Transportation
Tearing Down an Urban Highway Can Give Rise to a Whole New City
Three major flaws with the idea that most city interstates are here to stay.
Secondly, big apple-corer highways decrease mobility as much as or more than they increase it. The limited access highway usually cuts across a grid-style street layout, sealing off surface avenues like a blowtorch cauterizing veins. Tearing down a big-city highway may actually improve traffic because it gives designers a chance to break open surface streets and restore overall circulation.
This article is part of 'The Future of Transportation,' a CityLab series made possible with support from The Rockefeller Foundation.