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Vanderbilt Law Review

First Page

1007

Abstract

Roads have been an essential part of transportation since man began to travel and to take his goods with him. This fact is sometimes obscured by the intense current preoccupation with motor vehicles which are often regarded as the cause of roads rather than instruments for utilization of roads. In any event, it is true that, with the advent of the motor vehicle, highways have become an increasingly important part of the nation's transportation system. That this tendency and importance will continue and even be accelerated is portended by the creation of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways' and the state road programs now being undertaken in connection therewith. Under these circumstances it is certain that the interstate movement of persons and goods by motor vehicle will be expanded far beyond present activity and that licensing of interstate commercial vehicles and procedures to accommodate free movement of such vehicles will receive more attention from state governments' as developments progress.

In the words of the Federal Highway Administrator, the problem of the states is the reconciliation of two "praiseworthy" objectives:"First, that of insuring the free movement of vehicles in interstate commerce; and second, that of requiring that all vehicles traveling in the state pay their due shares of user taxes for the support of the state's roads and streets."' He has also expressed the thought that''an increasing awareness of the federal road-user taxes will bring about a trend toward somewhat greater uniformity in states' schedules."

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