Highway 1 talk evokes nostaglia

For years cities and towns along state and federal highways looked forward to the motorists delivered to the doorsteps of merchants, restaurants and any other enterprise that needed customers.

These would be those hard-to-believe days long ago, when fast-food chain restaurants didn't dot the landscape and make every town look the same and Interstate highways didn't zip people past your town at 70 mph, or faster. You'd count your blessings back then if you owned a restaurant and a traveler arrived in your town during lunch time.

The most famous of those highways arguably was U.S. Route 66. But U.S. highways bearing route numbers like 6, 20, 30, 52, 61, 63, 69 or 218 sent their fair share of visitors across parts of the country, and through Iowa towns.

On the statewide level, well-traveled roads have been Iowa highways 3 and 9, each spanning the state east-west in northern Iowa, Iowa Highway 2 doing the same in southern Iowa or Iowa Highway 4 that runs north-south in western Iowa.

That list includes Highway 1, which works its way north-south on Iowa's east side.

Area leaders want to change Highway 1's path that now goes through downtown Iowa City. News of that came last week as I happened to be reading some stories written years ago by Gazette columnist Dave Rasdal about the old Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway's coast-to-coast route includes the heart of Iowa.

The combination of the Highway 1 discussion and Dave's stories - he likes to go nostalgic about the gas stations and cafes that flourished along the road in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s - got me to thinking about the evolution of how we view these two-lane highways. The fact is, running through town doesn't mean all that much these days.

Bypasses take motorists around the small towns and motorists like that. Some towns and their businesses catering to travelers suffered at first but the customer base already was disappearing without highway bypasses. People increasingly were grabbing fast food at familiar spots.

And they kept going.

Heck, people can pack a meal and eat in their fully-equipped automobile and keep going. The key is: they keep going.

Still, some people get attached to things, including road designations, and any kind of proposed change arouses their interest. That especially is true the longer you get used to something, and Highway 1 is 85 years old.

The Gazette has an editorial on the matter in the works for early this week. We'll welcome your responses. No decision to move the designation to other roads in the area has been made.

But two things to think about exist:

1. Highway 1 adds to traffic in neighborhoods and congestion in downtown Iowa City.

2. And the University of Iowa's draw is so strong that people will travel to it or other nearby destinations regardless of the number painted on the road sign.