Highways Destroyed Our Cities. Lets Tear Them Down

highways and urban freeways ruin our city centers. they cause traffic, take up valuable space, and cause heavy air and noise pollution. they also have a racist and destructive history of destroying black neighborhoods. the solution is to provide better alternatives such as walking, cycling, and public transit.
➜ References & Further Reading:
Highways gutted American cities. So why did they build them?
www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917...
Case Study: Cheonggyecheon; Seoul, Korea
globaldesigningcities.org/pub...
Seoul tears down an urban highway and the city can breathe again
grist.org/infrastructure/2011...
Remove It And They Will Disappear: New Evidence Why Building New Roads Isn't Always the Answer
rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12930
A Lesson on Induced Demand | Why Your Public Transit Matters
• A Lesson on Induced De...
Braess Paradox | Deleting Roads May Improve Traffic Flow
• Braess Paradox | Delet...
What happens to traffic when you tear down a freeway?
• What happens to traffi...
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t
cityobservatory.org/reducing-...
The Impacts of Road Capacity Removal
opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/vie...
Why Helsinki is Tearing Up Its Freeways
• Why Helsinki is Tearin...
Segregation By Design
www.segregationbydesign.com/
Chapter 1 of the Seattle Squeeze: People drove less, took transit, and biked more
durkan.seattle.gov/2019/03/wh...
➜ Follow Me:
TikTok: / flurfdesign
➜ Timestamps:
0:00 The Cheonggyecheon Freeway
1:42 Intro
1:53 The devious auto industry
3:00 Highways destroyed American cities
3:43 Highways are racist
4:00 Why traffic exists
5:52 How to ACTUALLY fix traffic
7:24 Toronto is stupid
8:34 Electric cars are not the solution
-flurf
#highways #urbanplanning #urbandesign

Пікірлер: 107

  • @tehangrybird345
    @tehangrybird3458 ай бұрын

    I’m a massive car guy, and I hate car dependent infrastructure. When you are forced to drive everyday and sit in traffic, it ruins the fun of the hobby. I want to be driving my dream car, not letting it idle on a 20 lane freeway. And having no other option than to drive makes cars way more expensive. Also, I like to walk and bike, so I like having the opportunity to do that with walkable neighborhoods. I’m also as big of a railfan as I am a car guy so I love taking the train. To make matters worse, tons of race tracks are being closed down because of suburbanites expanding there neighborhoods into those areas and complaining about noise. Ironically, cars are the reason race tracks are shutting down. I wish we had more cities that encouraged walking, biking, and reliable public transit, so I can use those methods, then enjoy cool cars in my free time without worrying about massive freeways and stroads.

  • @SuperFlashDriver

    @SuperFlashDriver

    2 ай бұрын

    Yes exactly. Personally, while I don't mind vehicles on the road (because I always have music playing whenever I have some that doesn't use the radio but rather as an MP3 iTunes Player), I personally would rather use a bike because it gives me more awareness of my surroundings compared to a car that, even with all of its features and gadgets, you're still going to crash into somebody when you're not looking, or worse, hearing. If you aren't able to hear or see what's coming, then you're screwed.

  • @SeargentCookies

    @SeargentCookies

    25 күн бұрын

    facts

  • @thebigphilbowski
    @thebigphilbowski11 ай бұрын

    Segregation by Design is a great page. It is super depressing about what was done to our cities.

  • @micosstar

    @micosstar

    8 ай бұрын

    facts (came from youtube video sidebar recommend)

  • @JonLopezOfficial

    @JonLopezOfficial

    6 ай бұрын

    Thank ya!! Wild how it was literally segregated!!

  • @edwardmiessner6502
    @edwardmiessner65027 ай бұрын

    The biggest mistakes Congress did in 1956 was not passing an interstate railway act and authorized plowing freeways THROUGH cities - Eisenhower wanted the freeways to go around. Why did he sign it? Election year.

  • @tay-lore
    @tay-lore10 ай бұрын

    I think most importantly we need to change legislation. Nothing can improve while "dense" urban centers still have minimum parking requirements codified into law

  • @Velopod

    @Velopod

    8 ай бұрын

    So glad Austin just did away with minimum parking requirements

  • @tay-lore

    @tay-lore

    8 ай бұрын

    @@Velopod that's huge progress!!

  • @railroadforest30

    @railroadforest30

    5 ай бұрын

    Exactly

  • @pacerdanny
    @pacerdanny11 ай бұрын

    Well stated. The economic case for removing urban highways seems to be pretty strong. I suspect that the economic case for urban highways as an urban land use, if it weren't already baked into our assumptions about how cities work, would be a non-starter.

  • @jasonriddell

    @jasonriddell

    8 ай бұрын

    I think the "big issue" is removal without replacement WILL HARM cities that these hiways deliver car to the centre VS a "bypass" through the middle and my understanding is MOST of the Gartner delivers cars to t GTA so "loosing" those trips as loosing those JOBS and RETAIL ETC due to single family home suburbs and the "drive till you qualify" requirements of places like Toronto / Vancouver

  • @VegitoBlue202

    @VegitoBlue202

    7 ай бұрын

    ​@jasonriddell this is what Asian and European cities succeed in, they use beltways instead of cutting right through the city Hell cities like Jacksonville and Dallas should just tear down the urban highways and force people to use the beltway

  • @VegitoBlue202

    @VegitoBlue202

    7 ай бұрын

    ​@@jasonriddellas well as expand public transit

  • @claraazevedo1826
    @claraazevedo18266 ай бұрын

    youre so real for this, im 27 and i havent got a drivers license yet. i think public transportation is better and more practical and unless i have children in the future i dont see myself getting a car anytime soon

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    Good for you. I live 18 miles from the nearest town of 2,500 people. Am I allowed to drive my car pretty please? Actually I don’t need your permission, I’ve got horses, so you can ban cars and tear down all the roads if you want😉

  • @StefanDrake
    @StefanDrake7 ай бұрын

    Bucharest the capital city of Romania has the same problem and the people in charge make the same mistake "there's not enough road, lets build some more road" eventho we have some streets with 3-4 lanes per direction and the sidewalks are basically parking lots...

  • @commentor3485
    @commentor34857 ай бұрын

    6:17 a key point your really glossed over. To remove urban interstates, the alternative needs to exist first. Not alternatives, the worse the public outcry will be

  • @RyokoVT
    @RyokoVT11 ай бұрын

    Every time there's road construction in my city, IE every year, they spend months and months digging up everything and then just replacing it all exactly how it was. This makes zero sense to me. Why we can't do bus lanes, or build a tram line, or anything actually useful is beyond me.

  • @qjtvaddict

    @qjtvaddict

    8 ай бұрын

    Elevated metro sounds wonderful

  • @jasonriddell

    @jasonriddell

    8 ай бұрын

    @@qjtvaddictskytrain IS wonderful

  • @laurie7689
    @laurie76898 ай бұрын

    That is the difference between building a highway through an already developed area and a place like my city, which didn't exist until AFTER the highway was built. My small city has an interstate and a highway that pass through, however the interstate was built much later than the highway and on land that wasn't already occupied. The interstate access ramp was only put in within the last 40 years and that area is only just now beginning to grow. Beforehand, the area was just unproductive forestry that the city owned - a wasteland for tax collection. For that matter, the highway that runs through the city also was built before the city even existed. The town that became my city was built as a result of the highway. The city was mostly built in the 1950's. The highway brought people into this area of my State that was little occupied. The people that came built a town on land on both sides of the highway, so the result is a highway that runs through the town. The town eventually grew to become a city BECAUSE of the highway. It owes its existence to the highway. It is the primary road that runs from one end of the city to the other. In the oldest part of the city, it is referred to as Main Street. Before it became a highway, it was just a dirt road for the employees of the mine and the farmers in the area to get to the next town. When the government chose to use the existing road as part of its highway system, they paved the dirt road over, which made it easier for folks to use since dirt roads get a lot of pot holes in them. The only method of transportation that has ever existed here in my city is the automobile, or horse and cart if you count the early farmers. We have a train track (which was the very first thing to be built in this area) that runs through the city parallel to the highway, but it is exclusively for freight and the trains frequently stop on it to load up at the mine plant. It could never be used for passenger service as the loading at the mine can take a few hours sometimes. The mine abuts the city and there isn't room to move the tracks, plus the city sits in the narrow valley between some high hills.

  • @Roxor128
    @Roxor1289 ай бұрын

    Highways should be going _between_ cities, not through them!

  • @ThunderLegsMitchel

    @ThunderLegsMitchel

    8 ай бұрын

    thats exactly what i thought there should only be 2 lane roads in cities and the freeways should be between

  • @railroadforest30

    @railroadforest30

    4 ай бұрын

    Exactly

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    As someone who is against basically everything this channel and it’s followers believe in, this is a MUCH better message than “tear down the highways maaaaan yeahhhh peace and love braaaaahhh!” Though I still take issue then with a few things. Highway development bullies rural people. Just recently close to where I live, a woman’s family home of over 70 years was taken away from her… and her parents who were buried on the hill behind her house, exhumed by force. The state redistributed to her some measly little check, but she was forced into serious financial troubles and made the watch her parents get pulled out of the ground, some the state wouldn’t have to build a hundred yards in a different direction. These things happen, they’re not fairy tales… and they make me want to turn into Heemeyer 2.0. So if the cities decide their highways are problematic and wanna offload their problems onto rural people between cities, what’s your solution for these issues?

  • @FlyingOverTr0ut
    @FlyingOverTr0ut11 ай бұрын

    Great video. It's clear you put a lot of effort into it. I hope this video influences people to call for more urbanization, less car dependency, and more people friendly cities.

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    It’s really not great. Like all his videos it’s just a bunch of half-baked reddit talking points.

  • @iSkully99
    @iSkully998 ай бұрын

    Highways are great for traveling between cities or to more rural areas, urban areas not so much. Anything urban sucks to commute in regardless though.

  • @MathieuTechMoto
    @MathieuTechMoto8 ай бұрын

    If cities removes most of the parkings this would discourage people to drive

  • @DrJams

    @DrJams

    7 ай бұрын

    or they may not visit at all. People don't want to wait at bus stops being restricted to timetables

  • @selflesssamaritan6417

    @selflesssamaritan6417

    Ай бұрын

    Amen, hopefully.

  • @asmodon
    @asmodon8 ай бұрын

    I‘m really not used to videos not ending on a call to like and subscribe anymore.

  • @cykrypt1049
    @cykrypt104910 ай бұрын

    ive seen screencaps of this but its nice to have a documetary explaining it more in depth in video form, thanks for making this!

  • @brianhubert8418
    @brianhubert84188 ай бұрын

    Great video. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for this concise look at the ills of urban freeways and car dependency in general and for spotlighting the key role the auto industy's almighty lobbying efforts have played in making these car-infested hellscapes. Right now I'm trapped in car dependency, but seeing so many KZreadrs and organizations like Strong Towns tackling this gives me hope for a healthier, more equitable and more sustainable future.

  • @jasonriddell

    @jasonriddell

    8 ай бұрын

    will point out as "viewed from the 40's" it WAS A GREAT PLAN (as long as you are privileged and well enough off) cars unfortunately DO NOT scale at the rate populations can

  • @readjordan2257
    @readjordan22578 ай бұрын

    If they work in homogeneous island nations with cramped space, they can work anywhere. Theres no excuse for thinking freeways suck.

  • @readjordan2257

    @readjordan2257

    8 ай бұрын

    Secondly, nobody likes your cities. We dont want MORE of them anyway. And people dont want MORE people living in them anyway. Nobody like your suburbs, your cities, your BS.

  • @franklings_manor
    @franklings_manor8 ай бұрын

    as someone who plans to exercise, and takes SEPTA a lot throughout Philly and Norristown (my home town), I kind of feel somewhat the same way and I'm glad I managed to watch this video, and all the thoughts, facts, and truth that you said as well, couldn't be any more clearer! and I hope to TuneIn more with your content, and many more videos from you and others about city lifestyles!

  • @polycorvia8352
    @polycorvia83528 ай бұрын

    This is a super informative video, and I'm very grateful to have stumbled upon it! I'm currently getting my major in architecture, but am thinking about going into city planning. I'd like to ask though: Given that highways and freeways are such an issue, what do you suggest we do as individuals to help address the problem?

  • @DrJams

    @DrJams

    7 ай бұрын

    Don't build so close together.

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    If you’re getting a degree in architecture you won’t be making these decisions, that’s the engineers jobs… Well the politicians jobs.

  • @juliaesposito7359
    @juliaesposito73597 ай бұрын

    This is a really interesting video!! I love your channel

  • @allthatjazz8220
    @allthatjazz82208 ай бұрын

    how do you not have more views these videos are amazing

  • @qjtvaddict
    @qjtvaddict8 ай бұрын

    Here’s the thing about Seoul!!!!! They have an extensive passenger train network at the time they decided to destroy their highway.

  • @jasonriddell

    @jasonriddell

    8 ай бұрын

    if I am not mistaken the SEOUL example was also a through route not an in the city route so those trips get re routed around where they belong and the shorter connectors in the city get replaced with surface traffic and METRO usage

  • @yourselfiegotleaked
    @yourselfiegotleaked8 ай бұрын

    Loving your channel

  • @Xenomorph-hb4zf
    @Xenomorph-hb4zf7 ай бұрын

    Toronto is only tearing down the section of the Gardiner between DVP and Cherry street. Not the entire thing. Anyways Doug Ford said he's thinking about having the provincial government take ownership of the highway so Toronto will be able to save money from not needing to repair it. The province should take over the Gardiner and DVP since its infrastructure costs won't have to be paid by Toronto taxpayers alone. The province already pays for the 401/427/400/404 highways maintenance in Toronto anyways

  • @colinguo5855
    @colinguo58558 ай бұрын

    Try convincing the military that. It's the best only real solution for replacing the highways.

  • @giovanigeorgis3848
    @giovanigeorgis38488 ай бұрын

    It would cost far more to tear down all roads and add walkable infrastructure than it would to keep doing what we do best, I say no.

  • @baronvonjo1929

    @baronvonjo1929

    8 ай бұрын

    Yeah. I think that's one thing people into this forget. They think of what it should be instead of what it is in reality. Such a rebuilding would take decades of constant public and poltical will. Billions of dollars, and a shift in American culture. You need to convince Americans to abandon their single family homes with yards and want to be in denser concrete jungles with noisy neighbors and most of them would have to abandon hone ownership and enter a risky renting lifestyle. Gotta convince them that walking in the heat and cold and changing their life and commute around transit times for buses and trains is better than walking to the car in their driveway. You gotta make sure our government who can't manage our current infrastructure can build all of this and make it a compelling practical solution across the nation. I just don't see it happening

  • @oakblaze433

    @oakblaze433

    8 ай бұрын

    ​@@baronvonjo1929 I don't think anybody's forgetting that repurposing how the entire infrastructure around the country works is expensive. Many people know it is, but realize it is better than the alternative of continuing the infrastructure we are building now. Whether local level, state level, or federal level, we already receive revenue and put them towards public projects, and if we start now towards designing better infrastructure for our cities, in the future people will not be thinking of the cost it took to build the infrastructure projects they'll be using everyday, but why they didn't do it sooner. There's an interesting pew research center study that asked Americans if they would prefer larger, further apart, houses with amenities further away, or more walkable communities with amenities closer but houses are smaller and closer together. And, you did guess correctly, more people prefer further apart, larger, homes, but it is close. In April 2023 (the study was done over multiple time periods), the split was 57%/42%. They also split it by demographic and the people who prefer more walkable communities are by far the younger generations and more college-educated generations, which leads me to believe that more and more people are starting to realize they prefer at least somewhat walkable communities as time goes on and that 42% will only increase in the future. Also I feel I should mention the points you bring up against more multi-family home options, like abandoning home ownership, as I think they are uniquely American problems with multi-family homes. Obviously this would also take a lot of restructuring and time to change in the US, but there isn't some given that more multi-family homes = less home ownership. There are tons of countries that have significantly higher home ownership rates that look nothing like the US infrastructure-wise and consist of mostly multi-family homes. In most reasonable countries, you can own the home you live in, whether it's a multi-family home or not. The US just has a weird obsession with renting. Also, multi-family homes aren't noisy in most countries that know how to build multi-family homes right, because they have good noise suppression in their buildings. I don't know how I come across in this comment by the way, but I want you to know my intent is just to have a polite discussion, not to argue.

  • @Knightmessenger

    @Knightmessenger

    8 ай бұрын

    In the instance of 375 in Detroit, the cost to repair it as is was estimated at twice the expense of removing it. And that doesn't include the cost of having to maintain it versus not having to continue to pay for it. And taking it out will free up land for development that will generate tax revenue and allow people to live closer to downtown without taking a car.

  • @Knightmessenger

    @Knightmessenger

    8 ай бұрын

    ​@baronvonjo1929 actually you dont need to convince Americans to abandon single family homes at all. You just need to legalize alternatives in more places. Apartments and condos in urban areas go for a lot, often because there is untapped demand due to how many places only allow spread out houses to be built whether people actually want them or not.

  • @giovanigeorgis3848

    @giovanigeorgis3848

    8 ай бұрын

    @@Knightmessenger and that is why you shouldn’t neglect roads or anything for that matter. Neglect it until it’s fucked up to the point that’s it’s financially impossible.

  • @ebbeb9827
    @ebbeb98278 ай бұрын

    its the same story in Glasgow. Theres an aging highway ripping right through the city. At the moment they are spending hundreds of millions of pounds trying to fix it when removing it would be cheaper and improve the city

  • @JAKempelly
    @JAKempelly8 ай бұрын

    Just seeing your page for the first time! Good job!! Love the video +1 subscribe

  • @pcongre
    @pcongre8 ай бұрын

    Well put! Cheers from Stockholm from subscriber #1551!

  • @Xenomorph-hb4zf
    @Xenomorph-hb4zf7 ай бұрын

    The train tracks also cut off the downtown from the water front so put those underground like NYC did.

  • @CrazykidskipPlus-tf1pg
    @CrazykidskipPlus-tf1pg2 ай бұрын

    Another amazing video

  • @paikiwika
    @paikiwika5 ай бұрын

    Wow, this video makes a great addition to the urbanist KZreadr library, which I'm currently compiling as a playlist I'll soon make public😁 I think it's totally underrated and more people need to watch it.

  • @Ved_Overclocked
    @Ved_Overclocked10 ай бұрын

    You deserve more subscribers and attention. I'm going to subscribe.

  • @hockeymikey
    @hockeymikey2 ай бұрын

    Induced demand is a myth. The problem is driving is usually always better and we need to bridge the gap between them and trains rather than make life harder. I think more remote work is a solution too since rush hour is your biggest actual bottleneck and reducing that, reduces your peak.

  • @EEeE3771
    @EEeE37712 ай бұрын

    I LOVE your channel. Please keep it up :)

  • @es-qf2gw
    @es-qf2gw4 ай бұрын

    @flurf For the Record the Alaskan Highway in Seattle didn't get removed!!! It got place underground in a tunnel!!!

  • @2cxv
    @2cxv6 ай бұрын

    i live in Sf the embarcadero always has crazy traffic so idk

  • @MassiveChetBakerFan
    @MassiveChetBakerFan8 ай бұрын

    Great video. Shame on you Toronto City Hall.

  • @mapgar1479
    @mapgar147920 сағат бұрын

    The reson for traffic jams is not about the width of the freeway its because Americans don't know how to properly merge. The traffic jams always start where busy on-ramps are since drivers are not maintaining highway speeds as they enter the Interstate.

  • @Tzbeastfan523
    @Tzbeastfan5238 ай бұрын

    This video is great it makes my blood boil

  • @MrStark-up6fi
    @MrStark-up6fi10 ай бұрын

    I like your thinking

  • @hamaliomec
    @hamaliomec8 ай бұрын

    nice

  • @vigoedwinpandika1545
    @vigoedwinpandika1545Ай бұрын

    3:11 😂 4:10 OH DAMNN…..

  • @MrBaskins2010
    @MrBaskins201011 ай бұрын

    solid video, induced demand is a hell of a drug

  • @vigoedwinpandika1545
    @vigoedwinpandika1545Ай бұрын

    6:02 Are you sure about that?

  • @brunoheggli2888
    @brunoheggli28885 ай бұрын

    But that dosent helps me,i am still bald!So to hell with earth!

  • @yummydragon8533

    @yummydragon8533

    3 ай бұрын

    you can make baldness look good

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    Bro💀

  • @technomad9071
    @technomad90718 ай бұрын

    why will people never understand how big there cars are?

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    Oh my gawd da big car oh noooooo😰

  • @DrJams
    @DrJams7 ай бұрын

    The housing industry wants to build tiny expensive homes for everyone to live in. Live in a city where everything is built on with no space.

  • @railroadforest30

    @railroadforest30

    4 ай бұрын

    If everyone built big houses there would be no space

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    @@railroadforest30 “Nooooo if we don’t live in shoebox apartments there won’t be any room in our country that’s 3.5 million sq mi of land area!!!”

  • @railroadforest30

    @railroadforest30

    Ай бұрын

    @@charlesbrown4483 exactly! I want to keep it that way not have subdivisions in the middle of the country

  • @charlesbrown4483

    @charlesbrown4483

    Ай бұрын

    @@railroadforest30 So you don’t want subdivisions in Iowa? Not sure I’m following you here. Either way, the vast majority of America is sparsely populated. The concept that we’re running out of room for people to live in the most asinine Reddit logic I’ve heard in some time.

  • @railroadforest30

    @railroadforest30

    Ай бұрын

    @@charlesbrown4483 I don’t want any new subdivisions anywhere. A lot of America is sparsely populated and that’s great. That’s exactly how I want it to stay. Forests shouldn’t be be built on. Cities should continue to grow but vertically and other smaller towns to a degree can grow but forest land and farmland should be protected and conserved as much as possible. I don’t use Reddit except for tech support

  • @DrJams
    @DrJams7 ай бұрын

    Show images of people waiting at bus stops and trains on strike

  • @AgressiveAndre
    @AgressiveAndreАй бұрын

    Anti suburbanists…

  • @NameePark
    @NameePark11 ай бұрын

    Wow what a great marketing plan lol forced marketing XD

  • @nsyne
    @nsyne11 ай бұрын

    based and orangepilled