America’s Least Wanted Highways
The Congress for New Urbanism released a highly entertaining top ten list today: the North American highways most in need of demolition. At the top is Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct, a structurally...
View ArticleWiki Wednesday: Better Stimulus Through Highway Removal
We know plenty of states want to use stimulus funds to expand highway capacity, but how many are looking to jolt their economies with a much-needed freeway teardown? So far as we can tell, the answer...
View ArticleOne More Reason to Tear Down the Sheridan Expressway
The Post reported last week that the Cross-Bronx Expressway -- perhaps the most infamous urban freeway on the planet -- has earned the title "America's worst highway." According to traffic analysis...
View ArticleBack to the Grid, Part 2: John Norquist on Reclaiming American Cities
Brady Street, which boasts some of the best street life in Milwaukee, has flourished thanks in part to the defeat of a nearby freeway spur and the redevelopment that followed. Photo: Steve...
View ArticleFighting Freeways: War Stories From Portland
Rail~volution is underway in Portland, Oregon, bringing together more than 1,000 city planners, engineers, transit advocates, bike policy experts, and elected officials to strategize about making...
View ArticleHow to Slay a Highway: Notes on the Mt. Hood Freeway and Harbor Drive
I promised in my last post to tell you the triumphant stories of citizens beating back highways, both planned and already built. Here are more stories from the Rail~volution bike tour around Portland’s...
View ArticleCharleston Highway Plan, Back From the Dead, May Finally Meet Its Maker
In the 1970s, engineers drew a horseshoe around Charleston, South Carolina — the planned route for Interstate 526, also known as the Mark Clark Expressway. The highway was to extend from Mt. Pleasant...
View Article“Highway Removal” Project in Cleveland Looks an Awful Lot Like a Highway
It is an oft-lamented fact, both locally and nationally, that the city of Cleveland hasn’t taken full advantage of its position on the shore of Lake Erie. The national media, in its seemingly boundless...
View ArticleMoving Beyond the Automobile: Highway Removal
In this week’s episode of “Moving Beyond the Automobile,” Streetfilms takes you on a guided tour of past, present and future highway removal projects with John Norquist of the Congress for the New...
View ArticleSyracuse Looks to Highway Removal to Revive Downtown Economy
All cities have physical barriers that divide neighborhoods and social classes. In Syracuse, one of the biggest is Interstate-81. On the east side you have the area known as “The Hill.” There, Syracuse...
View ArticleChuck Schumer on Niagara Falls Highway: “Tear Down This Road”
Plans for section of the Robert Moses Parkway in downtown Niagara Falls would turn the highway into a two-lane road and reconnect the waterfront with downtown. Image: Frank Report Most members of...
View Article12 Freeways to Watch (‘Cause They Might Be Gone Soon)
If you make your home on the Louisiana coastline, upstate New York or the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, chances are you live near a highway that really has it coming. It’s big. It’s ugly. It goes...
View ArticleInstead of Reclaiming a Despised Highway, New Haven Plans a Close Replica
The “most defacing scar from the 1960′s Urban Renewal era” — that’s how local advocates describe the Route 34 Expressway through downtown New Haven. Just about a year and a half ago, this small New...
View ArticleNYC Rejects Highway Teardown Without Completing TIGER-Funded Analysis
The Bloomberg administration has abruptly ruled out the possibility of tearing down New York’s lightly-trafficked Sheridan Expressway and replacing it with mixed-use development, jobs, and parks....
View ArticleWhen Livability Projects Meet Eisenhower-Era Design Standards [Updated]
Tearing down highways, as New Haven, Connecticut is planning to do to a short section of Route 34, is a rare (though increasingly sought after) outcome in American transportation policy. Some highway...
View ArticleOklahoma City Council Fends Off Highway-Like Highway Replacement
When Oklahoma City announced plans in 1998 to tear down the I-40 Crosstown Expressway near downtown, they envisioned a grand, tree-lined, at-grade boulevard that would help improve development...
View ArticleHow Mayor Mick Cornett Fought Oklahoma City’s Brain Drain and Weight Gain
Part One of this interview was posted yesterday. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett (R) has made it his mission to make his city healthier and less obese, in part by improving its walkability. The city...
View ArticleMcClatchy Muckrakers Expose Seedy Underbelly of the Highway Bonanza
The 46,000-mile interstate system was completed in 1991, costing a total of $216 billion (in 2012 dollars). Since then, these seven interstate highways - totaling 2,800 miles -- have been built at the...
View ArticleNiagara Falls, New York, Gets Go-Ahead for Highway Teardown
Beginning at Niagara Falls State Park, you can hike around the great gorge carved out of the base of the falls over thousands of years. But you’d best arrive in a car. The section of Robert Moses...
View ArticleToo Bad Captain America Can’t Rescue Cleveland From Ohio DOT
Where advocates in Cleveland fell short, Captain America has triumphed. The filming of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" will close a highway in Cleveland. ODOT officials have refused to convert...
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