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Adopt-a-Highway

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An example of the Minnesota Adopt a Highway sign

The Adopt-a-Highway program, also known as Sponsor-a-Highway (but see distinction below) is a promotional campaign undertaken by U.S. states, 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 Scouts, or Knights of Columbus, for example) is allowed to have their 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.

Controversies

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 organization had to uphold the groups' rights to participate in the program, 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 heroine.

KKK sponsorship was later dropped from the program for its inability to fulfill its obligations under the program, and the Missouri Department of Transportation adopted specific criteria to prohibit hate groups from future participation.

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 is renaming a section of highway after a Rabbi because it had been adopted by a neo-nazi group. Neo-Nazis’ Road Adoption Spurs Action: Missouri to Rename Highway After Rabbi. New York Times News Service.</ref>

  • In the hit U.S. sitcom Seinfeld episode The Pothole, the character Cosmo Kramer adopts a mile of the fictional Arthur Berkhardt Expressway.
  • The MU330 song "KKK Hiway" is about the Ku Klux Klan's attempt to sponsor Interstate 55 in lead singer Dan Potthast's hometown of St. Louis ("a few miles away from [his] mom's house").

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adopt a Highway.
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