How to Remove a Highway
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- Опубликовано: 14 апр 2024
- Receive 10% off anything on bellroy.com: bit.ly/3LYgYNh
Highways are a blight on the urban landscape and are difficult to tear down. But there are some factors that can make a highway easier to tear down, and that's what this video is all about.
Resources on this topic:
Freeways Without Futures: www.cnu.org/our-projects/high...
How Highway Removal Is Changing Our Cities: www.lincolninst.edu/publicati...
The Economic Case for Removing Highways: smartgrowthamerica.org/five-c...
Rochester Inner Loop North project: www.innerloopnorth.com/about
I-81 Syracuse project: webapps.dot.ny.gov/i-81-viadu...
I-81: www.syracuse.com/news/2023/07...
I-81: www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/ny...
Buffalo Skyway: www.wivb.com/news/higgins-ken...
My favorite graph: www.sightline.org/2011/07/13/...
Claiborne Avenue Alliance: www.claiborneavenuealliance.com
Restoring Our Community Coalition Buffalo: roccbuffalo.org
Connect Oakland: www.connectoakland.org/about/v...
Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.
I'm not even contractually obligated to do this, but I really do like my Bellroy backpacks. I bought them way before I got sponsored. Here's a link for 10% off: bit.ly/3LYgYNh
Please consider doing a video on radburn New Jersey!
9:31 please consider doing a video on Olmsted greenways!
Since you mention it, I bought one of their backpacks using a discount code from a prior video of yours that they sponsored. It's great. It is the lightest weight backpack I've had, very waterproof, and looks very professional. Thanks.
@@bobsykes Cool! I've been recommending them before they sponsored this channel because I just like their stuff. Glad you liked it too.
@@CityBeautiful You should make a video on how Syracuse is doing something like this also
calling highway "endangered" make it sound like it is so important to preserve, probably need other terms for these crumbling piece of infrastructure
I propose to call them zombies
Big agree - we need words to capture that these are low use, causing harm, and and need to be removed
Maybe something like "rotting highways"? It doesn't feel quite right to me, but when you've got something rotting nearby... you generally want to get rid of it :D
Gonna brain dump some ideas in case it inspires someone else to come up with something better.
Rotting highways
Rotten highways
Decaying highways (might be my favorite)
Low-use highways
Underutilized highways
Parasitic highways
Deadbeat highways
Pointless highways
Hopeless highways
Unsalvageable highways
Unproductive highways
Junk highways
Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!
I vote for unproductive or zombie highways :D
Parasitic, Deadbeat, and Hopeless Highways have to be my favorite. You cracked me up. Lol Thank you. ❤ also your pfp is cute I said enough bye
Highways running its course
I lived in Rochester before the removal. Make no mistake, this was an easy removal because no one used that road ever. Rochester doesn’t have real “traffic” even at 5pm lol. Love the new boulevard they have now.
Yeah, this guy uses a lot of spin to push his agenda. I want to be on-board with the notion of fewer cars, but I don't trust how he spins things. It is easy to remove roads where they aren't needed but that isn't the victory he claims.
@@RecklessFables What did he "spin"? He literally explains in the video why removing the Rochester inner loop was a no-brainer.
@@RecklessFables it is easy even with busy roads as seen across Europe.
You guys just suck at Public Transport and your propgada inspired hatred of it
@@RecklessFables My guy, did you not watch the video. Just because a road isn't high on super traffic or has a lot compared to other roads doesn't mean it doesn't have a lot. And just because there is a lot doesn't mean it is overused to at full capacity. The road had a lot of vehicles but could still be torn down.
@@RecklessFables Seems like you're the one spinning things for your own agenda. He literally mentioned in the video that not many people used the highway.
We need a better phrase than "Endangered/Extinct highways". Those are words for animals worth protecting. "Candidate Highways" to "Rebuilt Highways" or "Malignant Highways" to "Excised Highways"
Why does it matter? (Genuine question)
Cringe.
@@miki77YTI don't think it matters a ton, but the verbage used does shape public opinion/ policy since the average person is not a civil engineer.
@@miki77YT The idea of engaging in all this learning about Urban Development is to actually make changes in the real world, which means you'll have to describe your goals and plans to city council members and other average people. In those contexts, the emotional reaction to a first impressions matters A TON.
The question of "Does it matter," is silly. Everything always matters to different degrees. The question is does the lift of finding better language have more value than the effort to do it? Yes. It does.
How about Urban tomurs
I’m so mad that NIMBYs here in Syracuse halted the 81 teardown for so long. So many parts of the city feel stagnant and disjointed because 81 runs right through it. The people that are complaining that removing 81 would impact their businesses didn’t seem to care when it took so many businesses and houses away from the city, but oh well
I agree at-least it’s happening finally. I drove through the 481 new on ramp construction the other day and I have to say it looks like good progress. As for Rochester the inner loop was kind of pointless to begin with especially with 390, 490 ,590 and 104 acting as a loop already. I wish there was a complete loop (not the 481 becoming 81 will be bad ) for Syracuse instead of braving 690
The thing that i most like about city beautiful is that he gives exemples of real life and talks about how to change cities to better, most channels only talk about whats good or bad
that's still not a bad thing, it's both important to know what's good and bad and what to do to change things
maybe they should talk more about the latter, but honestly just inspiring people into thinking that cities can be better is already a huge step forward, especially in the US where a good amount of people is brainwashed into thinking that car-centric infrastructure is the only viable way to live
@@junovzla yes, i just think they are so repetetive now, i have watched like 10 NotJustBikes videos about why adding lanes doesnt solve traffic, i do like him and the others alot, NotJustBikes was the one that got me into city planning, and what they say is true but ive learned almost everything he and others made content about and i think city beautiful is the only one making more difrent and new content, it probably also helps that he has professional education on it
@@goncalonunes3203The Chanel’s have very different purposes. Not just bikes focuses more on making you aware of the realistic issues of city centered design, and not exactly what to do about it.
@@goncalonunes3203 I am not denying that
I think being repetitive is not necessarily a bad thing either, if people don't understand the message with one video maybe they will with another, and if not then a third one, and so on; and there's a lot of people in the US and in the world
because of the shenanigans of the youtube algorythm too a lot of videos that more or less repeat the message "cars bad transit good" are going to keep the message relevant, since old videos tend to be recommended less
I do agree that we need more youtubers talking about what to actually do to improve the situation, and real examples of how it's been achieved
@@junovzla No, it only shows bias and deception while they are saying that they are fair and balanced. Better to show a more balanced approach and let viewers make up their mind. Unfortunately, I noted a few errors and missing info that are noted in the comments. This is starting to make Dave look one-sided.
To me, as someone who grew up in Europe it's wild that so-called "engineers" think it's a good idea to build highways through cities dividing neighborhoods. In most European countries, highways go around cities, and then they join into local roads. In my local area, in a small country in Central Europe, there's a highway (not like a US freeway) that connects three county capitals (two university cities, and many smaller, but important cities). At one section, the highway used to go through the second largest city in the neighboring county. They decided to build huge infrastructure to bypass the city, and it connects the highway to nearby smaller towns and villages. They built an impressive roundabout on a bridge. This is what highways should be like.
There's a lot that went into urban freeways but it really does boil down to the power of the auto industry lobby, racism, and the massive amounts of funding Congress authorized for the Interstate Highway System. The tide has begun to shift, but with the rise of "donut cities" in the US, it's going to be an uphill battle to get suburban commuters to be okay with tearing down the very highways that allowed their suburbia to flourish at the expense of the cities they surround.
There used to be a move for bypasses, as many towns and cities realized they wanted this. Also ring roads outside major cities. But the fashion has become to shove the traffic through downtown, as some of it is origin and destination traffic, as a well known consultant that my city hired explained to us. Then spread the traffic onto more and more city streets, such as past the local high school, middle school and two elementary schools. The latter proposals keep coming up every few years, promoted by the state. Features to protect pedestrians are rejected because they might damage cars that lose control. It seems counterproductive to me. (I participated in groups and projects aimed at improving the city for several years, too many, always the same upshot.)
@@bearcubdaycare Indianapolis is probably the best example of a city that refused to allow highways through its urban core. After I-65 and I-70 were rammed through downtown, the city put its foot down and said no to any future highways within the beltway. Even existing state and US highways were removed from the city center and routed along I-465, and the new I-69 is not going to be breaking that line. Indianapolis is also a unique example as it is consolidated with Marion County, and so the city government has control over a much wider swath of land than most American cities do.
Bencesceger, thanks for the description of the situation in your city. That’s interesting to know. I’m in Nashville, which is booming and growing rapidly and the population is just awakening to the certainty that when it comes to cars (really SUVs) the future must be different from the recent past. During peak hours, thousands of SUVs, each with one person inside, clog streets and intersections in the central city.
@@bearcubdaycare So they care more about damaging cars then pedestrians losing their life? Many European cities started implementing a maximum urban speed limit of 30 km/h (18 mph) as the chance of a pedestrian death is about 10%.
Always nice to see us getting recognized for doing something right, even if it was originally something we did wrong. The intent of the Inner Loop is noble, to relieve the traffic commute for suburbanites into the Center City neighborhood for work, but its execution and immediate effects (razing houses and cutting neighborhoods up, and creating a visual moat around the central business district) were detrimental to city development. Also love that projections graph you shared, as a MAJOR complaint that Inner Loop supporters STILL gloat about is how much traffic the IL was funneling, which studies have contradicted, but supporters persist.
One small point of correction: Union Street is not the old Inner Loop. Union ran next to the Inner Loop and never changed, though the traffic pattern did (it's two way now, was one way before). The old Inner Loop is where the apartment buildings and parks are now.
Thank you for the positive light shed on Rochester! We need all we can get.
This isn't right, it is a perfect example of what is wrong with this country. We don't have the spine to build infrastructure anymore, and we have such corrupt treasonous politicians running the show that they are tearing down good infrastructure for no reason.
As someone who is currently going to Syracuse University and studying civil engineering, I am really excited to see the I-81 Project take action. Phase 1 is going according to plan and I just cant wait to see when they finally tear down the viaduct!
Sending thousands of motor vehicles a day at 65, 70, 75+ mph onto surface streets in downtown Syracuse is a recipe for tragedy.
@@AlumniQuad Obviously you don't know much about the project. Let me fill you in a little bit. They aren't sending ALL traffic onto the streets. They are just going to be rerouting the highway onto the I-481 (a highway that goes AROUND the city) and re designating it the I-81 while turning the viaduct into a Boulevard. Maybe do a little research before commenting or opening your mouth again. Thanks ❤
@@coolboss999 Obviously you know it all. They don't have to route ALL traffic onto the streets for the traffic that they do route onto 30mph streets to be a recipe for tragedy. Thanks ❤
@@AlumniQuad Your welcome. Glad to enlighten ❤
Utopia.
Albany NY, the only other major Upstate NY city you didn’t mention is also trying to tear down its downtown highway(I-787). The Albany Riverfront Collaborative and the State DOT have received funding for studying removal!!!
Finally seeing some type of progress which I wasn’t sure we’d see anytime soon, real interesting project
However, it may end up with a buried freeway like what the Boston _Big Dig_ did. Reason: Removing Interstate 787 could create a potentially ugly situation with surface street congestion even if they widened the surface streets to accommodate more vehicle traffic, because I-87 travels far to the west of downtown Albany before connecting with I-90.
@@Sacto1654a surface-level boulevard can handle the level of traffic 787 sees without the significant costs of a buried or elevated highway, and still connect to the interstate like 787 does now, like the video’s example from San Francisco
@@Chetab01 I still think Albany *MUST* widen several surface streets and install faster lighting if they do decide to remove I-787. Otherwise, you create surface street bottlenecks that could make the traffice problem worse. At least with the I-81 plan in Syracuse, there is the space to replace it with a wider, fast-light surface street so it doesn't cause massive traffic jams through the center of Syracuse itself.
Since Albany is a pretty small city with a huge commuter base (IIRC, more people work in just the state government offices than live in Albany proper), I feel like there couldn't possibly be a better candidate for commuter rail.
The North Loop highway in Kansas City has been a candidate for removal. It's a really redundant highway that just cuts off the river market and Columbus park neighborhoods from the rest of downtown while carrying very little traffic
The great thing about this, is that it focuses on places that are shrinking, these profits can bring a new life into the area or at the very least reduce or stop the devastation that can occur when places are just left to get run down i.e. Detroit or the former industrial towns in the North East of England, Cornwall, Midlands, North West and the valley's in Wales.
It's not incredibly smart to make these areas almost impossible for trucks to get to. All the new businesses in this utopia scenario need to get their goods from somewhere, after all
@@GeorgeLiquor what you said is mind-boggling 1. This is a ring road for commuter traffic 2. They gaven't removed all roads 3. you don't need an 8 lane highway for a truck that fit in 1 lane.
@@GeorgeLiquor "not incredibly smart to make these areas almost impossible for trucks"
Good thing that isn't happening, then. Trucks can use boulevards too.
@@mindstalk so every highway that's being removed is being replaced by a boulevard? And even if that were the case, highways are much, much more truck friendly. There is no replacement for capacity. That is the reason that no drivers or companies want to go to NYC. "No NYC" is even in job postings as a selling point
@@GeorgeLiquorAbsolute insanity, imagine caring more about trucks more than the people actually living inside. Especially when a big road can carry truck traffic anyway
I-244 through Greenwood in Tulsa is another location with momentum. This section of highway was actually the main catalyst that destroyed Greenwood after rebuilding efforts following the Tulsa Race Massacre.
I can attest to I-81's impact on the Syracuse Community. I am a fifth-year B.ARCH student at SU and it is a point of contention that has influenced a lot of our studio work. Not to mention the impacts on the community can be distinctly seen when mapping the demographics and economic opportunity within the city. I'm hopeful that the Almond Street plan will materialize soon!
Kansas City really needs to get rid of I70 on the north side of downtown. It cuts off the beautiful River Market neighborhood off from downtown. I670 does the job as a sunken freeway to get people through downtown.
I live in Rochester and am so happy to see you use it as an example!
Cant wait to see more of these, please please please Indianapolis, stop making the downtown loop bigger and make it smaller, force through traffic around the city and city traffic to slow down and have more urban hangout spots for us who live here!!! I hope the US keeps going in these small but meaningful changes!!!
Indot threw away all glasses except the “one more lane bro” one. I drive in from the north and it’s endless construction and widening, all for nothing.
I came here to rant about the loop too. It's crazy to me that 69, 74, 70, and 65 all get funneled into the hell of the loop with commuters. I would do anything for a commuter bus or train I could pick up at the edge of the city
As a neighbor of yours up in South Bend, I cannot agree more with this! I hate going to indy so much because it's nothing but highways... it needs to be more like Chicago, and it can be.
The Buffalo Kensington Expressway removal is currently in a state of contention where the DOT is proposing a partial cover over it, while the ROCC and ESP Coalition are proposing full removal. The link in the description is very helpful for anyone interested in making a difference for the project
There is alot of resistance to the removal by the Canadian trucking industry. Buffalo traffic infrastructure supports alot of cross border shipping from PA and OH
Great video. Union St in Rochester looks INCREDIBLE, and I had no idea that stretch in Milwaukee used to be a highway.
Milwaukee has a good chance of tearing down 794 in downtown as well
It seems to me that highway teardowns could also potentially be good locations for BRT or light rail lines.
They're talking about removing I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul and replacing it with a boulevard and restoring the street grid.
The difference with i94 is an alternative route is needed. Studies have suggested that a boulevard (and surrounding infrastructure) isn’t enough to meet traffic demands. Meanwhile, a boulevard was enough to handle the inner loop’s traffic.
@@grantmatthews18 that not true, there is already an alternative route I-694. over half of the trips on that section of 94 are local trips and only a couple miles long. There is also train service between Saint Paul and minneapolis for people traveling longer distances. Most of the non local traffic is suburbanites who would be able to use 494 or 694 to bypass the city centers. if they need to come into the city they would still have 35w or 35e. Please check out "our streets" reimagining I94. they have lots of good information on what replacing the highway could look like.
@@grantmatthews18 Yes, I-94 can get busy during rush hour. I try to avoid it if at all possible. It's such an ugly gnash and destroyed a lot of neighborhoods.
Having been through that stretch of I-94 a number of times at varying times of day, I don't see how that's even viable. I doubt 494 and 694 can handle the increased volume of through traffic but at least one of those could become the official I-94. I shudder to think what the gridlock on a boulevard would look like. On the other hand, it might be substantially safer.
@@lostwizard I agree, even as a "bed-wetting Liberal" turning that bit of highway into a boulevard would be problematic. They're also talking about putting "land bridges" over the existing highway to restore some of the lost neighborhoods..
Thank you for the “How To.” I was planning on doing this DIY this week and needed the info
hey city beautiful, would you be interested in doing a video on how much housing the us would need to add, by region, all else being equal (available jobs, employment rate, drug use, joblessness, poverty, homeless & drug polices and services) to significantly decrease unhoused populations? how would you go about modeling this? thanks for considering.
My home is Toronto but Im actually going to University in Rochester atm. I havent lived in Rochester long but yeah I've been to Union in Rochester and its a nice place. They've also started converting the Xerox tower (tall black tower at 0:24) into apartments (mostly aimed at uni students iirc). Unfortunately the core downtown still has a long ways to go to become truly liveable. When I was living in the Xerox tower the nearest grocery store was like a 30 minute walk away, since everything else around there is basically just office towers still.
In Toronto we still have the mistake that is the Gardiner, and while a tiny portion of it was removed most of the elevated part through downtown Toronto still exists. It used to be under city jurisdiction and took up half!!! of the total maintenance costs of all roads in the entire city all by itself. The structure itself is basically falling apart, walking under it is super sketchy since you can see exposed rebar everywhere and chunks of concrete just fall off the structure occasionally. Some Toronto councilors wanted to remove it, but instead what ended up happening is that the responsibility for it got uploaded to the Provincial government, who are super conservative and not the most intelligent bunch so unfortunately its probably gonna be sticking around.
(a small part of me is kind of hoping it just collapses on its own due to how poor of a state its in, which would mean they're just forced to demolish the rest of it due to safety concerns)
If feels to me that the Gardiner teardown will happen sooner rather than later. Maybe once the GO starts running more frequently to the north.
@@kevwwong No. It's funded by the province now. Largely because the position of "Toronto has to pay for this highway, and can't put tolls on it" was untenable, and every provincial government of the 30 years relies on the suburban vote. So it will remain. Also: it's not possible to argue it's underused or Toronto hasn't seen projected growth.
Hope you’re enjoying U of R! Those two cities, Rochester and Toronto, have lots of room for improvement 👍
Yea then we have the Gaming Lounge which i love anyways.....
Did you know we have a abandoned subway in the bride that has the 4 arches and the many window arches..... (broad street bridge)
*In Toronto we still have the mistake that is the Gardiner, and while a tiny portion of it was removed most of the elevated part through downtown Toronto still exists. It used to be under city jurisdiction and took up half!!! of the total maintenance costs of all roads in the entire city all by itself.*
This is why I'm in favor of tearing down the old Gardiner and replace it with a brand new one built with modern materials and design so that it can last for many decades rather than trying to repair the existing one.
Yay! I was hoping you would do a video on the removing of the inner loop! More city projects in Rochester coming!
The Southeast/Southwest Freeway in DC is a bit of a Catch-22 here. With the move to more remote work, a case can be made, but that stretch of road is busy every rush hour and some weekends. A portion of it, the old 11th Street bridge, is being converted into a park. Scrapping the whole thing, which would be great to reconnect a lot of neighborhoods, would be murder for traffic that is starting to come back on the upswing with more DC government workers coming back to the office full-time.
Great video as always
Being from Rochester this is 100% true, so much more presentable
Great video! I moved to Rochester in 2014, a few years before the removal of the SE section of the Inner Loop. I can attest that the highway, frontage roads, and abutting parking lots were a bleak urban moonscape. The new Union Street isn't perfect, but it's better in every way than what was there before.
I'm curious if you've looked at the infamous "Highway to Nowhere", route 40 in West Baltimore. Several city and state advocates have supported filling it in to reconnect the neighborhoods on the north and south side of it. In that way it reminded me the example you showed of Rochester. My question is, to what extent is "reconnecting" a community a valid argument if there are regular bridges across the road. If one looks at Rt 40 there are bridges every 400 ft that mean the regular street grid is entirely undisturbed for about 1 mile of its length. Especially given plans for the Red Line, instead of filling in the highway wouldn't it be better to use its trench for the train line, keep one road there converted to a bidirectional 1 lane road from a unidirectional 3 lane road, and then leave the remainder as parkland or buildings either at trench or surface level?
While a lot of highway removal efforts are well-meant, I think sometimes "removing the highway" is seen as the end-all-be-all instead of one of many potential steps. Similarly in DC, the SE Freeway (I-695 and I-395) doesn't really form a division since there are 16 streets crossing underneath it along its 2 mile stretch from Maine Ave to Water St. Meanwhile that link from east of the Anacostia to NoVa is absolutely vital and used my hundreds of thousands per day. A point could be made that Southeast Blvd (which carries little traffic and has already been downgraded) should be made into regular roads to connect the area between L and M St though the train tracks complicate that. Conversely, 295 in SE absolutely splits communities from the Waterfront and needs lots of more bridges across it.
Lastly, Whitehurst Freeway in DC is always cast as a target for teardown for being an eyesore, but from a practical standpoint it provides really welcome shade whenever I bike underneath it, along one of the major bike trails into DC from Maryland. It's elevated, so again it doesn't disrupt the community and there's a park along the waterfront.
I'm glad you brought up the economic incentive part of things because I do believe that highway capping or removal to build something useful there is great. But I think the reasons, incentives, costs, and usage (local vs regional) should all be weighed.
Rochester is a town that saw the reality of what losing Kodak and Xerox was going to do, that actually did something about it.
First time I went there was 2007 and it was a fucking mess. Didn’t help I went in February.
But, over the last decade, it has really put that work in, and Rochester deserves all the credit.
It is a very unique town and the way locals pronounce the names of the other towns around Rochester is a dead giveaway about that.
Plus, it’s got an awesome music history. Metallica recorded Kill ‘Em All in Rochester, and the House Of Guitars is really awesome.
But, Rochester is a night/day place between Winter and Summer.
I cannot stress this enough: Visit in Summer first.
Smiled as soon as I saw the thumbnail. Thank you for covering Rochester! Excellent video as usual, Dave. So proud to have my city be a prime example for a step in the direction for urbanism.
I-375 in Detroit is also in motion to be removed.
Awesome video! Growing up in Rochester it was great to see the development of union, hoping the rest of the teardown happens. Maybe one day our downtown will have a future
Akron OH abandoned a small portion of its downtown "innerbelt" but has not yet redeveloped the area.
In Cleveland the Shoreway which is a highway separating downtown from Lake Erie has been suggested to be rebuilt as a boulevard to better connect the city with its lakefront.
Would love your thoughts on Philadelphia’s efforts to cover I 95 and improve access to the river as well as efforts to stitch our bifurcated Chinatown by covering more of 676
I live close to Trenton and always thought it has everything going for it to be a nice city if someone just put a little work in.
Growing up outside of Rochester in the 2000s, it's nice to finally hear some good press about the city. A couple years ago I had learned that it was somewhat infamous for just how poor the planning was for the car based infrastructure.
I'm glad they added some biking infrastructure when they removed the loop, as it originally replaced the city's subway system. I'm far too young to have ever seen it, but it makes me wonder if the city could have been a much nicer place in present day if the inner loop was never built.
Please share any updates you have on highway removal efforts in the comments! I want to hear more!
Please consider doing a video on radburn New Jersey!
9:31 please consider doing a video on Olmsted greenways!
Our Streets Minneapolis has been advocating for freeway removal in with the Twin Cities Boulevard project, they've been slowly moving the needle towards removal and there is some support from local politicians
Rethink 794 in Milwaukee is another effort following in the footsteps of the Park East freeway removal 20 years earlier
@@kcazllerraf It's probably just extreme local bias, but I was surprised he didn't mention the MSP 94 removal project, it feels like it's always being talked about. At a minimum it's good that MNDOT seems pretty unlikely to go with the expansion proposals they brough forth before as basically everyone across the board hated them. lol.
Nice shoutout to my hometown Rochester NY! I can confirm the second phase of the inner loop fill-in is under consideration if not in the works: That part of the highway hasn't been resurfaced in YEARS and it's bad. A highway that cuts across and distributes commuters to most of where they would want to go, 490, really does make the inner loop more or less useless.
4:56 the Embarcadero Freeway was removed via rapid unscheduled disassembly aka the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 :).
Minneapolis has 2 highway projects with options to remove them. Part of I94 connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul (they're also throwing around giving it a landbridge instead) and Olson Memorial Highway(very old and no longer really used). Olson Memorial is still taking comments. Both are along tram lines.
I think Olson will changed as only one option keeps it as big as it is, but i94 is getting a lot of push back. Locals want it gone but the city seems bent on keeping it.
That raised I-81 section in downtown is the only part of the city of Syracuse that has any traffic on it at Rush Hour. The city has a beltway you can speed at in both directions at 5pm on a Wednesday
I'd be interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the Kensington Expressway in Buffalo. The State DOT wants to put a cap over it, essentially turning a portion into a tunnel. The community group mentioned is fighting this, arguing to remove it altogether. Problem is, it's the main route into the city for all the suburban commuters, and sees a huge amount of volume. I understand the view of "well I guess the suburban dwellers will just have to tough it out.", but the reality is, without their support, and with the opposition of the community, what is likely to occur is absolutely nothing, maintaining the status quo.
You forgot to mention that other types of uses for these highways could be to put public transit lines in such as light rail and other lanes? I would love it if people could ride public transit north, south, east, and west across the country solely on public transit. If this was implemented it would make access across the country a reality.
North Loop Neighbors is reimagining the northern portion of the downtown loop in Kansas City
I-81 is CRITICAL
I Drove That highway often from Binghamton to Syracuse
Traffic volumes are an interesting topic: From examples I've seen, cities in Europe accept way higher volumes before they build additional lanes than in the US and Canada. Anything below 20.000 (!) vehicles here in Germany starts a discussion, if we can go down to just one lane per direction (+left turn lane).
The fact that Lake Shore Drive in Chicago isn't on the chopping block makes me sad.
I would love a video that mentions the Quad Cities! I think it's a very unique area that's worth knowing about
Having lived by that Milwaukee example for college, the area is VERY walkable, and that highway removal helped a lot.
I live in Trenton, I had no idea the state started talks (this past year no less) of removing parts of 29, fascinating. It makes sense as the only real traffic it sees is state workers coming into the area from the surrounding (wealthier) suburbs or even the state line in/out of Pensy, since Trenton has no other major industry or infrastructure to support itself rn.
I remember the campaign to remove I-64 in Louisville. That stretch of interstate overshadows the main waterfront Park on the Ohio River. A new East end bridge was already a given, which would have taken on most of the East-West traffic north of the city anyway. Instead Louisville is stuck with an ugly waterfront and struggling downtown. The southern Indiana towns on the other side of the river are taking advantage with booming parks and small businesses. Guess which side of the river I live on 😜
There are plans to convert the Bonaventure Expressway in Montreal from an elevated highway to a boulevard, and I'm excited to see how it goes!
The highway to nowhere (US 40) and the downtown stretch of I-83 in Baltimore need to go 🙋♀
Speaking of the Skyway in Buffalo, a few years ago, it underwent expensive repairs that lasted quite awhile at the main junction downtown. A few months AFTER the repairs completed, a $400,000 prize was awarded to someone who proposed tearing down most of it, but keeping a section of the waterfront portion near the hockey arena. They proposed turning that part into an observation deck without any form of extra fall protection. I guess people have forgotten how people have died from being blown off the skyway in high winds!
I’m here but didn’t know about Connect Oakland!! Will check them out.
"A gift for you or for yourself" My favorite kind of gift!
I wonder how this applies to tolled highways, like the tollway in Austin that residents kept voting down, but got built anyway and is not that heavily used. Seems like public-private grifts could be a tougher battle.
Also, I liked the juxtaposition of the images of Ronald Reagan Highway and Ronald Reagan Part 2 Subprime Bugaloo Highway.
I live in New Haven where route 34 has been cut back a couple blocks - it has opened up a few parcels for development and new buildings and much better streetscapes are going in! However, in removing the lowered expressway, they just widened the surface frontage roads, probably because of traffic projections. The intersection rendering from the video is 10 lanes across, so wide that pedestrians have to cross in 2 phases while highway traffic whizzes by. The end result is still a net positive for the city, but leaves much room for improvement
Great, but the solutions offered seem to increase car/pedestrian interactions. Still need this to be a focus of solutions in this area.
Yes, they need to not just tear down these highways, but also reduce and calm the car traffic (through many fewer lanes, narrower lanes, lots of trees, raised crosswalks, and more space for buses, bikes and pedestrians). Hopefully this would lead a lot of the existing car demand to shift to walking, cycling and public transport, or just end (the opposite of induced demand).
There is a lot of debate about the proposed I375 removal in Detroit in this regard and replacing it with a multilane surface boulevard.
shoutout from the syracuse struggle! thanks so much for delving into it. the local politics get really muddy here with a corrupt city council and tax assessment board, parasitic entities like the universities and Upstate medical (who tried to usurp land under 81 which is currently public housing), and Ben Walsh’s greater plans for the area like the invasive microchip industry. but the orgs here are full of dedicated activists, and I’ll definitely be urging my organized friends to intensely promote the finishing of this teardown!
We should remove at least 50-75% of urban highways in the US. A few of them are okay, but in general they're awful for cities.
Agreed. On a bit of a tangent, I think urbanists should push for Cincinnati to swap I75's alignment with the railyard. it's a very underrealized opportunity in America that could resurrect a city that's declined a lot in the last 80 years.
Other than the up-front cost, the project could be very uncontroversial, and have many upsides for walkability. Even as I75 would keep its downtown connection for cars (utilizing the 6th street spur), a considerable swath of land would be opened up for a new rail corridor/central train station, as well as park space, and dense, mixed-use development.
Cincinnati's one of the most practical places in America to be a major passenger rail hub. The city is within 400 miles of 10 metropolitan areas with over a million residents, including... Chicago, Columbus, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, and Detroit. While the old station is palatial, it isn't located in a walkable area, and a new modern central station within walking distance of the stadium and downtown would bring a lot more ridership, and would be suitable for car-free commuters and tourists alike.
Knoxville, TN has James White Parkway. A boondoggle that displaced POC and severed their remaining neighborhoods from downtown. The highway itself was so woefully overbuilt that it is difficult to do anything with it today, even as the usage is tiny. Luckily the city recently won a federal grant to renovate part of the James White Parkway with Ped/bicycle access. Connecting existing greenways and green spaces to historically black neighborhoods and to downtown itself.
5:17 - nice shot of Portland with the new county courthouse front and center.
Telegraph Ave in Berkeley & Oakland are on multinodal but all that means is that the community still doesn't have light rail. I was hoping you would look at the economic history of 580 / now Nelson Mandela Parkway & make comparison to other such areas. The KC hw approach that was a WW1(?) memorial natural space... We have one in Berkeley for the first war, Olmstead act, it was the Oak Grove, the world's longest urban treesit of 649 days to preserve wild life. I'm really glad you mentioned activism. ❤
Great video.
Wish this came out before the Big Dig. Boston just replaced the highway with a highway with lights.
A note on the graph of the SR 520 usage at 3:22: the reason the actual use is way below projections is because the bridge is tolled to pay off the construction costs. Drivers around here are notorious for not wanting to pay tolls if they can avoid it, thinking all roads should be free (they are heavily subsidized and we pay indirectly anyway). As it is a bridge across Lake Washington, most people that are going between Seattle and Bellevue/Eastside just take the longer routes either north via I 405/SR 522 or south via I 90.
This, 520 was a bad example.
Yeah, I was going to say something similar. Also, there was the introduction of Microsoft's Connector bus network which took a bunch of vehicles off SR 520 all at once. There's no way a projection could have taken either change into account, so it's a little disingenuous (in my mind) to point to that as an example of traffic projections not coming to fruition. The demand for cross-Lake Washington traffic is still alive and well (and probably growing).
2:53 Trenton is in Mercer County, NJ not Delaware County.
The renovation I'm looking for but haven't seen yet is transforming a highway or wide stroad into twinned streets with buildings in between them. A 100+' wide boulevard is hostile to pedestrians and other road users regardless of whether you run transit in the middle. Consider the ramifications of splitting the carriageway into two separate roads.
Connecticut mentioned 😎🔥🔥
So rather interestingly enough i DID drive down that street in rochester. Went to the technology museum down the street too, cool place!
My local city in England removed the 1960s central ring road. This led to an expansion of the CBD into areas outside the original noose like road, including cultural and academic sites, housing, and commercial properties. It was not all positive, but on balance, the effects have benefitted the city.
Birmingham Alabama made a good plan to tear down its elevated portion of I 20/59, which divides the Civic Center and North BHM from the CBD. It failed and they rebuilt the crap as scrappy as before. Maybe you could look at a few of those that failed like BHM and talk about why so that these cities may avoid those pitfalls
Any chance of adding more trees?
Another one in the works that wasn't mentioned is the removal of half of Rt 79 through Fall River MA. it's a decent chunk of waterfront property, a good 6 city blocks. the highway is already gone and their putting in the new surface streets now.
Minnesota is considering something similar for the I-94 that runs between downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul. I largely like the idea but i think there is too much traffic there still and redirecting it won't be as easy as some you described in this video.
But there is about a mile near downtown Minneapolis that is nearly stopped every day from 3~6. I drive uber and always try to avoid that area because that 1 mile takes 10+ minutes.
Highways! Don't! Fix! Traffic!
Meanwhile my city's inner loop was already outdated (too small) when it was built and is now a traffic nightmare 20hrs a day to the point where it's often faster to drive out of the city, use the outer loop highway and then drive back into the city on the other side, adding about 15 miles to the journey.
BUT they built a tunnel 20 years ago and put houses and a park on top of it. So at least that's something
One highway San Diego doesn't need is the two miles of CA 163 between University Avenue and The 5 Freeway. It goes directly through one of the leading city parks in the U.S., Balboa Park, home of the San Diego Zoo, and it uses an arroyo that historically had no road at all through it. It only serves as a shortcut from the suburbs to downtown, and The 5 and 15 freeways do that already.
I am very curious about the west Oakland project. That whole area is crucial for connecting San Francisco and the east bay and needs to accommodate large amounts of traffic. Would love to see what redesigns they have in mind!
CA 15 from CA 94 to the 5 Freeway is another highway to remove, which would help restore one of the most struggling neighborhoods in San Diego. Traffic headed for the 5 can use the 805 instead. There are only two access points of any kind on the 15 between the 94 and 5.
So... one city on the 2008 list you didn't mention was Toronto, and the Gardiner. I invite you to come to Toronto, where growth is rampant... transit use is huge... and I'd welcome hearing what you'd prescribe to be done with the Gardiner, which is the same age as the infrastructure you review here.
From what I could find, about 65% of Toronto residents still drive as part of their daily commute. That is better than the rest of Canada but falls far behind many other advanced countries. There is plenty of room to increase non-car forms of commuting before saying that an expressway must continue to exist or even to expand.
3:29 the prediction didn't ever change lol, just the starting point. Same slope on all those lines
Strange this popped up after I spent earlier today reading all about Rochesters East Belt removal. Shout-out to the Strong Museum of play for cooperating.
I'm glad to see you guys slowly untangle yourselves from the car infested mess that is those huge ugly highways and move more towards roads and boulevards we have in Europe instead! It'll take a while before there will also be things included like specific tram- and bus lanes, but you'll get there eventually I'm sure.
But, since I'm from Europe, I noticed these are mainly happening in the so called 'blue' states where Democrats are in power. I also noticed it's mainly 'red' states like Arizona and Texas that suffer the worst with these _huge_ 6 to 8 lane highways, so I'm curious - are there any projects regarding the tearing down of highways happening in these places? It would be a positive sign for infrastructure in general were that the case.
Thanks for the word of optimism.
I think Buffalo Skyway's piers would be a really cool park feature. Remove the deck and preserve them just like that, and landscape around them.
Will you please do a video about burring railways in the city center. Reno and Denver have done this and there is a plan in Salt Lake City called the Rio Grande Plan that has made a very compelling argument to dig a trench and burry the rail corridor and open up about 70 acres of land for development. It would also restore the historic train depot to allow for it to actually be used for its purpose again.
You confused me with "burring railways!" 🤨
The Gardiner in Toronto is an un-expandable, unfixable mess of a highway that absolutely needs to be done away with. It costs so much to maintain it and it never gets better. Lakeshore Blvd., which runs underneath it can be upgraded and realigned into a much more efficient roadway on our waterfront.
I know alot of people seem to really hate the Gardiner, but it is a vital highway that allows people to get to downtown from the suburbs and also for people to get from east to west and vise versa. Removing it would make traffic in the core even worse rather than better.
For me though I'd tear down the existing Gardiner because its old and build a brand new one in its place with modern designs and materials. Not one deck, but THREE DECKS high. The first deck would be the same as now and serve people who want to go to and from downtown from various streets. The second deck would be a true expressway that completely bypasses downtown so that people who want to go east-west and not downtown can do so more easily and would greatly help traffic flow.
The third deck at the top could be modeled to be similar to New York's High Line park where people and cyclists could relax, exercise and enjoy the views of the city from an elevated deck and it would immediately become a huge tourist attraction.
I know such a project could never be done because our city and government have little imagination and ambition to do so, but I think it would ease some traffic problems while creating a new park for everyone to enjoy.
Building massive, noisy, polluting car-only highways directly through neighborhoods, thus forcing us to be dependent on said noisy, pollutive car-only highways and destroying the neighborhoods in the process is stagnating city population growth????? Whoduhthunk! Tear them out, put in (good, safe, reliable) public transit & safer smaller roads, and rebuild our community and neighborhoods. Highways can of course be kept for cross-country trucking and car travel but they're so painful when slapped into cities. Love hearing about this progress.
Ottawa has a few downtown streets that aren't true highways, but are wide enough, with long enough light cycles that they feel only marginally more pleasant to cross... hopefully they'll be easier to fix, but there doesn't seem to be much effort going into it.
As of now, most DOT’s best interest are road widening and highways. Refer to that oft referenced Upton Sinclair quote
Thanks for this tutorial I successfully removed a highway in my city.
build over roads. Cars can move under while buildings, parks or walking/biking space above ...first snd second floors on the side can be made to adapt to the change, third and fourth floor would be the new first and second floor. This can be done in cities who need the space without effecting transportation (ouside of construction time)
So happy Long Island NY was shown in the video we need change
Adding another one to the list, Autoroute Ville-Marie in Montreal, which slices through the full length of downtown! Admittedly some sections are buried and built over, but most of them aren't, cutting off Westmount from the Sud-Ouest and the Quartier chinois from the Vieux Montréal, for example. We should just get rid of it honestly, public transit is great in those areas anyway.
5:27 an important aspect to note with this, however, is that the harbor drive demolition was only approved after the interstate 5 was constructed along the waterfront on the east side. this fact shouldn't be left out as it's a large factor that helped the harbor drive removal happen
787 in Albany, NY should be on this list. Never liked how it cut off downtown from the waterfront.
Nice video
They're building a NEW freeway in Spokane where I live. ☹️