Is It Time To Take Highways Out Of Cities?

[SFBruin]

Because they are the perfect solution to individualized transit. You can't tweak any aspect of their current design without unintended consequences.

The only way to disrupt cars, imo, is to have mass transit, of which the best type is trains.

[wwmiv]

The only future transportation technology that we haven’t developed yet is space flight and beam me up Scotty. Cars are here to stay. Deal with it.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by mhays

What makes you say that? They're incredibly inefficient, astonishingly expensive, dangerous, and an environmental problem on every level.

Think of a better way to get 1-9 people hundreds or even thousands of pounds of goods from virtually anywhere to anywhere more quickly and more efficiently.

Vehicles are a lot more important than just shuffling humans from suburb-office building.

Its amazing how so many "progressive" urbanites seem completely incapable of seeing the bigger picture outside of their urban bubble

And by amazing I mean completely expected

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

The only thing that will ever disrupt cars is trains. Cars are the perfect solution to the problem of individualized transit, and their designs have been worked on for 100+ years.

Cars and trains don't serve the same purpose. It's like saying a crop duster will be disrupted by a 747.

[dave8721]

I-95 through Downtown Miami is pretty bad. It seals Downtown off from the city to the west and funnels it into a long N/S ribbon. Not to mention the awful on/off ramps that were built that snake out into downtown creating more dead dark streets beneath them. 95 ends just south of Downtown anyway so its not like its a pass-through. It takes a jaunt to the near downtown as well. If that jaunt have been built equally west it would have opened up tons of more land for Downtown and Downtown Miami would be a totally different place.
I-395 on the North end of Downtown is pretty bad too but that is being reconstructed to be taller and thinner as we speak.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mi...!4d-80.6326916

[IrishIllini]

I’d love to see 90/94 through downtown Chicago capped. I’d also like to see 290 razed and a boulevard implemented.

In Detroit, the expressways circling/feeding downtown should be razed.

I90 through Cleveland isn’t going anywhere, but sucks that it’s along the lakefront.

Philly could do without 676, but it should be capped at a minimum.

[dubu]

isnt it easier to add a pedestrian crossing over freeways then capping them?

it looks nicer instead of a big area of grass or concrete for capping.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by dubu

isnt it easier to add a pedestrian crossing over freeways then capping them?

it looks nicer instead of a big area of grass or concrete for capping.

huh?

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7907...2!8i6656?hl=en

vs

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7908...4!8i8192?hl=en

[dubu]

Originally Posted by Handro

huh?

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7907...2!8i6656?hl=en

vs

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7908...4!8i8192?hl=en

portland went the pedestrian bridge way over freeways, some are meh but there are really nice ones. i think portland is building a new one, one thing i miss from there.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by dubu

portland went the pedestrian bridge way over freeways, some are meh but there are really nice ones. i think portland is building a new one, one thing i miss from there.

Sure, there can be some nice bridge designs over roadways. But I don't see how that would ever be preferable over capping done right.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

The only way to disrupt cars, imo, is to have mass transit, of which the best type is trains.

We already have mass transit and many still opt for cars. Even in cities with enviable mass transit, cars are ubiquitous. Trains haven't and will never displace cars because they serve two separate functions. A real disruptor will be a yet thought of technology or concept.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by JManc

We already have mass transit and many still opt for cars. Even in cities with enviable mass transit, cars are ubiquitous. Trains haven't and will never displace cars because they serve two separate functions. A real disruptor will be a yet thought of technology or concept.

Jet packs

[dubu]

i think of mass transit as a way for cars to work in cities. without it cars would be stuck in traffic and all that money spent on a car would just be for a enclosed slow moving couch.

about the capping and pedestrian bridges, pedestrian bridges would be pointless if there were a lot of streets going over a freeway. i was more thinking areas where a lot of people walk and bike and there arent many places to cross a freeway.

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by dave8721

I-95 through Downtown Miami is pretty bad. It seals Downtown off from the city to the west and funnels it into a long N/S ribbon. Not to mention the awful on/off ramps that were built that snake out into downtown creating more dead dark streets beneath them. 95 ends just south of Downtown anyway so its not like its a pass-through. It takes a jaunt to the near downtown as well. If that jaunt have been built equally west it would have opened up tons of more land for Downtown and Downtown Miami would be a totally different place.
I-395 on the North end of Downtown is pretty bad too but that is being reconstructed to be taller and thinner as we speak.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mi...!4d-80.6326916

Yeah, I believe I-95 has really stiffed Miami’s growth and density to only Brickell and Downtown for the past few decades. I’m sure it’s possible to work around the big gaps it creates but it’s pitiful to be honest. It would have been better if I-95 ended before reaching downtown, merged with I-75/Turnpike in the west, or went underground or in a ditch-like form, similar to I-395 in DC. Much of the city would have been intact and density levels would probably have been higher.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Think of a better way to get 1-9 people hundreds or even thousands of pounds of goods from virtually anywhere to anywhere more quickly and more efficiently.

Vehicles are a lot more important than just shuffling humans from suburb-office building.

Its amazing how so many "progressive" urbanites seem completely incapable of seeing the bigger picture outside of their urban bubble

And by amazing I mean completely expected

If you read carefully, you'll figure out that nothing I said differed from your points.

One hint: efficiency isn't just about time.

Another: broadly speaking, there's no efficient way to transport a wheel barrow 50 miles.

Cars are convenient, but also everything I said.

[jtown,man]

I love the idea of capping interstates as much as the next guy. However, this is extremely rare, for obvious reasons. The most practical route is to rebuild bridges that include a good size of extra land to include some trees etc to block out the interstate below you.

[dubu]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

I love the idea of capping interstates as much as the next guy. However, this is extremely rare, for obvious reasons. The most practical route is to rebuild bridges that include a good size of extra land to include some trees etc to block out the interstate below you.

you can cancel out the freeway by covering it with some kind of blanket that will last a long time and that is cheep. might as well do that to parking lots, it creates shade

[M II A II R II K]

Highways Give Way to Homes as Cities Rebuild

https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/...ities-rebuild/

.....

- ROCHESTER, N.Y.— On South Union Street, workers are putting the finishing touches on a new luxury apartment building. Nearby, a museum plans an expansion and new parking garage. --- Not long ago, the land where all this construction is taking place was the Inner Loop, a six-lane sunken highway surrounding downtown. In 2014, the city embarked on a plan to bury part of the highway under a mountain of dirt and build a new neighborhood on top of it. --- The result: $229 million in new investment, including 519 homes and 45,000 square feet of commercial space. Removing that section of highway has been so successful, officials say, they are now considering burying more of it.

- Removals are being considered for stretches of highway in Detroit, Tampa, Fla., Baltimore and elsewhere. They are following in the footsteps of cities such as Portland, Ore., Milwaukee and Chattanooga, Tenn., all of which have removed highways. --- The highways mostly date from the 1950s and 1960s, a time when urban planners envisioned a network of high-speed roads whisking people from suburban homes to downtown jobs. Many are part of the Interstate highway system, which was under construction in those years and today connects cities across the U.S. with nearly 47,000 miles of road. --- Revitalized city centers are drawing new residents and businesses. Some cities now see the highways as ugly concrete monoliths that divide neighborhoods and hinder efforts to create pedestrian-friendly spaces. The roads are also getting old.

- Highway teardowns could soon get some help from the federal government. In July, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee adopted a $287 billion transportation bill that creates a $120 million program to help fund highway removals. --- Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), who helped create the program, said he was motivated by Baltimore’s so-called Highway To Nowhere, a one-mile six-lane stretch originally intended to connect to Interstate 70 before it was abandoned. --- “It’s like a big gash through West Baltimore,” Mr. Van Hollen said. --- Officials considering ripping out downtown highways have had to convince residents that they won’t be stuck in endless traffic jams. Studies, including one by Mr. Garrick, have found that removing major roads didn’t noticeably worsen congestion because traffic spread across the existing street grid.

- For cities, removing highways brings with it a significant prize: The ability to reclaim acres of developable land. Milwaukee gained almost 30 acres of prime downtown real estate after it demolished the Park East Freeway in 2002 and 2003. Since then, the area has seen about $1 billion in private investment, the city estimates. “We’ve showed that when you take the highway out of the city it gets better. It’s that simple,” said Peter Park, who served as Milwaukee’s planning director at the time. --- That experience has emboldened other big cities. In Detroit, officials are considering removing Interstate 375, which paved over established black neighborhoods in the city’s core. In Tampa, planners are studying removing a stretch of Interstate 275 that cut through the historic Tampa Heights neighborhood. Beth Alden, president of the Hillsborough County planning organization, said officials were responding to requests from residents. “They’ve asked do we have to have a Great Wall of Tampa? What if there were something better there?” she said.

.....

[Steely Dan]

Milwaukee gained almost 30 acres of prime downtown real estate after it demolished the Park East Freeway in 2002 and 2003. Since then, the area has seen about $1 billion in private investment, the city estimates. “We’ve showed that when you take the highway out of the city it gets better. It’s that simple,” said Peter Park, who served as Milwaukee’s planning director at the time. ---

in milwaukee's case, the park east freeway was simply an expressway spur, not a through route, so getting rid of it and replacing it with a more traditional boulevard style street was 8 billion times easier than removing a full-blown through-route expressway that carries tens or hundreds of thousands of cars per day.

lots of cities have these over-engineered expressway spurs into their downtowns that were born out of the fever dreams of post-war traffic engineers, and i can totally see more of those types of expressway infrastructure disappearing.

as i mentioned earlier in the thread, chicago has one of these expressway spurs, the ohio street feeder ramp, that i could see going away at some point in the near-term future.

[chris08876]

Highways aren't bad, its the folks that break for no reason or do 45 in a 65 that are the problem. If we somehow can force them to take the bus or walk or ideally, they can all be sent to an island that is ran by General Zaroff. Driving school per say on General Zaroffs island. The bad drivers will be fed to the dogs, while the good drivers will sleep in his bed. Something like that. I think this has a higher probability of happening than highways leaving our car filled, traffic infested cities.

Either that or send them to Manhattan Taxi School. Say what you want about NYC taxi drivers, they move. That they do! Even amidst bottleneck traffic, they master the art of cutting people off, and getting to sites quick!