These are the most hated highways in America by Danielle Muoio on Nov 1, 2017, 11:43 AM Advertisement
 - Congress for New Urbanism, an urban planning nonprofit, put together a list of highways in America that are causing blight on surrounding neighborhoods.
- The list highlights how mid-20th-century urban planning is starting to fall out of favor.
- Some cities are planning to remove the highways that made the Congress for New Urbanism list.
Cities and states are starting to re-think sprawling highway projects built during the fervor of 20th-century urban development.
As cars were mass produced and made widely available through financing, massive highway systems were constructed to support their ascendance. Automakers played a key role in this development: The American Highway Users Alliance, which GM founded in 1932, lobbied for tax breaks that would lead to sustained highway funding over time. Just two decades later, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Interstate Highway Act, which allocated $25 billion over 10 years toward 41,000 miles of interstate highways. All of this is to say there's a story behind America's interlocking highway system and not all of it is rosy. Highways were regularly constructed at the expense of neighborhoods, often ferrying white surbanites through minority neighborhoods. Some of these freeways developed into "border vacuums," a term coined by urban activist Jane Jacobs that refers to the role infrastructure can play in depriving growth in the surrounding area. Local governments have only recently started to evaluate what tearing down these aging highways could do for neighborhoods that were hardly considered during their construction. Congress for New Urbanism, an urban planning nonprofit, put together a list dubbed "Freeways Without Futures," as spotted by the New York Times. The list shows which highway teardown projects have the biggest potential to "remove blight" from neighborhoods. Some highways the list are already serious contenders for removal projects — scroll down for a closer look: SEE ALSO: A hated, mile-long highway shows an overlooked problem with America's infrastructure — but it could soon come crumbling down FOLLOW US: on Facebook for more car and transportation content! BUFFALO, NEW YORK: Scajaquada Expressway  Constructed by urban planner Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1960s, the Scajaquada Expressway runs along Route 198 in Buffalo, New York. It's a 3.6-mile, four-lane highway that cuts right through Delaware Park and is cited as a source of pollution, noise, and dangerous traffic. The city of Buffalo and New York Department of Transportation has explored ways to redesign the highway since 2005. Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2016 set aside $30 million to convert the Scajaquada into a low-speed boulevard.
DALLAS, TEXAS: Interstate 345  Constructed in 1964, I-345 is a 1.4-mile elevated freeway that cuts through downtown Dallas and Deep Ellum, a historic jazz neighborhood — depriving growth in the immediate surrounding areas. The Congress for the New Urbanism notes that the resurgence of downtown Dallas in the early 2000s has pushed the state government to reconsider I-345's purpose. A New Dallas, a nonprofit, successfully pushed the Texas Department of Transportation to conduct a feasibility study that will look into tearing down the interstate.
DENVER, COLORADO: Interstate 70  Built in the 1960s, Interstate 70 cuts through three historic minority neighborhoods in Denver: Elyria, Swansea, and Globeville. The highway is said to have deprived growth and contributed to rising pollution rates in those three areas. The Colorado Department of Transportation is planning to spend $1.2 billion on expanding the highway an additional four lanes. Community groups like Unite North Metro Denver have called for the freeway to be transformed into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard.
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