highways

The Biden Administration Wants to Undo the Damage of Urban Highways. It Won't be Simple

In cities across the nation, highway projects blighted working class communities, especially nonwhite ones. Is it possible for new policies to heal that damage? 

Julie Livingston and Andrew Ross See the Car as a Machine for Unfreedom

The automobile is an object made to symbolize freedom that actually physically embodies a host of coercive relationships to work, debt, surveillance and policing, and the basic right of free movement, according to the authors of a new study. 

Houston's Highway History Teaches Planners What Not to Do

by Kyle Shelton

Transportation planners have begun to collect the opinions of community residents affected by proposed highway projects, but they have yet to begin to meaningfully incorporate those concerns into planning. Doing so could prevent repeating the blighting effects of urban transporation projects.

Will Baltimore's Black Communities Ever See Justice for the "Highway to Nowhere"?

The Robert Moses-designed expressway displaced Black families and neighborhoods for a stub of a freeway that ultimately stretched for less than two miles and does not connect to the rest of the interstate system. 

North Milwaukee Looks to Highway History to Reshape the Future

Clayborn Benson of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum is finding common cause with planning activists who want to take down the freeways that separated North Milwaukee from the rest of the city and contributed to its decline. 

The Romance of the Highway Obscures Harm to Communities of Color

by Ryan Reft

Secretary Pete Buttigieg's comments that interstate construction entrenched racial segregation were denounced as "woke" by critics. But history shows that highway planners knew that such consequences were likely to ensue, and proceeded anyway. 

Mr. Biden, Tear Down this Highway

It's time to stop expanding the urban highways that divide communities, perpetuate racial segregation and harm health, and to consider removing them entirely, argues one architectural designer. 

Documentary Shows the Choices that Led to Deadly Streets

Blaming distraction—by drivers, pedestrians or cyclists—for climbing road fatalities is a cop-out, says Jennifer Boyd. Americans need to be willing to question the basic design of roads and the priority they give to moving cars fast if they are serious about reducing road deaths. 

Why Breezewood, PA is the Most American Place on Earth

by Ed Simon

"This damned half-mile stretch of gas-stations, motels, fast food restaurants, and tchotchke shops exists on purpose."

Exhibition Shows Ongoing Toll of Minneapolis Freeway Building

"We are clearly critics of 35W and the freeway system but I drove on a freeway to get here so I'm not above this history and I think we're all culpable," project co-lead Dr. Greg Donofrio said.

The Daily Show on Racism in Highway Building

Kevin Kruse contributes to the Daily Show's satirical take on the racist history of urban highway construction. 

Protest over Road-Widening Through Black Community Echoes Events of 1967

“This is where we live, and if you don’t think it’s important, we surely do,” said Ron Chase, 70, who is director of the Gum Springs Historical Society. He was a teenager during his first march along Richmond Highway to protest the road’s conditions.

What It Looks Like to Reconnect Black Communities Torn Apart by Highways

An interactive feature shows the impact of highway building on Black communities throughout the urban United States, and prospects for reconnecting neighborhoods previously divided by asphalt. 

Can Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities?

The infrastructure bill debate has prompted historical reflection on the urban consequences of highway construction and imagination of alternatives. 

In New Orleans, Documenting History Of Iconic Black Street

Two New Orleans area activists, Raynard Sanders and documentary filmmaker Katherine Cecil, head the Claiborne Avenue History Project which aims to document and publicize the street's history. 

The New York Highway That Racism Built: ‘It Does Nothing But Pollute’

A generation of urban highway projects that advanced urban renewal and community displacement in the 1950s and 1960s are nearing obsolescence. Activists hope that the Biden infrastructure plan can replace roads and repair neighborhoods. 

The Perils Of Participation

by Amanda Phillips de Lucas

The construction of US Highway 40 in West Baltimore blighted a Black community with far-reaching results. But it's important to understand that road planners used a selective idea of participatory planning to manufacture community consent for the project. 

Right In The Way: Generations Of Highway Impacts In Houston

by Kyle Shelton

Houston's characteristic sprawl is enabled by continually expanding highways, which historically and today run through Black and Latino communities. 

The Racial Injustice of American Highways

Demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in the Twin Cities occupied a major artery that tore apart a thriving African-American neighborhood.

Fact-checking Trump's false US history lesson on debt, tariffs and building highways with 'CASH'

The US has almost never had "no debt." It was not even close to debt-free when it created the Interstate Highway System, and the national debt spiked when the military was built up during major wars.