Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Special Message to the Congress on Transportation.

March 02, 1966

To the Congress of the United States:

Two centuries ago the American nation came into being. Thirteen sparsely populated colonies, strung out along the Atlantic seaboard for 1300 miles, joined their separate wills in a common endeavor. Three bonds united them.

There was the cultural bond of a single language.

There was the moral bond of a thirst for liberty and democratic government.

There was the physical bond of a few roads and rivers, by which the citizens of the colonies engaged in peaceful commerce.

Two centuries later the language is the same. The thirst for liberty and democracy endures.

The physical bond--that tenuous skein of rough trails and primitive roads--has become a powerful network on which the prosperity and convenience of our society depend.

In a nation that spans a continent, transportation is the web of union.

THE GROWTH OF OUR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

It is not necessary to look back to the 1760's to chronicle the astonishing growth of American transportation.

Twenty years ago there were 31 million motor vehicles in the United States. Today there are 90 million. By 1975 there will be nearly 120 million.

Twenty years ago there were 1.5 million miles of paved roads and streets in the United States. Today this figure has almost doubled.

Twenty years ago there were 38,000 private and commercial aircraft. Today there are more than 97,000.

Twenty years ago commercial airlines flew 209 million miles. Last year they flew one billion miles.

Twenty-five years ago American transportation moved 619 billion ton miles of cargo. In 1964, 1.5 trillion ton miles were moved.

The manufacturing of transportation equipment has kept pace. It has tripled since 1947. Last year $4.5 billion was spent for new transportation plant and equipment.

Transportation is one of America's largest employers. There are:

--737,000 railroad employees,

--270,000 local and inter-urban workers,

--230,000 in air transport,

--almost a million men and women in motor transport and storage. Together with pipeline and water transportation employees, the total number of men and women who earn their livelihoods by moving people and goods is well over two and one-half million.

The Federal Government supports or regulates almost every means of transportation. Last year alone more than $5 billion in Federal funds were invested in transportation-in highway construction, in river and harbor development, in airway operation and airport construction, in maritime subsidies. The government owns 1500 of the nation's 2500 ocean-going cargo vessels.

Our transportation system--the descendant of the horse-drawn coaches and sailing ships of colonial times--accounts for one in every six dollars in the American economy. In 1965, that amounted to $120 billion--a sum greater than the gross national product of this Nation in 1940.

SHORTCOMINGS OF OUR SYSTEM

Vital as it is, mammoth and complex as it has become, the American transportation system is not good enough.

It is not good enough when it offers nearly a mile of street or road for every square mile of land--and yet provides no relief from time-consuming, frustrating, and wasteful congestion.

It is not good enough when it produces sleek and efficient jet aircraft--and yet cannot move passengers to and from airports in the time it takes those aircraft to fly hundreds of miles.

It is not good enough when it builds super-highways for super-charged automobiles--and yet cannot find a way to prevent 50,000 highway deaths this year.

It is not good enough when public and private investors pour $15 million into a large, high-speed ship--only to watch it remain idle in port for days before it is loaded.

It is not good enough when it lays out new freeways to serve new cities and suburbs-and carelessly scars the irreplaceable countryside.

It is not good enough when it adheres to custom for its own sake--and ignores opportunities to serve our people more economically and efficiently.

It is not good enough if it responds to the needs of an earlier America--and does not help us expand our trade and distribute the fruits of our land throughout the world.

WHY WE HAVE FALLEN SHORT

Our transportation system has not emerged from a single drawing board, on which the needs and capacities of our economy were all charted. It could not have done so, for it grew along with the country itself--now restlessly expanding, now consolidating, as opportunity grew bright or dim.

Thus investment and service innovations responded to special needs. Research and development were sporadic, sometimes inconsistent, and largely oriented towards the promotion of a particular means of transportation.

As a result, America today lacks a coordinated transportation system that permits travellers and goods to move conveniently and efficiently from one means of transportation to another, using the best characteristics of each.

Both people and goods are compelled to conform to the system as it is, despite the inconvenience and expense of:

--aging and often obsolete transportation plant and equipment.

--networks chiefly designed to serve a rural society.

--services long outstripped by our growing economy and population, by changes in land use, by new concepts in industrial plant location, warehousing and distribution.

--the failure to take full advantage of new technologies developed elsewhere in the economy.

--programs and policies which impede private initiative and dull incentives for innovation.

The result is waste--of human and economic resources--and of the taxpayers' dollar.

We have abided this waste too long.

We must not permit it to continue.

We have too much at stake in the quality and economy of our transportation system. If the growth of our transport industries merely keeps pace with our current national economic growth, the demand for transportation will more than double in the next twenty years.

But even that is too conservative an estimate. Passenger transportation is growing much faster than our Gross National Product-reflecting the desires of an affluent people with ever-increasing incomes.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY

The United States is the only major nation in the world that relies primarily upon privately owned and operated transportation.

That national policy has served us well. It must be continued.

But private ownership has been made feasible only by the use of publicly granted authority and the investment of public resources--

--by the construction of locks, dams, and channels on our rivers and inland waterways.

--by the development of a vast highway network.

--by the construction and operation of airports and airways.

--by the development of ports and harbors.

--by direct financial support to the Merchant Marine.

--by grants of eminent domain authority.

--by capital equipment grants and demonstration projects for mass transit.

--in years past, by grants of public land to assist the railroads.

Enlightened government has served as a full partner with private enterprise in meeting America's urgent need for mobility.

That partnership must now be strengthened with all the means that creative federalism can provide. The costs of a transportation paralysis in the years ahead are too severe. The rewards of an efficient system are too great. We cannot afford the luxury of drift--or proceed with "business as usual."

We must secure for all our travellers and shippers the full advantages of modern science and technology.

We must acquire the reliable information we need for intelligent decisions.

We must clear away the institutional and political barriers which impede adaptation and change.

We must promote the efforts of private industry to give the American consumer more and better service for his transportation dollar.

We must coordinate the executive functions of our transportation agencies in a single coherent instrument of government. Thus policy guidance and support for each means of transportation will strengthen the national economy as a whole.

A DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

I urge the Congress to establish a Cabinet level Department of Transportation.

I recommend that this Department bring together almost 100,000 employees and almost $6 billion of Federal funds now devoted to transportation.

I urge the creation of such a Department to serve the growing demands of this great Nation, to satisfy the needs of our expanding industry and to fulfill the tight of our taxpayers to maximum efficiency and frugality in Government operations.

In so doing, I follow the recommendations of many outstanding Americans.

In 1936, a Select Committee of the United States Senate recommended a Department of Transportation, or, in the alternative, the consolidation of all transportation programs in the Department of Commerce.

In 1949, the Hoover Commission Task Force on Transportation recommended a Department of Transportation.

In 1961 President Eisenhower recommended such a Department in his Budget Message.

In 1961 a Special Study Group of the Senate Committee on Commerce recommended that all promotional and safety programs of the Federal Government be concentrated in a Department of Transportation.

Many distinguished Members of Congress have offered bills to create the Department. Private citizens, the nation's leading experts in the field, have made the same recommendation to me.

It is time to act on these recommendations.

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT

I propose that the following agencies and functions be consolidated in the Department of Transportation:

1. The Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation, and its Policy, Program, Emergency Transportation and Research staffs.

2. The Bureau of Public Roads and the Federal-aid Highway Program it administers.

3. The Federal Aviation Agency. This key agency, with its functions in aviation safety, promotion and investment, will be transferred in its entirety to the new Department. It will continue to carry out these functions in the new department.

4. The Coast Guard, whose principal peacetime activities relate to transportation and marine safety. The Coast Guard will be transferred as a unit from the Treasury Department. As in the past, the Coast Guard will operate as part of the Navy in time of war.

5. The Maritime Administration, with its construction and operating subsidy programs.

6. The safety functions of the Civil Aeronautics Board, the responsibility for investigating and determining the probable cause of aircraft accidents and its appellate functions related to safety.

7. The safety functions and car service functions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, principally the inspection and enforcement of safety regulations for railroads, motor carriers, and pipelines, and the distribution of rail car supply in times of shortage.

8. The Great Lakes Pilotage Administration, the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the Alaska Railroad, and certain minor transportation-related activities of other agencies.

As this list indicates, I am recommending the consolidation into the Department of those Federal agencies whose primary functions are transportation promotion and safety.

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD

No function of the new Department--no responsibility of its Secretary--will be more important than safety. We must insure the safety of our citizens as they travel on our land, in our skies, and over our waters.

I recommend that there be created under the Secretary of Transportation a National Transportation Safety Board independent of the operating units of the Department.

The sole function of this Board will be the safety of our travellers. It will review investigations of accidents to seek their causes. It will determine compliance with safety standards. It will examine the adequacy of the safety standards themselves. It will assume safety functions transferred from the ICC and the CAB.

I consider the functions of this Board so important that I am requesting authority from the Congress to name five Presidential appointees as its members.

RELATION TO OTHER GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES

The activities of several departments and agencies affect transportation promotion and safety. Sound management requires that an appropriate and intimate relationship be established between those activities and the new Department of Transportation.

1. The subsidy functions of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Aviation subsidies--now provided only for local airline service-clearly promote our domestic transportation system. But subsidy awards are an integral part of the process of authorizing air carrier service. This is a regulatory function.

Therefore the airline subsidy program should remain in the Civil Aeronautics Board. The Secretary of Transportation, however, will develop principles and criteria which the Board will take into consideration in its proceedings. In this way the subsidy program will be coordinated with overall national transportation policy.

2. The navigation program of the Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers-through its construction of locks and harbor facilities and its channel deepening and river bank protection work--makes a major contribution to water transportation. The Department of Transportation should not assume the responsibility for that construction, but its Secretary should be involved in the planning of water transportation projects.

With the approval of the President, the Secretary of Transportation should also issue standards and criteria for the economic evaluation of Federal transportation investments generally. In the case of transportation features of multi-purpose water projects, he should do so after consulting with the Water Resources Council.

3. International Aviation. The Secretary of Transportation should provide leadership within the Executive Branch in formulating long-range policy for international aviation. While foreign policy aspects of international aviation are the responsibility of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Transportation should insure that our international aviation policies are consistent with overall national transportation policy.

Subject to policy determinations by the President, the Civil Aeronautics Board regulates international aviation routes and fares as they affect the United States. This function has far-reaching effects on our foreign policy, our balance of payments, and the vitality of American aviation. The Secretary of Transportation should participate in Civil Aeronautics Board proceedings that involve international aviation policy.

4. Urban Transportation. The Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development must cooperate in decisions affecting urban transportation.

The future of urban transportation--the safety, convenience, and indeed the livelihood of its users--depends upon wide-scale, rational planning. If the Federal Government is to contribute to that planning, it must speak with a coherent voice.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development bears the principal responsibility for a unified Federal approach to urban problems. Yet it cannot perform this task without the counsel, support, and cooperation of the Department of Transportation.

I shall ask the two Secretaries to recommend to me, within a year after the creation of the new department, the means and procedures by which this cooperation can best be achieved--not only in principle, but in practical effect.

ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Transportation will:

--coordinate the principal existing programs that promote transportation in America.

--bring new technology to a total transportation system, by promoting research and development in cooperation with private industry.

--improve safety in every means of transportation.

--encourage private enterprise to take full and prompt advantage of new technological opportunities.

--encourage high quality, low cost service to the public.

--conduct systems analyses and planning, to strengthen the weakest parts of today's system.

--develop investment criteria and standards, and analytical techniques to assist all levels of government and industry in their transportation investments.

THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION

The Cabinet level Department I recommend will not alter the economic regulatory functions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, or the Federal Maritime Commission.

I do recommend, however, a change in the manner of selecting the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Today, the Chairman of this vital commission--alone among the Federal regulatory agencies--is selected, not by the President, but by annual rotation among the eleven commissioners.

This is not sound management practice in an agency whose influence on our rail, highway, waterway and pipeline industries is so far-reaching.

The ICC bears the demanding and challenging responsibility to keep federal regulation attuned to the needs and opportunities of a dynamic industry. Its jurisdiction extends to 18,000 transport companies. It handles 7,000 cases each year. No private corporation of such size and importance would change its chief executive officer once each year.

I shall shortly submit to the Congress a reorganization plan to give the President authority to designate the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission from among its members, and to strengthen his executive functions.

SAFETY

105,000 Americans died in accidents last year.

More than half were killed in transportation, or in recreation accidents related to transportation. 49,000 deaths involved motor vehicles. 1,300 involved aircraft. 1,500 involved ships and boats. 2,300 involved railroads.

Millions of Americans were injured in transportation accidents--the overwhelming majority involving automobiles.

Each means of transportation has developed safety programs of varying effectiveness. Yet we lack a comprehensive program keyed to a total transportation system.

Proven safety techniques in one means have not always been adapted in others.

Last year the highway death toll set a new record. The prediction for this year is that more than 50,000 persons will die on our streets and highways--more than 50,000 useful and promising lives will be lost, and as many families stung by grief.

The toll of Americans killed in this way since the introduction of the automobile is truly unbelievable. It is 1.5 million--more than all the combat deaths suffered in all our wars.

No other necessity of modern life has brought more convenience to the American people--or more tragedy--than the automobile.

WHY WE ARE FAILING

The carnage on the highways must be arrested.

As I said some weeks ago, we must replace suicide with sanity and anarchy with safety.

The weaknesses of our present highway safety program must be corrected:

--Our knowledge of causes is grossly inadequate. Expert opinion is frequently contradictory and confusing.

--Existing safety programs are widely dispersed. Government and private efforts proceed separately, without effective coordination.

--There is no clear assignment of responsibility at the Federal level.

--The allocation of our resources to highway safety is inadequate.

--Neither private industry nor government officials concerned with automotive transportation have made safety first among their priorities. Yet we know that expensive freeways, powerful engines, and smooth exteriors will not stop the massacre on our roads.

WHAT CAN BE DONE

State and local resources are insufficient to bring about swift reductions in the highway death rate. The Federal government must provide additional resources. Existing programs must be expanded. Pioneer work must begin in neglected areas.

Federal highway safety responsibilities should be incorporated into the Department of Transportation, in a total transportation safety program.

I have already set in motion a number of steps under existing law:

1. To strengthen the Federal role, I am assigning responsibility for coordinating Federal highway safety programs to the Secretary of Commerce. I am directing the Secretary to establish a major highway safety unit within his Department. This unit will ultimately be transferred to the Department of Transportation. The President's Committee on Traffic Safety will be reorganized, strengthened and supported entirely by federal funds. The Interdepartmental Highway Safety Board will be reconstituted and the Secretary's role strengthened.

2. To give greater support to our safety programs, I am requesting increased funds for research, accident data collection, improved emergency medical service, driver education and testing and traffic control technology.

I have also asked the Secretary of Commerce to evaluate systematically the resources allocated to traffic safety, to insure that we are receiving the maximum benefits from our present efforts.

3. To improve driving conditions, I have ordered that high priority be given to our efforts to build safety features into the Federal-aid highway network.

4. To save those who are injured, I have directed the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, in cooperation with the Secretary of Commerce, immediately to initiate projects to demonstrate techniques for more effective emergency care and transportation. He will work in full cooperation with state, local and private officials.

5. To help us better understand the causes of highway accidents, I have asked the Secretary of Commerce to establish accident investigation teams, who will bring us new understanding of highway accidents and their causes.

6. To make government vehicles safer, I have asked the Administrator of General Services, in cooperation with the Secretary of Commerce, to begin a detailed study of the additional vehicle safety features that should be added to the Federal fleet.

The Traffic Safety Act of 1966

More--much more--remains to be done. The people of America deserve an aggressive highway safety program.

I believe that the Congress--the same Congress which last year gave the Secretary of Commerce broad authority to set uniform standards for State highway safety programs--will join in our efforts to bring that program into being.

I urge the Congress to enact the Traffic Safety Act of 1966.

I urge greater support for state highway safety programs.

I urge the creation of a National Highway Research and Test Facility.

To begin, I recommend a $700 million, six year program.

The three components of this program are as critically important as the problems they address.

First, federal grants to the States for highway safety will be increased. With these funds, a comprehensive highway safety program can be developed by each State under standards approved by the Secretary of Commerce. Included will be measures such as driver education and licensing--advanced traffic control techniques--regular vehicle safety inspections--police and emergency medical services.

Second, automobile safety performance will be improved. Proper design and engineering can make our cars safer. Vehicles sold in interstate commerce must be designed and equipped for maximum safety. Safe performance design standards must be met in tomorrow's cars.

I recommend that the Secretary of Commerce be given authority to determine the necessary safety performance criteria for all vehicles and their components.

If, after a two year period, the Secretary finds that adequate voluntary standards are not satisfactory, he would be authorized to prescribe nation-wide mandatory safety standards. He would be also authorized to prohibit the sale in interstate commerce of new vehicles and their components which failed to meet those standards.

Third, the Federal government's highway safety research efforts will be expanded.

I recommend construction of a national highway safety research and test center.

Funds are needed to support research and testing in many disciplines related to highway safety. The public interest demands a better understanding of the human, highway and vehicle factors which cause death and injury. We must develop more effective counter-measures and objective standards to guide our national programs. Special accident teams should be organized--accurate data collection should be enlarged on a national basis--fellowship grants and research support should be made available to attract the best minds and talents of our Nation to this urgent work.

This new highway safety program would be transferred to the Secretary of Transportation upon the creation of the new Department.

Congress has not hesitated to establish rigorous safety standards for other means of transportation when circumstances demanded them.

Today's highway death toll calls for an equally vigorous and effective expression of concern for our millions of car-owning families. For unless we avert this slaughter, one out of every two Americans will one day be killed or seriously injured on our highways. Safety Standards for Motor Vehicle Tires

I urge the Congress to act speedily and favorably on S. 2669, a bill establishing safety standards for motor vehicle tires sold or shipped in interstate commerce.

Most tires sold to American drivers are produced and properly tested by reputable companies. Nevertheless, evidence has shown that increasing numbers of inferior tires are being sold to unwitting customers throughout the country. The dangers such tires hold for high-speed automobiles and their occupants is obvious.

S. 2669 provides that the Secretary of Commerce shall establish, and publish in the Federal Register, interim minimum safety standards for tires. The Secretary would be required to review these standards two years from the enactment of the bill, and to revise them where necessary. A research and development program under his direction would improve the minimum standards for new tires, and develop such standards for retrended tires.

Our driving public deserves the prompt passage of S. 2669, and the protection it will afford them from accidents caused by tire failures.

Safety at Sea

Last year 90 men and women lost their lives when the cruise ship Yarmouth Castle burned and sank in the calm waters of the Caribbean.

The Yarmouth Castle was exempt from United States safety standards--partially because of its "grandfather rights" under law. It was built before 1937.

We cannot allow the lives of our citizens .to depend upon the year in which a ship was built.

The Coast Guard is presently completing its investigation of the Yarmouth Castle disaster. The Maritime Administration has already finished its investigation of financial responsibility.

Later in this session--when our inquiries are accomplished and our findings reported-we will submit to the Congress legislation to improve safety measures and guarantees of financial responsibility on the part of owners and operators of passenger carrying vessels sailing from our ports.

Air Accident Compensation

The United States has declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Convention. Under this pact, the financial liability of a member nation's airline is limited to $8300 for a passenger's death.

Discussions are underway in the International Civil Aviation Organization to increase this liability for passengers flying anywhere in the world. We have expressed our opinion that the limit of liability should be raised to $ 100,000.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Today the United States ranks as the world's leader in technology.

Despite this--and despite the importance of transportation in the competition for international trade-exclusive of national security and space, the Federal government spends less than one percent of its total research and development budget for transportation.

Under our system of government, private enterprise bears the primary responsibility for research and development in the transportation field.

But the government can help. It can plan and fashion research and development for a total transportation system which is beyond the responsibility or capability of private industry.

Through government-sponsored research and development we can-Fully understand the complex relationships among the components of a total transportation system.

--Provide comprehensive and reliable data for both private and public decisions.

--Identify areas of transportation which can be exploited by private industry to provide safer and more efficient services to the public.

--Build the basis for a more efficient use of public resources.

--Provide the technological base needed to assure adequate domestic and international transportation in times of emergency.

--Help make significant advances in every phase of transport--in aircraft, in oceangoing ships, in swifter rail service, in safer vehicles.

The Department of Transportation-working with private industry and other government agencies--will provide a coordinated program of research and development to move the Nation toward our transportation goals. The Department can help translate scientific discovery into industrial practice.

SUPERSONIC TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

The United States is pre-eminent in the field of aircraft design and manufacture.

We intend to maintain that leadership. As I said in my State of the Union Message, I am proposing a program to construct and flight test a new 2000-mile-per-hour supersonic aircraft.

Our supersonic transport must be reliable and safe for the passenger.

It must be profitable for both the airlines and the manufacturers.

Its operating performance must be superior to any comparable aircraft.

It must be introduced into the market in a timely manner.

We have underway an intensive research and design program on the supersonic transport, supported by appropriations of $231 million.

The design competition for this aircraft and its engines is intense and resourceful.

I am requesting $200 million in Fiscal Year 1967 appropriations to initiate the prototype phase of the supersonic transport. My request includes funds for the completion of design competition, expanded economic and sonic boom studies, and the start of prototype construction.

We hope to conduct first flight tests of the supersonic transport by 1970, and to introduce it into commercial service by 1974.

AIRCRAFT NOISE

The jet age has brought progress and prosperity to our air transportation system. Modern jets can carry passengers and freight across a continent at speeds close to that of sound.

Yet this progress has created special problems of its own. Aircraft noise is a growing source of annoyance and concern to the thousands of citizens who live near many of our large airports. As more of our airports begin to accommodate jets and as the volume of air travel expands, the problem will take on added dimension.

There are no simple or swift solutions. But it is clear that we must embark now on a concerted effort to alleviate the problems of aircraft noise. To this end, I am today directing the President's Science Advisor to work with the Administrators of the Federal Aviation Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Secretaries of Commerce, and of Housing and Urban Development, to frame an action program to attack this problem.

I am asking this group to:

--study the development of noise standards and the compatible uses of land near airports,

--consult with local communities and industry,

--recommend legislative or administrative actions needed to move ahead in this area.1

1On March 18, 1966, the White House made public a memorandum to the President, dated March 17, from Donald F. Hornig, Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. Mr. Hornig referred to the section on aircraft noise in the message on transportation. He stated that he had convened an ad hoc Jet Aircraft Noise Panel in October 1965 to examine the technical, sociological, governmental, economic, and legal aspects of the issue. The memorandum announced the completion of a report by the Panel, dated March 1966 and entitled "Alleviation of Jet Aircraft Noise Near Airports" (Government Printing Office, 1966, 9 pp.).

The principal recommendations of the Panel were:

--Initiation of Federally supported studies of the expected scope of the noise problem through 1975 and of the public and private programs which will be needed to combat the problem.

--Creation of a high level Federal Task Force to undertake, on an urgent basis, a "systems" type analysis of the problem in the vicinity of the Kennedy, O'Hare and Los Angeles airports, the analysis to be extended m other affected areas as soon as practicable.

--Development of valid, broadly applicable standards of noise measurement.

--Pursuit of a definitive technical study pointed toward a reduction in noise levels produced by jet engines and by aircraft, together with a determination of the costs associated with the various levels of improvement which may be technologically possible.

--Establishment of a Task Force to investigate methods for Federal participation in a coordinated program for compatible land utilization in the vicinity of airports.

--Starting an effort to identify and place into effect any modifications to operating procedures and take-off or landing techniques that would reduce noise without compromising safety (2 Weekly Comp. Pres. Docs., p. 404).

ADVANCED OCEAN VESSEL CONCEPTS

After years of United States leadership, maritime technology in other countries has caught up with and, in some instances, surpassed our own.

The U.S. Merchant Marine suffers in world competition because it bears much higher costs than its competitors. This can be offset in some measure by technological improvements.

The Department of Defense recently launched the Fast Deployment Logistics Ship program. This concept introduces to the maritime field the same systems approach that has proven so successful in other Defense and Aerospace programs.

To achieve comparable improvements throughout the maritime industry, I am directing the Secretary of Commerce, with the Secretary of Defense, the President's Scientific Advisor, and the Atomic Energy Commission, to conduct a study of advanced vessel concepts.

The work of this team will include:

--Research, development and planning of high speed, large capacity ships, devoted primarily to transporting preloaded containers of varying types between the major ports in the world.

--Research on an ocean-going Surface Effects Vessel capable of skimming over the water at speeds more than 100 knots.

--Continued exploration of the application of nuclear propulsion to merchant marine ships.

Our private shipyards should continue to serve the needs of the Country. They can become more productive and competitive through research and development and through standardization of ship construction. With a new Department of Transportation, we will increase our efforts to bring a modern, efficient merchant marine fleet to this Nation.

ADVANCED LAND TRANSPORT

Last year Congress took a long step towards advanced land transportation by enacting the High-Speed Ground Transportation Research and Development program. This program will be continued at the most rapid pace consistent with sound management of the research effort.

Similar vision and imagination can be applied to highway transport.

Segments of the Interstate Highway network already in operation are the most efficient, productive roads ever built anywhere in the world. Motor vehicles move at higher rates of speed, more safely and in greater number per lane than on conventional roads. Transportation costs are reduced, and less land area is needed for this volume of traffic.

With the network about half completed after 10 years, it is apparent that Interstate Highways, as well as other roads and streets, can become even more productive and safe.

Accordingly, I am directing the Secretary of Commerce to: --Investigate means for providing guidance and control mechanisms to increase the capacity and improve the safety of our highway network.

--Conduct research into the means of improving traffic flow--particularly in our cities--so we can make better use of our existing roads and streets.

--Investigate the potential of separate roadways for various classes of vehicles, with emphasis on improving mass transportation service.

SYSTEMS RESEARCH

Some of our brightest opportunities in research and development lie in the less obvious and often neglected parts of our transportation system.

We spend billions for constructing new highways, but comparatively little for traffic control devices.

We spend millions for fast jet aircraft-but little on the traveler's problem of getting to and from the airport.

We have mounted a sizable government industry program to expand exports, yet we allow a mountain of red tape paperwork negate our efforts. Worldwide, a total of 810 forms are required to cover all types of cargo imported and exported. In this country alone, as many as 43 separate forms are used in one export shipment. Eighty separate forms may be needed to process some imports. This is paperwork run wild.

I am directing the Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce and the Attorney General to attack these problems, through the use of effective systems research programs. And I have directed them to eliminate immediately every unnecessary element of red tape that inhibits our import and export programs.

TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA

The Founding Fathers rode by stage to Philadelphia to take part in the Constitutional Convention. They could not have anticipated the immense complexity--or the problems--of transportation in our day.

Yet they, too, recognized the vital national interest in commerce between the States. The early Congresses expressed that interest even more directly, by supporting the development of road and waterway systems.

Most important, the Founding Fathers gave us a flexible system of Government. Cities, states and the federal government can join together--and in many cases work with private enterprise--in partnerships of creative Federalism to solve our most complex problems.

For the very size of our transportation requirements--rising step-by-step with the growth of our population and industry-- demands that we respond with new institutions, new programs of research, new efforts to make our vehicles safe as well as swift.

Modern transportation can be the rapid conduit of economic growth--or a bottleneck.

It can bring jobs and loved ones and recreation closer to every family--or it can bring instead sudden and purposeless death.

It can improve every man's standard of living--or multiply the cost of all he buys.

It can be a convenience, a pleasure, the passport to new horizons of the mind and spirit--or it can frustrate and impede and delay.

The choice is ours to make.

We build the cars, the trains, the planes, the ships, the roads and the airports. We can, if we will, plan their safe and efficient use in the decades ahead to improve the quality of life for all Americans.

The program I have outlined in this message is the first step toward that goal.

I urge its prompt enactment by the Congress.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

March 2, 1966

Note: For the President's remarks upon signing related legislation, see Items 442, 449, 523.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to the Congress on Transportation. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238076

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