That same year the city of San Francisco replaced its
antiquated cable cars with moving stairways, powered
with the Douglas-Martin Solar Reception Screens. The
largest number of automobile licenses in history had been
issued that calendar year, but the end of the automobile era was in sight, and the National Defense Act of 1957 gave fair warning.
This act, one of the most bitterly debated ever to be brought out of committee, declared petroleum to be an essential and limited material of war. The armed forces had first call on all oil, above or below the ground, and eighty million civilian vehicles faced short and expensive rations. The “temporary” conditions during World War II had become permanent.
Take the superhighways of the period, urban throughout their length. Add the mechanized streets of San Francisco’s hills. Heat to boiling point with an imminent shortage of gasoline. Flavor with Yankee ingenuity. The first mechanized road was opened in 1960 between Cincinnati and Cleveland.
It was, as one would expect, comparatively primitive in
design, being based on the ore belt conveyors of ten years earlier. The fastest strip moved only thirty miles per hour and was quite narrow, for no one had thought of the possibility of locating retail trade on the strips themselves. Nevertheless, it was a prototype of social pattern which was to dominate the American scene within the next two decades-neither rural, nor urban, but partaking equally of both, and based on rapid, safe, cheap, convenient transportation.
Factories – wide, low buildings whose roofs were covered with solar power screens of the same type that drove the road-lined the roadway on each side. Back of them and interspersed among them were commercial hotels, retail stores, theatres, apartment houses. Beyond this long, thin, narrow strip was the open country-side, where the bulk of the population lived. Their homes dotted the hills, hung on the banks of creeks, and nestled between the farms. They worked in the “city” but lived in the “country” – and the two were not ten minutes apart.
Mrs. McCoy served the chief and his guest in person. They checked their conversation at the sight of the magnificent steaks.
Up and down the six hundred mile line, Sector Engineers of the Watch were getting in their hourly reports from their subsector technicians. “Subsector one-check!” “Subsector two-check!” Tensionometer readings, voltage, load, bearing temperatures, synchrotachometer readings-“Subsector seven-check!” Hard-bitten, able men in dungarees, who lived much of their lives ‘down inside’ amidst the unmuted roar of the hundred mile strip, the shrill whine of driving rotors, and the complaint of the relay rollers.
Davidson studied the moving model of the road, spread out before him in the main control room at Fresno Sector. He watched the barely perceptible crawl of the miniature hundred mile strip and subconsciously noted the reference number on it which located Jake’s Steak House No. 4. The chief would be getting in to Stockton soon; he’d give him a ring after the hourly reports were in. Everything was quiet; traffic tonnage normal for rush hour; he would be sleepy before this watch was over. He turned to his Cadet Engineer of the Watch. “Mr. Barnes.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I think we could use some coffee.”
“Good idea, sir. I’ll order some as soon as the hourlies are in.”
The minute hand of the control board chronometer reached twelve. The cadet watch officer threw a switch. “All sectors, report!” he said, in crisp, self-conscious tones.
The faces of two men flicked into view on the visor Screen. The younger answered him with the same air of acting under supervision. “Diego Circle – rolling!”
They were at once replaced by two more. Angeles Sector – rolling!”
Then: “Bakersfield Sector – rolling!”
And: “Fresno Sector – rolling!”.
Finally, when Reno Circle had reported, the cadet turned to Davidson and reported: “Rolling, sir.”
“Very well-keep them rolling!”
The visor screen flashed on once more. “Sacramento Sector, supplementary report.”
“Proceed.”
“Cadet Guenther, while on visual inspection as cadet sector engineer of the watch, found Cadet Alec Jeans, on watch as cadet subsector technician, and R. J. Ross, technician second class, on watch as technician for the same subsector, engaged in playing cards. It was not possible to tell with any accuracy how long they had neglected to patrol their subsector.”