Adopt-a-Highway

Last updated
An adopt-a-Highway sign in Colorado Adopt-A-Highway sign, CSU Pueblo Athletics.jpg
An adopt-a-Highway sign in Colorado

The Adopt-a-Highway program, and the very similar Sponsor-a-Highway, are promotional campaigns undertaken by U.S. states, provinces and territories of Canada, and some 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 Scouts or Knights of Columbus) is allowed to have its name posted on a sign in the section of the highways they maintain.

Contents

History

An adopt-a-Highway sign on Interstate 90 in Minnesota since 1998. GLCSsign.jpg
An adopt-a-Highway sign on Interstate 90 in Minnesota since 1998.

The program originated in the 1980s when James Evans, an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), 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 TxDOT 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 U.S. Route 69 [1] 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. Vermont is the only U.S. State without an Adopt-a-Highway program, but has a similar program called "Green Up," where the cleanup is done by community residents. [2]

In 1989, California became the 20th state to develop a highway litter control program when the California Department of Transportation began administering the Adopt-A-Highway program for state highways. [3] The program distinguishes between volunteer adoptions and sponsored adoptions. As of 2021, more than 120,000 California residents have participated in the program to remove litter, plant trees and wildflowers, removing graffiti, and clearing vegetation along over 15,000 shoulder miles (24,000 shoulder km) of roadside. [4] [5]

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.

Participation

An Adopt-A-Highway sign on Interstate 8 ESPROADSIDEAAHSIGN.jpg
An Adopt-A-Highway sign on Interstate 8

The Adopt-A-Highway program allows any organization to participate, which became a point of controversy when the Ku Klux Klan adopted a portion of Interstate 55 just south of St. Louis, Missouri. While legally the program had to uphold the groups' rights to participate, public outcry and repeated destruction of its sign was a cause of concern. In November 2000, the section of highway was designated as the Rosa Parks Freeway after the famous civil rights figure. [6]

KKK sponsorship was later dropped from the program for the group's failure to fulfill its obligations, and the Missouri Department of Transportation adopted specific criteria to prohibit hate groups from future participation. However, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals 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. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, so the ruling stood.

In 2001, South Dakota denied participation to a gay and lesbian organization. [7] Governor Bill Janklow eventually allowed the group to participate but had sponsor names removed from all adopt-a-highway signs in the state. [8]

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 National Socialist Movement. The signs, which cost $500 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. Heschel had fled the Nazis' advance in Europe and became a prominent theologian and civil rights advocate in the United States before his death in 1972. [9] Rabbi Heschel's daughter opposed this decision. [10]

In 2012, the International Keystone Knights of the KKK submitted an application to adopt a stretch of Georgia State Route 515. The Georgia Department of Transportation denied the application, citing safety concerns and the hate group's history. [11]

In 2012, PennDOT accepted an Adopt-A-Highway sponsorship along a portion of Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh from a local strip club located in Downtown Pittsburgh. According to PennDOT officials, strip clubs are permitted, along with any other business, to sponsor such projects, since it keeps the roads clean and saves taxpayers money. [12] Despite the sponsorship, the program does not send strippers to clean the roads, but rather sends workers from the state paid for by the club to clean the highways. [13]

Economically, the program may be viewed as a way of getting around regulations prohibiting billboards next to a highway and on a per-view basis, it is more economical than billboards. [14]

Diagram of the sign seen in The Pothole Adopt-a-highway sign diagram Kramer.svg
Diagram of the sign seen in The Pothole

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ku Klux Klan</span> American white supremacist terrorist hate group

The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is the name of several historical and current American white supremacist, far-right terrorist organizations and hate groups. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, the Klan was "the first organized terror movement in American history." Their primary targets at various times have been African Americans, as well as Jews and Catholics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farm-to-market road</span> Type of road in some U.S. states

In the United States, a farm-to-market road or ranch-to-market road is a state highway or county road that connects rural or agricultural areas to market towns. These are better-quality roads, usually a highway, that farmers and ranchers use to transport products to market towns or distribution centers. Historically used throughout the country, today the term is primarily associated with a large state-maintained highway system in Texas.

A Kleagle is an officer of the Ku Klux Klan whose main role is to recruit new members and must maintain the three guiding principles: recruit, maintain control, and safeguard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas state highway system</span> Highway system of Texas in the United States

Texas state highways are a network of highways owned and maintained by the U.S. state of Texas. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is the state agency responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the system. Texas has the largest state highway system, followed closely by North Carolina's state highway system. In addition to the nationally numbered Interstate Highways and U.S. Highways, the highway system consists of a main network of state highways, loops, spurs, and beltways that provide local access to the other highways. The system also includes a large network of farm to market roads that connect rural areas of the state with urban areas and the rest of the state highway system. The state also owns and maintains some park and recreational roads located near and within state and national parks, as well as recreational areas. All state highways, regardless of classification, are paved roads. The Old San Antonio Road, also known as the El Camino Real, is the oldest highway in the United States, first being blazed in 1691. The length of the highways varies from US 83's 893.4 miles (1,437.8 km) inside the state borders to Spur 200 at just 0.05 miles long.

Ku Klux Klan auxiliaries are organized groups that supplement, but do not directly integrate with the Ku Klux Klan. These auxiliaries include: Women of the Ku Klux Klan, The Jr. Ku Klux Klan, The Tri-K Girls, the American Crusaders, The Royal Riders of the Red Robe, The Ku Klux balla, and the Klan's Colored Man auxiliary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women of the Ku Klux Klan</span> Branch of the US Ku Klux Klan

Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK), also known as Women's Ku Klux Klan, and Ladies of the Invisible Empire, held to many of the same political and social ideas of the KKK but functioned as a separate branch of the national organization with their own actions and ideas. While most women focused on the moral, civic, and educational agendas of the Klan, they also had considerable involvement in issues of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and religion. The women of the WKKK fought for educational and social reforms like other Progressive reformers but with extreme racism and intolerance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heal the Bay</span> US non-profit organization

Heal the Bay is a U.S. environmental advocacy group of activists based in Santa Monica, California. The focus is protecting coastal waters and watersheds of southern California, and is focused on Santa Monica Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstate 55 in Missouri</span> Section of Interstate Highway in Missouri, United States

Interstate 55 (I-55) in the US state of Missouri runs from the Arkansas state line to the Poplar Street Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Movement (United States)</span> American Neo-Nazi organization (1974-)

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a Neo-Nazi organization based in the United States. It was a part of the Nationalist Front. Once considered to be the largest and most prominent National Socialist organization in the United States in the United States, in recent years its membership and prominence has plummeted. It is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

There are approximately 25 current toll roads in the state of Texas. Toll roads are more common in Texas than in many other U.S. states, since the relatively low revenues from the state's gasoline tax limits highway planners' means to fund the construction and operation of highways.

The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC) was an anti-racist organization based in the United States. The group protested against the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacist organizations and published anti-racist literature. Members of the JBAKC were involved in a string of bombings of military, government, and corporate targets in the 1980s. The JBAKC viewed themselves as anti-imperialists and considered African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans to be oppressed colonial peoples.

Green Up Day, observed annually on the first Saturday of May, is a statewide effort in the US state of Vermont to clean up roadside trash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State police (United States)</span> Police department of a U.S. state

In the United States, the state police is a police body unique to each U.S. state, having statewide authority to conduct law enforcement activities and criminal investigations. In general, state police officers or highway patrol officers, known as state troopers, perform functions that do not fall within the jurisdiction of a county’s sheriff, such as enforcing traffic laws on state highways and interstates, overseeing security of state capitol complexes, protecting governors, training new officers for local police forces too small to operate an academy and providing technological and scientific services. They also support local police and help to coordinate multi-jurisdictional task force activity in serious or complicated cases in states that grant full police powers statewide.

Ku Klux Klan recruitment of members is the responsibility of 'Kleagles', as defined by "Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia". They are organizers or recruiters, "appointed by an imperial wizard or his imperial representative to 'sex' the KKK among non-members". These members were paid 200 dollars per hour by the commission and received a portion of each new member's invitation fee. Recruitment of new KKK members entailed framing economic, political, and social structural changes in favour of and in line with KKK goals. These goals promoted "100 per cent Americanism" and benefits for white native-born Protestants. Informal ways Klansmen recruited members included "with eligible co-workers and personal friends and try to enlist them". Protestant teachers were also targeted for Klan membership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iowa Primary Highway System</span>

The primary highway system makes up over 9,000 miles (14,000 km), approximately 8 percent of the U.S. state of Iowa's public road system. The Iowa Department of Transportation is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the primary highway system, which consists of Interstate Highways, United States Highways, and Iowa state highways. Currently, the longest primary highway is U.S. Highway 30 at 332 miles (534 km). The shortest highway is Interstate 129 at 0.27 miles (430 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ku Klux Klan titles and vocabulary</span>

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) nomenclature has evolved over the order's nearly 160 years of existence. The titles and designations were first laid out in the original Klan's prescripts of 1867 and 1868, then revamped with William J. Simmons's Kloran of 1916. Subsequent Klans have made various modifications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan</span> White supremacist and antisemitic hate group

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a group styled after the original Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Formed around 2012, it aims to "restore America to a White, Christian nation founded on God's word".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National CleanUp Day</span> Day observed annually September in the US

National CleanUp Day is held annually in the United States and globally on the third Saturday of September. In the United States, there are cleanups held in every State and Territory. It promotes country-scale organized and individual cleanup events and volunteering to keep the outdoors clean and prevent plastic from entering the ocean. National CleanUp Day is organized by Clean Trails, a nonprofit organization founded by Bill Willoughby and Steve Jewett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Elonzo Davis</span> American Ku Klux Klan member (1890–1966)

Roy Elonzo Davis was an American preacher, white supremacist, and con artist who co-founded the second iteration of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. Davis was Second Degree of the KKK under William J. Simmons and later became National Imperial Wizard (leader) of the Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He worked closely with Simmons, and was a co-author of the 1921 KKK constitution, bylaws and rituals. Davis spent decades as a KKK recruiter, at one point being named "Royal Ambassador" and an "Official Spokesperson" of the KKK by Simmons. Davis and Simmons were both expelled from the KKK in 1923 by Hiram Wesley Evans, who had ousted Simmons as leader. Simmons started the Knights of the Flaming Sword branch of the KKK and with Davis's help retained the loyalty of many KKK members. Davis was later reappointed second in command of the national KKK organization by Imperial Wizard Eldon Edwards, a position he held until being elected national leader by 1959.

References

  1. ↑ "First Adopt-a-Highway sign goes up - Mar 09, 1985 - HISTORY.com". HISTORY.com. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
  2. ↑ State of Texas, Texas Department of Transportation. "Adopt-a-Highway - FAQ". www.txdot.gov.
  3. ↑ "Caltrans Adopt-A-Highway Program Fact Sheet" (PDF). Sacramento, California: California Department of Transportation. January 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Adopt-A-Highway". Sacramento, California: California Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Adopt-A-Highway Sponsor FAQs" (PDF). Sacramento, California: California Department of Transportation. June 3, 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  6. ↑ "The Name Game: Rosa Parks and the KKK". Snopes.com. June 11, 2012.
  7. ↑ Slater, Eric (August 15, 2001). "Gays Seek Adopt-a-Highway Sign and Get Cold Shoulder". Los Angeles Times . Policy: S. Dakota denies marker to an 'advocacy' body. Governor may scrap entire program.
  8. ↑ Barrett, Steven (August 16, 2001). "Janklow to change Adopt-a-Highway signs". Rapid City Journal .
  9. ↑ Neo-Nazis’ Road Adoption Spurs Action: Missouri to Rename Highway After Rabbi. New York Times News Service.
  10. ↑ Cooper, Michael (June 22, 2009). "Daughter Against Use of Father's Name to Subvert Neo-Nazis". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ Valencia, Nick (June 13, 2012). "Georgia official: KKK won't be allowed to 'adopt' highway". CNN.
  12. ↑ "Strip Club Helps Clean Up Local Highways". cbslocal.com. 2 July 2012.
  13. ↑ "News Nearby: Strip Club Owner Adopts Portion of Parkway Near Robinson - Cranberry, PA Patch". Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  14. ↑ Mayyasi, Alex. "The Economics of "Adopting A Highway"". Priceconomics. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.