Open Roads

Esthetics is sometimes a matter of life and death.

So it is with the ribbons of concrete and macadam that twine and tunnel through the U.S. Superhighways are a brand-new form of functional art, with elements that differ from the construction of any roads in history. The wrong kind of curve can be dangerous when one is moving at more than a mile a minute, and no curve at all can be lethal. The new art-science of freeway design forms the most original section of a new book called Man-Made America, by Planners Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev (Yale; $15).

Aiming the Eye. One of the first esthetic considerations in freeway design is the question of what can be seen. Concentration intensifies with speed, and peripheral vision diminishes. The highway designer must offer the driver variety near the focal point of his attention without distracting him from the road; at throughway speed, the driver cannot afford to turn his head for more than a few seconds. The road must "aim the eye."

Aiming the driver's eye is important as an antidote to one of the special hazards of freeways--the "tunnel vision" that sometimes leads to hypnosis and sleep. It is also vital to give the driver some means of instinctively judging his own speed, a task that is accomplished by houses, signs and other clutter along the traditional roadside. This may be accomplished on the new freeways by angling the road for views of industrial plants, valleys, water towers, or even pieces of giant sculpture, to contrast with the "green corridor" of the countryside.

Hugging or Violating. Authors Tunnard and Pushkarev emphasize the need for an "essential unity of plan and profile"--a short sag on a long curve, for instance, should be avoided in favor of the harmonious gradual one. In fact, the authors recommend continuously curving roadways, on the ground that they not only are more esthetic, but also tend to keep the driver interested and therefore alert. Surprisingly, in the average terrain, such highways are very little, if any, longer, and no more expensive to build than the standard design of straight stretches connected by short curves. Uniform median width should also be avoided; the median strip between the ribbons of roadway should be expanded and contracted to overcome the monotony of high-speed travel. "The designer of a divided freeway possesses, in the very interplay of the two undulating ribbons of pavement, a basic tool of spatial expression," and he should treat it as "a sculptural form in its own right."

In considering the freeway in relation to the landscape, the questions are: "Does it flow along the river smoothly, hug the slope naturally, climb the hill in a convincing way? Does it grasp the mountain firmly, jump the valley decisively? Or does it, on the contrary, climb a ridge needlessly, descend into a valley thoughtlessly, violate a lake brutally, cut up the landscape violently? Or is it simply trite?"

Some indication of the relationship between these considerations and highway safety is given in a compilation the authors have made of 13 freeways, rating them for their esthetic quality and for the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles in 1957-58.

Road 1957-58 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles Esthetic character

Garden State Parkway (N.J) 1.15 Excellent

New York Thruway 1.40 Good

Maine Turnpike 1.85 Monotonous

Taconic Parkway (N.Y.) 1.90 Excellent (divided part)

New Jersey Turnpike 2.20 Monotonous

Merritt Parkway (Conn.) 2.50 Good

Ohio Turnpike 3.15 Fairly good

Massachusetts Turnpike 3.25 Fairly good

Florida Turnpike 3.30 Monotonous

Indiana Turnpike 3.60 Monotonous

Pennsylvania Turnpike 4.70 Monotonous

Oklahoma Turnpike 6.25 Monotonous

Kansas Turnpike 7.00 Monotonous

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.