Why Is It Important To Eisenhower's Highway?

Successful agriculture is dependent on getting products from one the farm to the table. Before the invention of the highway, farmers were limited on who they could sell their products to, and consumers were restricted on what they could consume. It was evident that agriculture needed a better mode of transportation.
Before the creation of the highway, cattle were driven from ranches all over the south to major cities, and then shipped nation wide by rail. The cattle were driven hundreds of miles away for central markets, in which they would be loaded on to a train. While this allowed for the shipment of cattle, it was an extremely stressful environment for the cattle, and many died in transit. Also, these trains did not allow for the transport
Eisenhower described five reasons that he saw required attention and support as to why upgrading the Nation’s federal, state, and local highways was a requirement.
Eisenhower said that the five biggest issues with current roads were with safety, congestion and courts, economy, and defense. First, with the current system in 1955, over 40,000 people were killed and 1.3 million were injured every year. He wanted vehicles to be able to drive further without crossroads, allowing for fewer possibilities for accidents-which cause death and injury. Secondly, he wanted to reduce the amount of congestion on the road, as well as decrease the time spent in the court for traffic and civil lawsuits related to traffic on the roads.
Eisenhower was also concerned about the economy. The Federal Highway Administration says that, “bad roads nullify the efficiency in the production of goods by inefficiency in their transport”. Creating and maintaining the highways would boost the economy with agriculture as well as create more reliable jobs within construction. Finally, Eisenhower campaigned for the highway construction by using defense. He was concerned about the threat of an atomic bomb attack. He said that if the nation did not have highways, the citizens of the city would be unable to escape, and that "the appalling inadequacies to meet the demands of catastrophe
Currently, the Federal Gas Tax is priced at 18.4 cents per gallon of regular gasoline, and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel (Jones, P. D.). Additionally, there are other types of taxes that also pay for the highways, such as 24.3 cents per gallon of liquefied natural gas, or 12% tax of tractors and trucks over 33,000 pounds, or trailers over 26,000 pounds (Legislative Affairs and Policy Communications - Policy | Federal Highway Administration,