The Roads Must Roll (DIMX)

Remember in the 50's when the increasingly gridlocked roads were dismantled and replaced with a series of high speed conveyor belts? Well, this show is about the time the engineers' union went on strike and tried to cripple America's infrastructure.

Heinlein was a complicated and sometimes controversial author. In Starship Troopers he theorized a civilization where suffrage is based on military service. In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress he created a quasi-utopia run by an intelligent computer and polyandrous matriarchal families. In this one he seems to be expressing anti-union sentiment and postulating that society would be well-served by psych-profiling employees. Frankly, I can see elements of both Troopers and Harsh Mistress in this one. It's interesting, if a little goofy by today's standards.

In case you were wondering, here is a little history on the idea of moving walkways as a form of public transportation. The Roads Must Roll first appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940.

Dimension X #22
The Roads Must Roll
1 Sep 1950
19500901(022)_DIMX_TheRoadsMustRoll.mp3
AUDIO PROBLEM - time-displacement echo throughout, but not loud enough to obscure any of the dialogue. Robert Heinlein (author), Ernest Kinoy (adaptor), Wendell Holmes, Ralph Bell, Norman Rose (host), Van Woodward (producer), Edward King (director), Bob Warren (announcer), Joseph Boland, Karl Weber

Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940