Paving the Way to Success:
How the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 Shaped the American Frontier

Impact on Life

The IHS improved American life. Ease of travel led to the expansion of businesses, like trucking. In 1956, trucks shipped a half billion tons of goods. Today, trucks move 20 billion tons of goods yearly.

Faster shipping times helped other industries. Regional supply hubs developed, further reducing travel times, and provided cheaper, fresher products. In 1996, a study found that for every dollar spent on the interstate, the consumer paid $0.23 less for the product, with respect to local roads.

Justin Fox of Fortune Magazine said, “Thanks to the new road network and containers that could easily be moved from ship to train to truck, overseas manufacturers and domestic upstarts were able to get their products to market in the U.S. more quickly than ever before. New distribution networks arose that were vastly more efficient and flexible than the old.”

Interstates also caused development of gas stations, hotels, and restaurants, bringing industry to isolated areas. The country expanded as people traveled to remote regions in the south and west.

As businesses flourished, so did jobs. The IHS helped the car industry explode. By the 1960s, one in seven Americans were employed either directly or indirectly by the automobile industry.

Health and safety were also improved. In 1956, the national fatality rate for roads was 6.05 fatalities per 100 million miles traveled. In 2004, it dropped to 0.8 on the IHS, compared to 1.44 for all roads. Traffic shifted onto safer interstates, which benefited from technological advances such as wider shoulders, guardrails, anti-slip coating, better lighting, and signage.

A 2011 study in the American Economic Review stated that the IHS decreased urban congestion on local roadways, which improved police, ambulance, and firefighter response times.

The 2016 census revealed that over 93% of Americans had a car, including over 80% of people living below the poverty line. People are no longer restricted by location and have freedom to choose when it comes to doctors, employment, and recreational activities, regardless of socioeconomic status.

“…we were rolling smoothly at 70 miles an hour along a wide, straight, four-lane divided highway—a driver’s dream come true. In another half an hour, we would be…a hundred miles farther along the road than we had expected to be that day. This dream will probably come true for you, too, this year, if you take a driving vacation almost anywhere in the United States…vast sections of the new Interstate Highway System are now open for traffic.”

– Orr Kelly, The Evening Star, August 5, 1962