The report measures the growing influence of public resistance during the Interstate-building era. The closer to city centers highways were planned, and the later they were built, the less they resembled the routes mapped out in the Yellow Book. Those in the suburbs were more likely to be built according to the original plan. And while freeways constructed between 1955 to 1957 most resembled initial plans, by 1993, the correlation between planned and built highways fell from 0.95 to 0.86, falling especially low among routes in neighborhoods near city centers.
The paper also puts the success of the freeway revolts into perspective. Despite celebrated wins like the unbuilt Lower Manhattan Expressway, the Interstate system was still constructed mostly according to plan, says Lin. The revolts did help usher in federal policy changes that prioritized local input, historical preservation, and the environment. But in most cities, highways came anyway. And when they did, they disproportionately affected those living in communities of color and neighborhoods with lower education attainment: By the mid-1960s, white neighborhoods with more affluent, better educated residents had more success putting new policies to use and keeping highways at bay. [...]
But as the report details, that benefit was enjoyed mostly by those who lived outside the city, helping to spur further suburbanization. Inside cities, commuting benefits were eclipsed by the negative effects on the quality of life for those who lived near freeways.[...]
This grim history isn’t news to the current generation of highway resistors: From Portland to D.C., planners and local electeds continue to pursue Interstate expansions, often in the name of “traffic relief.” Even as cities like San Francisco and Seattle successfully remove urban freeways, others construct new ones. Every year, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group calls out these “highway boondoggles;” this year’s nine worst offenders are set to cost taxpayers $25 billion dollars. Lin hopes that their working paper will give the planners and promoters of these roads pause. “Our goal was be more precise about the cost of highways and to quantify how bad these quality of life effects are,” he says.
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