Minnesota Highways, September 1952

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VOL.  1, NO.  11
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
SEPTEMBER, 1952
Thousands View Highway Exhibit At Fair
30,000 Register For Road Maps
Minnesota's urgent needs
for modem trunk highways
were graphically displayed to
thousands of visitors at the
Minnesota State Fair through
photographs and charts shown
|he regular booths in the
STIrfe Exhibit Building.
It was satisfying to the Hiwaymen who were present at the exhibit all the hours the building
was open to note the interest that
people had in Minnesota highway
construction. Where comparisons
showed the increased costs of present day construction against available incomes, the visitors agreed
that the construction program is
at a critical stage.
Not only in Minnesota, but in
every state, today's highways are
far behind modern requirements.
Vehicular traffic and tonnages carried over all types of highways
have had a tremendous increase,
particularly since the cessation of
World War II; so much so that
highway construction has been unable to keep up to current, much
less anticipated, needs.
tf the time that the Department
flighways was formed, there
were only 303,000 cars and 25,000
trucks that were driven 890,000,-
000 miles over Minnesota highways. During the last 32 years
those figures have increased so
rapidly that today we have over a
million cars and 202,000 trucks,
plus 75,000 trailers, that move over
ten and a half billion miles each
year.
During the earlier years, it was
possible within available funds to
keep reasonably close to traffic demands. However, the above figures show why traffic loads have
always been ahead of highway
facilities.
This is despite the fact that
Minnesota motorists are putting
more money into road user funds
than ever before. The 1,377,000
vehicles registered in this state pay
license  fees  and  gas  taxes  al-
65 million dollars. These are
the only costs imposed by the state
which are used for all trunk highway programs plus a supplement
to the county roads.
Inflation   Takes  Toll
The increased sums available for
highway use do not represent a
similar increase in highway construction; for road costs have gone
up with car ownership costs and
highway revenues. The greatest
loss of highway construction has
been to inflation. It takes $2,000,-
000 today to build the same
number of miles of roads that $1,-
NEEDS, (Cont. on page 6)
"Only You Can Make Our Highways Safer."
Those were the headline words over the exhibit of the
Traffic and Safety Division at the State Fair.
They emphasized the basic premise of traffic safety experts that if they could reach the mental variations of drivers,
if they could eliminate the personal elements of driving, many
problems of traffic safety would be eliminated.
This panel was split into two
subjects: one concerning the Highway Patrol and the other referring
to traffic fatalities.
Pointing out that the Highway
Patrol has a 24-hour job, serving
the driving public night and day,
a map of Minnesota was used to
Have you ever seen so many
youngsters going to school before
. . . and do you realize how many
are attending for the first time?
. . . these youngsters will be mixing  with  traffic,   crossing   streets,
running to school or play . . . for
the first time . . . watch out for
them . . . drive carefully around
children . . . give them a chance to
live.
show how much territory is actually the responsibility of individual
patrol officers. This pointed out
that with 110 patrol cars available
at any one time, not all are in
service at the same time.
Between the hours of 10:00 a.
m. and 6:00 p. m., 60 cars are usually in service; between 6:00 p.
m., and 2:00 a. m., 70 cars are on
patrol; while between the hours of
2:00 a. m. and 10:00 a. m., only
30 cars will be in service.
Pictures  of  the   panels  are  on   page  four.
It was not the purpose of the
exhibit to show these figures f>£
completely accurate, but to show
that despite the increase in the
number of patrolmen, with 198 on
duty presently, not all men can be
working at all times. Vacations,
sick leave, normal time off within
a 40 hour week, accidents to men
and to vehicles, all contribute to
the lower number of men on the
highways.
Yet during 1951, these men put
in the total of 272,329 hours on
patrol, during which they covered
4,240,000 miles on trunk highways alone.
It was the purpose of this panel
to emphasize the service the Highway Patrol performs for the driving public. It has always been the
stand of Chief Earl Larimer that
the Highway Patrol is a service organization, on the highways to be
of assistance to motorists and to
make the highways safer for all.
In the past calendar year, over 23,-
000 motorists, were given assistance in various ways, from helping locate routes to making simple mechanical repairs.
From a safety standpoint, the
greatest contribution of the Patrol
came in apprehending violators of
traffic regulations before they
could be involved in accidents.
FAIR  (Cont. on page 6)