| Ownership of family passenger cars by annual income groups | ||
| Annual income bracket | Percentage of family passenger cars owned by families in each income bracket |
Percentage of family passenger cards owned by families with income less than the maximum of each income bracket |
| Percent | Percent | |
| Under $500 | 6.54 | 6.54 |
| $500 to $1,000 | 20.55 | 27.09 |
| $1,000 to $1,500 | 24.77 | 51,86 |
| $1,500 to $2,000 | 18.08 | 69.93 |
| $2,000 to $3,000 | 17.73 | 87.66 |
| $3,000 to $5,000 | 8.02 | 95.68 |
| Over $5,000 | 4.32 | 100.00 |
In estimating the probable volume of toll-paying traffic on the selected superhighways, it is necessary to give due consideration to these facts. Persons of low income who own and operate passenger automobiles are influenced in the uses they make of their cars to a greater extent by the immediate operating expense, such as gasoline and oil, than by the actual total costs, including tires, depreciation, and so forth. The cost of the gasoline consumed on a trip may amount to little more than a cent a mile. To the motorcar owner with an income of less than $1,500 a year, a toll of 1 cent per mile is likely to appear as a 100-percent increase in his cost of operation; and so viewed it is an additional cost that he is not likely to pay.
CONSIDERATIONS AFFECTING THE SELECTION OF ROUTES FOR INVESTIGATION
CONFORMITY TO THE CONGRESSIONAL DESCRIPTION
Several considerations influenced the location of the routes chosen for the superhighways to be investigated. The first requirement was that the routes selected should conform substantially to the description specified in the act, i. e., that there should be not more than three running in a general direction from the eastern to the western portion of the United States, and not more than three running in a general direction from the northern to the southern portion of the United States.
The major routes selected conform exactly to this description. Two of the north-south roads run from the Canadian line to the Mexican border, the third runs from Maine to Florida; and all three of the east–west routes run substantially from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts.
In addition to the three major routes in each general direction, the investigation has also covered three diagonal branches from the central east-west route. One of these was included to give direct connection with the National Capital at Washington; the other two, branching northwest and southwest from points near Salt Lake City, were included because they permit the central route to give reasonably direct connection to the northern and southern Pacific coast sections during seasons when, for climatic reasons, the central route may be preferred by travelers to the northern or southern route.
