Highway Removal

"The public is way ahead of the elected officials, and it's way ahead of the transportation officials in [talking about] the kind of future they want to see."

The post Study: Two-Thirds of Americans Know Highway Expansions Don’t Cure Traffic appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

A new program will help smaller communities start the process of redesigning highways and other transportation investments that tore apart their communities — and shine a light on why it’s so hard for them to do it without outside help

The post Why Small Cities Torn Apart By Highways Need Extra Help to Heal appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

The post Why Small Cities Torn Apart By Highways Need Extra Help to Heal appeared first on Streetsblog California.

America is at a watershed moment in the fight to heal the harms of urban freeways that tore apart predominantly BIPOC and low-income communities, a new report argues — but what that healing will look like, exactly, is still an open question. 

What’s the pathway to ensure the groups on the frontlines of the freeway fighting movement successfully cross the finish line, and don’t have to wait years or decades to do so? Transportation for America and America Walks recently surveyed organizations fighting freeways all across the country to get a better sense of what they need to win, and the results are both inspiring and daunting.

Before the freeway building age, West Oakland was actually the gateway for the entire Bay Area to the rest of the world.

SF agencies opened a newly re-aligned freeway ramp yesterday that lands on Fremont at Folsom Street. The ramp fix came in at a cost of $5,274,000, nearly twice the original estimate of $2,883,900.

There is an urgent triumvirate of crises looming over San Franciscans. With median rents now exceeding $4,200, hyper-gentrification is tearing lives apart. Except for those surviving on rent control, the city is no longer welcoming to teachers, artists, and the entire middle class. Things are looking difficult in the East Bay, as speculators and realtors spread their tentacles of greed around every BART station.

Balboa Park Station could become a safer transit hub by 2020 if the city moves forward with proposals to close one freeway ramp and re-align another, as recommended in a study recently completed by the SF County Transportation Authority. Although the proposal hasn't received much public attention, it's sure to face a tough political fight when it's eventually implemented, said D11 Supervisor John Avalos, who chairs the SFCTA. Avalos said the project is worth implementing, and he's eager to champion the plans as soon as they can move forward.