Pierce Elevated in Downtown Houston. Photo: Russell Hancock.
It’s not just San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Saint Louis, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Providence anymore. Even Dallas is doing it. Dallas! Cities nationwide are demolishing, rerouting, moving underground, or capping urban highways --- reversing the devastating effects of the golden age of the automobile.
The results have been outstanding: cleaner air, less noise, better traffic flow, more greenspace, increased walkability, greater property values, and significant economic development.
A preliminary exercise in development. Map: A New Dallas.
Urban planner Patrick Kennedy has mounted a campaign to tear down a section of IH345 currently bifurcating Dallas and repurpose the space for development and parks. Not only is Kennedy's web site beautifully designed, it makes an extremely compelling case from economic, traffic, urban planning, public safety, and quality-of-life points of view, using several other successful highway demolitions as potent examples.
Could Houston reclaim sections of 45, 59, or 288? Minus a little highway, Houston could have 12 percent less air pollution citywide (as happened in Boston), increased property values (San Francisco), lower by several degrees average temperatures (Seoul, Korea), better traffic flow (Portland), more green space (everywhere), and greater economic development in the area. Can you imagine it? Dallas can.
U.S. 59 and I-45 in Downtown Houston. Photo: Texas Freeway.com.
