What the Interstate Highway System has done for the U.S. and what the future holds

On this week's Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Doug Hecox, acting director of public affairs at the Federal Highway Administration, shares his insights on the origins of interstate highways and wrestles with unanswerable questions about the future.  

Hecox likes to remind people that the Interstate Highway System is "the largest human-built thing in the world."

The discussion ranges from the debate about President Biden's proposed infrastructure plan to why it has always been difficult for policymakers to agree on how to fund transportation systems, to what the ongoing development of connected and automated vehicles will mean to highway capacity. This includes a discussion about the president and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's emphasis on racial, social and environmental justice. We cannot right the wrongs but the history needs to inform future decisions.

Hecox explains why he's a champion of the decision to invest in the Interstate Highway System. He also underscores why it is important for future planning that the highways accommodate the people they are supposed to serve.

The conversation also touches on the history of the Good Roads movement and how cyclists, not drivers, advocated to pave roads. Such was the case in Michigan and the work of Horatio S. Earle, Michigan's first state transportation director.

Other references:

—     President Lincoln's patent (the only U.S. president to obtain one) and how it benefitted transportation.

—     Companies continue to experiment with driverless delivery vehicles, including Michigan-based Domino's Pizza.

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and work to create the Interstate Highway System.