can not see you as well in the Early Morning hours. Cross streets with extra care. They do not let you forget safety in saint joe. Only the voluntary activity of lots of people like the members of the safety council. Walter is the manager. Education, engineering, enforcement. The big e is education. Education of the public and education of the individual. It takes coordination and organization. We work a lot with the children. In saint joe, they believe in the educational principle of starting them while they are young. When this generation grows up, safety will be in bedded in its consciousness. Schoolchildren learn about safety. I arrested the defendant at 5 40 p. M. For passing through a red light. If i dont get this in, i am jammed up. I know i did not go through any red light. After court sessions, the kids get a chance to ask questions. He still says he is not guilty. What happens . It is up to the court to decide by the testimony offered by the defendant and 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. Teenagers have to learn about themselves. That includes the knowledge of the machine they will drive. You have got to learn to put on your brakes a second sooner, not a second later. I am sure a lot of good will come from discussing these various problems. I believe we have a few more reports. You are now looking at the annual teenager safety conference. Delegates from all the high schools participate. We know there are not enough traffic officers to enforce the law. This is how the adult sense of responsibility develops. This is where Community Attitude is born. In saint joe, safety is not something for tuesday to be forgotten on wednesday. Campaigning against the tried and true adventurer, the jaywalker. The busy womens day includes working up programs. They help police organize. Enforcement of sensible regulations has the support of the people and there are fewer accidents and fewer traffic violations. The prospect is for still less next year. A few years ago, st. Joseph had an average of 17 traffic deaths a year. Last year, we had one. How did we do this . It was done by awareness of the public and by an Effective Program led by the safety council. The price of such a program is cheap compared to the price of accidents. In st. Joseph, they have learned a lesson that as with liberty, the price of safety is continued vigilance. You have seen how in various ways people in their own communities are getting together to do something about our highway situation. In many states, in many cities, people are finding real answers to traffic problems. Their stories have been collected in this book 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. We hope it may show you how you can show all of us the freedom of the american road. We have a facebook question from peter, are there any historical researches on the people who died in detroit . The Detroit Free Press did a piece join the conversation on facebook, and cspan history. As well as on twitter. Monday night on the communicators. Hackers do not have to computers, they had human. We at the black hat conference talking about service of security cyber security. On patching aeep month after month, that is a good thing. Thinke we really have to of proactive defense. We cannot keep reacting to a tax anymore. We have turned the whole concept around. We have set traps, we will create customized environments. We will engage unprecedented. The communicators on cspan2. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend. Featuring museum tours, archival the presidency. The civil war and more coming here is a clip from a recent program. He was so varied, and impassioned about engineering, detroit news he was maybe the First Industrial user of photography in the world. He used photography and became he used thiswere method. He was buried in his interest. Quote that use a michelle help me track down. To her mother early and the war. She used this phrase. It is though his soul is on fire with indignation. I thought wait a minute, his soul is on fire in general. My editor disagreed with me in general. Was highly time he self regarding, he was irritable , he was a very cranky and demanded person. He could be a bore, because he was so self obsessed. That is what you get. He was also incredibly loyal, he was apparently very engaging. There was the saturday club of scientists who explored people passing through. They would get together and they would drink and they would do show and tell. Apparently he really had a lot of trends. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website where all of our video is archived did that is cspan. Org history. This year marks the 325th anniversary of the salem witch trials. Next, Kenneth Foote talks about memorializing sites like salem. This hourlong speech is from the Salem State University symposium on the legacy of the witch trials