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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM 385

Need for Expansion in US Transportation System.

Before proceeding to the question as to how these increases in transportation demands will be met, it is necessary to explain that the term "US transportation system" is used with the full realization that there really is no such thing, if one takes the word "system" to mean a well-integrated assemblage of interrelated parts. The country's transportation needs are met, in one way or another by a vast conglomeration of private and common-carrier vehicles moving on a wide assortment of highways, railways, waterways and airways and which are funneled through a great variety of private and public-owned terminals. That there is involved a considerable degree of unnecessary duplication of effort and a waste in the utilization of the nation's resources is obvious. Much of this duplication arises from the fact that each mode has developed on its own and that investments, private and public, have been made with little regard for the interrelationships which exist between modes of transportation and for the capabilities which each mode might contribute to the system as a whole.

It is recognized that some of the duplication of effort and capacity must be regarded as the price which must be paid for freedom of choice in a free society; nevertheless, as our transportation problems grown more acute and the solutions more expensive, it is essential that we direct more and more attention to achieving the proper mix of capabilities in our transportation networks. The matching of transportation vehicles and ways to tasks for which they are best fitted would result in a more economic utilization of our entire transportation system. Given the nature of the country's growing transportation needs and the magnitude of the private and public investment which will be required if these needs are met, it is obvious that greater coordination will be required in all phases of transportation planning the future. It is essential that increased attention be paid to the interrelationships which exist between modes of transportation and between components of the various modal systems.

This is particularly true in the planning of our highway and air transportation networks as these two modes will account for practically all of the increase in demand for passenger transportation services in the next ten years. In 1960, private automobiles accounted for 66.7 per cent of all journeys to work in our metropolitan areas and 90 per cent of all US intercity passenger miles. In the future car ownership will continue to increase under the impetus of increased buying power, the large increase in the number of young people of driving age, the rapid growth in household and family formation and the further spread of "urban-sprawl" as a pattern of land use. Multiple car ownership will increase from an average of 1.1 cars per household in 1960 to about 1.4 in 1975. The number of automobiles in use will increase from 59.1 million in 1969 to about 100.2 million in 1975. This means that the number of cars on the road will nearly double by 1975.

This increase in car ownership will constitute a tremendous potential for increased use of the private automobile in both intra-urban commutation and intercity travel. Intercity passenger miles are expected to increase from 677 billion in 1960 to about 1,125 billion in 1975. With surface congestion already approaching the crisis stage in the majority of our large metropolitan areas, the prospect is for substantial increase in demand for use of the private automobile as a means of commutation and intercity travel. 

The demand for air transportation will increase at an even grater rate. The growth in intercity common-carrier traffic will occur almost entirely in air transportation, Surface travel by rail and bus will increase slightly more than 10 per cent with bus accounting for all of that increase. The participation of air travel in total common-carrier traffic will increase to over 60 per cent by 1975 and should account for 73 billion passenger miles, and increase of 109 per cent over the 1962 level.

Like auto travel, the increase in demand for air transportation will be concentrated in geographic areas already which suffer from severe traffic congestion problems. The nation's large urban areas will bear the greatest impact of national transportation problems resulting from a continuation of US population, economic and sociological growth patterns and trends already underway.


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