Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about highway expansion

Maybe Elon Musk should stick to solar panels and rocketships. Photo: JD Lasica via Flickr

Elon Musk’s “Plan” to Cure Traffic With Tunnels Is Terrible and Ridiculous

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 7, 2017 | No Comments

Let's not pretend that Elon Musk's idea to bypass LA congestion by building a tunnel under the city -- first Tweeted out while he was apparently stewing in traffic -- is at all practical or worthy of serious consideration.

Wisconsin's $800 million Marquette Interchange is so large and complex, project leaders joked "it could create its own weather." Photo: Lunda Construction

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Wisconsin Highway Costs Exceed State DOT Estimates By Nearly 100%

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 27, 2017 | No Comments

Highway costs have nearly doubled WisDOT's projections, and the overruns will be even bigger for projects that are still in the works. But Governor Scott Walker isn't interested in reining in highway spending.

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Trump Picks Road Industry Lobbyist to Lead Transportation Transition

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 11, 2016 | No Comments

So much for “draining the swamp.” Under Donald Trump, it looks like the White House and Congress will be more infested with lobbyists than ever. In a story about the lobbying bonanza that will accompany unified GOP control of Washington, the New York Times reports that Trump has picked Martin Whitmer to head his “transportation and infrastructure” […]

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Toledo Neighbors Fight Back Against City’s Plan to Widen Their Road

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 15, 2016 | No Comments

Roseanne Martinez has lived at the corner of Secor and Bancroft Roads, just over the border from Toledo, for almost 30 years. She and her husband were married in the backyard. They raised four kids there. Every Sunday, they walk right across the street to attend church at Hope Lutheran. But Martinez found out recently she […]

Houston’s Big Chance to Turn Back the Tide of Car Traffic

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 29, 2016 | No Comments

There’s a lot riding on Texas DOT’s $7 billion plan for downtown Houston freeways. TxDOT has been working for more than a decade on a plan for the three highways that roughly form a circle around the city — I-45, I-10, and U.S. 59. Last April, the agency revealed a draft version of the plan, and another revision […]

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Massive Highway Expansion Threatens to Destroy Tampa Neighborhoods

By John Greenfield | Jun 21, 2016 | No Comments

Most people still think of Tampa as a sprawling, car-centric town, but that is starting to change. In 2014, Smart Growth America [PDF] found that Tampa is shifting toward a more walkable development pattern. The city is starting to build out a bicycle network, and its Riverwalk project is bringing people out to stroll downtown. Tampa’s recent progress could be overwhelmed, however, […]

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The Tragic History of Highways Demolishing Cities — It’s Not Over Yet

By Angie Schmitt | May 23, 2016 | No Comments

This video from Vox provides an excellent overview of how the Interstate Highway System wiped out whole city neighborhoods in the post-war era. It’s hard to believe that federal and local officials ever thought it was a good idea to uproot urban residents to clear paths for highways, but what’s even crazier is that we’re still doing the same thing today.

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Highway Propaganda Vids Sell City Residents on the Wonders of Wider Roads

By Angie Schmitt | May 3, 2016 | No Comments

It’s not enough for highway builders to carve out land at great public expense so they can jam more cars into cities. Now they want you to believe their projects are great for the neighborhoods that bear the brunt of the added traffic and pollution. Up top is a video produced by the Colorado Department of Transportation to sell the […]

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Anthony Foxx Wants to Repair the Damage Done By Urban Highways

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 30, 2016 | No Comments

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is offering a surprisingly honest appraisal of America’s history of road construction this week, with a high-profile speaking tour that focuses on the damage that highways caused in black urban neighborhoods. Growing up in Charlotte, Foxx’s own street was walled in by highways, he recalled in a speech today at the Center for American Progress. Building big, grade-separated roads through […]

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Caption Contest: TxDOT’s Shiny Happy People Sucking in Highway Exhaust

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 22, 2016 | No Comments

This rendering of State Highway 45 Southwest in Austin — one of 12 highway boondoggles singled out by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group this year — inspired some mockery on Twitter: @StreetsblogNet @StreetsblogUSA @uspirg “Hey mom, I’m going to go ride bikes in the ditch!” — Andy Howard (@ahow628) January 21, 2016 @StreetsblogNet @uspirg “Just […]

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Highway Boondoggles: Texas State Highway 45 Southwest

By Jeff Inglis | Jan 21, 2016 | No Comments

In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the original came out in 2014), U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group teamed up to profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Streetsblog will be serializing the case studies in the report. Today, we focus on a road project that risks contaminating the water supply in and around Austin, […]

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Highway Boondoggles: Widening I-95 Across Connecticut

By Jeff Inglis | Jan 19, 2016 | No Comments

Last year Congress passed a multi-year transportation bill. Like previous bills, it gives tens of billions of dollars to states every year to spend with almost no strings attached. How much of this federal funding will state DOTs devote to expensive, traffic-inducing highway projects that further entrench car dependence and sprawl? In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the […]

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