Proclamation 4239—National Highway Week, 1973

Since the United States was established, nearly two centuries ago, highways have been our Nation's lifelines.

In our early days, the roads—crude as they were—enabled our Nation to expand until the Atlantic was linked to the Pacific. Roads symbolized the adventurous spirit of our ancestors as wagon trains rolled ever westward into new sections of our country.

And as the highway system expanded, so, too, did our Nation's economy.

Today, highways are a vital connecting link in America's balanced transportation system. They are essential to the achievement of our economic and social goals. And they continue to manifest the American spirit of independence, enabling us to come and go when and where we please.

At the same time, highway transportation poses new challenges today that can be met only by determined and imaginative effort.

We must work to enhance the efficiency of all transportation so that we can better conserve our fuel supplies and reduce urban congestion. I urge all Americans to join in this effort, to make use of public transportation and carpools wherever possible, and to otherwise save motor fuel.

We must harmonize highway transportation with our environment so that we can more fully enjoy the blessings of nature and the works of man.

All of us must do our very best to prevent highway accidents, reducing the unacceptable price we pay each day in death and suffering on our roadways.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973, which I recently signed into law, will provide a major tool in meeting these challenges by giving State and local officials a broader range of alternative solutions as they address their transportation requirements.

Only by meeting these challenges today can we continue to enjoy the full benefits of our highway system tomorrow.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning September 23, 1973, as National Highway Week. I urge Federal, State, and local government officials, as well as highway industry and other organizations, to hold appropriate observances during that week, recognizing the benefits which highway transportation has provided for our country in the past and reflecting on how we can best continue to realize those benefits in the future.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-eighth.

RICHARD NIXON