Adopt a Highway
Encyclopedia
The Adopt-a-Highway program, also known as Sponsor-a-Highway (but see distinction below), is a promotional campaign undertaken by U.S. state
s, Provinces and Territories
of Canada
, and national governments outside North America
to encourage volunteers to keep a section of a highway
free from litter. In exchange for regular litter removal, an organization
(such as Cub Scout
s or Knights of Columbus
) is allowed to have its name posted on a sign in the section of the highways they maintain.
The program originated in the 1980s when James Evans, an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation
, saw debris
flying out of a pickup truck
bed. Litter cleanup by the city was expensive, so Evans sought the help of local groups to sponsor the cleaning of sections of the highway. The efforts of Billy Black
, a public information officer, led to quarterly cleanup cycles, volunteer safety training, the issuing of reflective vests and equipment, and the posting of adopt-a-highway signs.
In 1985, the Tyler
Civitan Club became the first group to volunteer, adopting two miles along US Route 69 just north of Loop 323 between Tyler and Interstate 20
. The program proved to be very successful and has since spread to 49 states, Puerto Rico
, Canada
, New Zealand
, Australia
, and Japan
.
Some states, such as Nevada
, allow both Adopt-a-Highway and Sponsor-a-Highway programs. In both programs, an organization that contributes to the cleanup is allowed to post its name. However, while an adopting organization provides the volunteers who do the litter pickup, a sponsoring organization instead pays professional contractors to do the work. Because of safety concerns, the latter is more typical in highways with high traffic volumes.
In New York City the Adopt A Highway program has many commercial companies renting out signs for advertisement purposes on both Highways and Parkways. Signs are rented for a term of 1 year and usually consist of about 1 mile of roadway per sign. While rented the program then uses some of the revenue produced to have a crew come in and clean the roadway only within the renters area. 2 types of crews currently clean the roadways. The picking crew removes trash from the side of the road in the grassy areas and a sweeping crew clean dirt in the actual roadway.
adopted a portion of Interstate 55
just south of St. Louis
, Missouri
. While legally the program had to uphold the groups' rights to participate, the public outcry and repeated destruction of their sign was a cause of concern. In November 2000, the section of highway was designated as the Rosa Parks
Freeway, named after the famed civil-rights hero
ine.
KKK sponsorship was later dropped from the program for its inability to fulfill its obligations, and the Missouri Department of Transportation
adopted specific criteria to prohibit hate groups from future participation. However, the United States Supreme Court
ruled that any attempt to bar the Klan from participation in the Adopt-a-Highway program on the basis of the group's purpose is a violation of the First Amendment
.
In January 2005, the American Nazi Party adopted a stretch of the rural Sunnyview Road NE outside Salem
, Oregon
. Two signs were put up along the road that bore the names of the American Nazi Party
and NSM
. The signs, which cost $500 of taxpayer's money
and were almost immediately subject to vandalism
, have since been removed. The American Nazi Party's chair, Rocky J. Suhayda
, claimed to have no association with the Adopt a Highway program.
In 2009, the state of Missouri renamed a section of highway after Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, because it had been adopted by a neo-nazi group. Rabbi Heschel fled the Nazis’ advance in Europe and became a prominent theologian and civil rights advocate in the United States before his death in 1972. Rabbi Heschel's daughter opposed this decision
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
s, Provinces and Territories
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and national governments outside North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
to encourage volunteers to keep a section of a highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
free from litter. In exchange for regular litter removal, an organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
(such as Cub Scout
Cub Scout
A Cub Scout is a member of the section of the worldwide Scouting movement for young persons, mainly boys normally aged about 7 to 11. In some countries they are known by their original name of Wolf Cubs and are often referred to simply as Cubs. The movement is often referred to simply as Cubbing...
s or Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
) is allowed to have its name posted on a sign in the section of the highways they maintain.
The program originated in the 1980s when James Evans, an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation
Texas Department of Transportation
The Texas Department of Transportation is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Texas. Its stated mission is to "work cooperatively to provide safe, effective and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state...
, saw debris
Road debris
Road debris, a form of road hazard, is debris on or off a road. Road debris includes substances, materials, and objects that are foreign to the normal roadway environment...
flying out of a pickup truck
Pickup truck
A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...
bed. Litter cleanup by the city was expensive, so Evans sought the help of local groups to sponsor the cleaning of sections of the highway. The efforts of Billy Black
Glass family
The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J. D. Salinger's short stories. All but one of the Glass family stories were first published in The New Yorker; several of them have been collected and published in the compilations Nine Stories, Raise High...
, a public information officer, led to quarterly cleanup cycles, volunteer safety training, the issuing of reflective vests and equipment, and the posting of adopt-a-highway signs.
In 1985, the Tyler
Tyler, Texas
Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...
Civitan Club became the first group to volunteer, adopting two miles along US Route 69 just north of Loop 323 between Tyler and Interstate 20
Interstate 20
Interstate 20 is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I‑20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...
. The program proved to be very successful and has since spread to 49 states, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Some states, such as Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, allow both Adopt-a-Highway and Sponsor-a-Highway programs. In both programs, an organization that contributes to the cleanup is allowed to post its name. However, while an adopting organization provides the volunteers who do the litter pickup, a sponsoring organization instead pays professional contractors to do the work. Because of safety concerns, the latter is more typical in highways with high traffic volumes.
In New York City the Adopt A Highway program has many commercial companies renting out signs for advertisement purposes on both Highways and Parkways. Signs are rented for a term of 1 year and usually consist of about 1 mile of roadway per sign. While rented the program then uses some of the revenue produced to have a crew come in and clean the roadway only within the renters area. 2 types of crews currently clean the roadways. The picking crew removes trash from the side of the road in the grassy areas and a sweeping crew clean dirt in the actual roadway.
Controversies
The Adopt-A-Highway program allows any organization to participate, which became a point of controversy when the Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
adopted a portion of Interstate 55
Interstate 55
Interstate 55 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north–south Interstate Highway. I-55 goes from LaPlace, Louisiana at Interstate 10 to Chicago at U.S. Route 41 , at McCormick Place. A common nickname for the highway is "double...
just south of St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. While legally the program had to uphold the groups' rights to participate, the public outcry and repeated destruction of their sign was a cause of concern. In November 2000, the section of highway was designated as the Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
Freeway, named after the famed civil-rights hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
ine.
KKK sponsorship was later dropped from the program for its inability to fulfill its obligations, and the Missouri Department of Transportation
Missouri Department of Transportation
The Missouri Department of Transportation is a state government organization in charge of maintaining public roadways of the U.S. state of Missouri.-External links:*...
adopted specific criteria to prohibit hate groups from future participation. However, the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruled that any attempt to bar the Klan from participation in the Adopt-a-Highway program on the basis of the group's purpose is a violation of the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
.
In January 2005, the American Nazi Party adopted a stretch of the rural Sunnyview Road NE outside Salem
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Two signs were put up along the road that bore the names of the American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
and NSM
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
. The signs, which cost $500 of taxpayer's money
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
and were almost immediately subject to vandalism
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
, have since been removed. The American Nazi Party's chair, Rocky J. Suhayda
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
, claimed to have no association with the Adopt a Highway program.
In 2009, the state of Missouri renamed a section of highway after Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, because it had been adopted by a neo-nazi group. Rabbi Heschel fled the Nazis’ advance in Europe and became a prominent theologian and civil rights advocate in the United States before his death in 1972. Rabbi Heschel's daughter opposed this decision
In popular culture
- In the hit U.S. sitcom SeinfeldSeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
episode The PotholeThe Pothole"The Pothole" is the 150th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 16th episode for the 8th season. It aired on February 20, 1997. This episode earned Andy Ackerman an Emmy Award for Outstanding Direction...
, Cosmo KramerCosmo KramerCosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...
adopts a mile of the fictional Arthur Berkhardt Expressway. Kramer proceeds to alter the 4 lane highway to 2 lanes to allow the creation of wider "leisure lanes", which results in major traffic congestion. - In the American Dad episode "It's Good to Be Queen" Francine comments on the cleanliness of the highway and gives thanks to the Ku Klux Klan.
- The MU330MU330MU330 are a ska punk band from St. Louis, Missouri.Formed by students of St. Louis University High School in 1988, MU330 played a self-described brand of music called "Psycho Ska", high energy ska punk marked by manic performances and humorous, often strange lyricism...
song "KKK Hiway" is about the Ku Klux Klan's attempt to sponsor Interstate 55 in lead singer Dan Potthast'sMU330MU330 are a ska punk band from St. Louis, Missouri.Formed by students of St. Louis University High School in 1988, MU330 played a self-described brand of music called "Psycho Ska", high energy ska punk marked by manic performances and humorous, often strange lyricism...
hometown of St. Louis ("a few miles away from [his] mom's house").