He isn't, and it has occurred to us that NOBODY sings the Interstate highways. They're there. We use them. We complain about them if they're congested or under repair. Otherwise, they have become such an integral part of the American landscape, both literal and figurative, that we take them totally for granted. Sure, the anti-car people complain (not without cause) about how General Motors et al. 60 years ago colluded to destroy mass transit so we'd buy more cars. Jane Jacobs complains (not without cause) about how the Interstates (and all freeways) destroyed our sense of urban community. But the system is there, in place, and we use it. Feeling that it was time for a little Interstate appreciation, the far-flung staff of Magellan's Log gathered recently (through a pretty complex conference call) for the sole purpose of selecting the best and worst Interstates. What seemed at first to be a simple, great idea turned out to be a very complicated, great idea. As for our qualifications: While collectively we have not driven every last mile of the system, we did some rough calculation and estimate that we have covered somewhere between 85 and 90 percent of the 40,000 miles. Interstate Criteria and Candidates >>
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