Highway System

WASHINGTON -- Will 1997 mean more ISTEA (non-highway transit systems) -- or a cup of "Hot Tea" (Highways Only Transportation)?The choice has to be made this year because ISTEA, the landmark Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, prescribing how about $25 billion a year in federal gasoline taxes are allocated to states and metropolitan regions for highways and other transit, will expire Dec. 31.ISTEA, for the first time in American history,...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has drafted an ambitious five-year plan for expanding highway construction, broadening the network of major national roads, providing incentives to reduce congestion and allowing states to charge tolls on more highways.Proposed legislation that would provide at least $85 billion in federal highway aid to the states from 1992 to 1996 has been written at the Transportation Department, where senior officials call it their main legislative effort for the coming year.

WASHINGTON -- Forced by circumstances beyond thei control, which all circumstances seem to be, to choose a new speaker, House Republicans, a proudly nonconformist and notably predictable crowd, thought long and hard, as thinking is measured here. After a few hours, they determined that the best speaker would be the man who praises the emblematic result of the last Congress, the $217 billion highway bill.Bike paths to the 21st centuryThat bill, with its more than 1,850 bicycle paths, "demonstration projects" and other acts of uncomplicated rapacity, strikes Rep. Bob Livingston as a splendid jobs program:"A lot of people are going to have highways because of that bill and a lot of people are going to have jobs because of that bill and a lot of people are going to be better off throughout America because of that bill.

Richard H. Trainor, who helped improve Maryland roads and mass transit systems during 41 years in state and Baltimore government, died of a heart attack Sunday at his Homeland residence. He was 67."Wherever you go in the state, Richard Trainor has left his mark," said former Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who appointed him state secretary of transportation in 1987."If a guy's good, you don't tell him what to do, and he was competent, very competent. I have nothing but the highest regard and praise for him," Mr. Schaefer said.

ROCKY GAP -- The path through Western Maryland was once the road west, blazed by Gen. Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War and followed by Americans looking for prosperity in an untamed land.But with prosperity came progress. And with progress came new roads that bypassed Western Maryland. Jobs left. People left. And Western Maryland was left isolated and depressed, a forgotten region.Now, residents of these mountains are hoping that a new National Freeway, following the same path General Braddock blazed, will end that isolation and restore at least some of Western Maryland's past glory.

Boston. -- I haven't heard such hype about the future since the days when they were pushing fins on automobiles. When it was announced that a phone company and a cable company were going to merge like two roadways into one superhighway, the talk accelerated faster than a Maserati.Go interactive! Jump on the speedway to information! Get your red hot movies whenever you want them! Shop 'til you drop (the remote control)! Put your technological pedal to the metal! The blissed-out, wide-eyed technophilia that has greeted the announcement that Bell Atlantic is buying Tele-Communications Inc. harked back to the 1950s.

In his recent commentary, Matt Patterson informed us that President Barack Obama's election to a second term in office is the death knell for liberty in this country and he sounds ready to pack up his bags and leave ("America the dictatorship?" Nov. 27). Fine. But before he goes, perhaps we should take a moment to compare and contrast Mr. Patterson's golden age of a free America (which he defines as prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913) with the Orwellian present in which we now live.

SAN DIEGO -- Dumb questions you might never think to ask a smart highway: Can one be cited for driving under the influence when one is under the influence but not actually driving?In a car programmed to auto-commute to work, will there be a pause button should personal plumbing suggest an earlier exit?When computers crash, will cars crash?Who gets sued if one driverless vehicle rear-ends another?So a guy has been steeped in full and personal control of cars since Dad put him on his lap behind the wheel of the family Pontiac and now he's driving by wire -- look Ma, no hands or feet!

The Carroll County commissioners agreed yesterday to as federal transportation officials to include Route 140 from I-795 to Route 31 in the national highway system.The designation would mean that Route 140 would be eligible for more federal money for improvement projects, transportation planner Rob Yingling explained yesterday.Parts of I-70 and Route 30 in Carroll are already included in the national highway system, he said.

President Bush proposed:* A bank reform plan that relies on the banking industry to shore up the federal deposit insurance fund.* A transfer of $15 billion in domestic programs from the federal government to states in a single consolidated grant.* That Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan head a joint congressional and Federal Reserve Board study of a capital gains tax incentive.* Elimination of political action committees.* A comprehensive national energy strategy combining conservation, development, and greater use of alternative fuels.