s during traffic jams, used three billion gallons of gasoline (Koepp 55). This figure represents four percent of the total amount of gasoline used during that year (55). Highways themselves cause a large number of traffic jams in America today. Of the 3.88 million miles of roads in the United States, 92% of them were built before 1960 (Koepp 54). The government has failed to increase the number of roads and highways proportional to the extraordinary increase of vehicles on the road. On major highways in Los Angeles, the most congested city in the United States, the average highway speed is 37 miles per hour, and is expected to drop to 17 miles per hour by the year 2000 (Doan 65). Problems with traffic congestion arise not only in the United States but also in Europe. In the spring of 1992 on the Nuremberg-Berlin motorway, a 70 kilometer traffic jam occurred during a holiday weekend (Jam tomorrow S15-S17). At a standstill for up to 18 hours, many drivers fell asleep and had to be awakened by police officers when the traffic jam began to disperse (S15-S17). Hazards to the environment also prove the necessity for more worthwhile methods of traffic administration. As many more vehicles make use of United States roads, the amount of poisonous hydrocarbons released into the atmosphere steadily increases. On the average, one out of every four Americans has problems breathing during the peak summer months due to the excess of smog in the atmosphere (Carpender 69). Studies have shown that automobiles produce the majority of this smog (69). This dramatic increase exists as one of the major reasons for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, the same year that the Clean Air Act passed through Congress (Clark 387-404). As the number of automobiles kept increasing, the emissions standards became more rigid in 1980, especially in California (387-404). Governments even passed laws requiring large businesses to provide better...
