[M II A II R II K]

Is It Time To Take Highways Out Of Cities?


Nov 21, 2019

By Adam Millsap

Read More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adammil...-out-of-cities

Study: http://www.eh.net/eha/wp-content/upl.../Kitschens.pdf

.....

In a new study, economists Carl Kitchens, Taylor Jaworski, and Sergey Nigai estimate the value of different portions of the interstate highway system and find that many portions have large economic benefits. To calculate the value of highways they use a structural economic model to estimate the decline in income that would occur if portions of the interstate highway system were removed.

- They estimate that removing I-70, which runs east to west from Maryland to Utah, would lower total income in Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri by 5%. Removing I-95 from the eastern seaboard would cause a 15% drop in total income in Maine and a nearly 5% loss in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. On a per mile basis, they value I-78, which connects New York’s port to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, at $294 million per year. These are big numbers that reinforce the notion that the highway system has played an important role in America’s economic growth.

- After World War II, many cities developed urban plans that included extensive highway systems as well as expansions of mass transit such as passenger rail and bus lines. However, the highways in city plans were more modest, two lanes each way with 45 to 50 miles-per-hour speed limits than the highways that bisect America’s cities today. These municipal plans, however, were never fully implemented. Many city officials chose to conserve local revenues and relinquish primary responsibility for large-scale investment to state highway departments, which prioritized faster inter-state travel and as a result built the larger system we see today.

- It’s important to note that many city officials were initially in favor of a highway system. They thought highways would reverse the urban decay and population loss that had already begun by bringing suburban residents downtown to shop and work, and that this positive effect would outweigh any negative effects such as more migration from the city. Unfortunately for Dayton and other cities, those supporters were wrong. Economist Nathaniel Baum-Snow estimates that on average the construction of one interstate highway through a central city caused an 18% drop in that city’s population between 1950 and 1990.

.....