Cities that are the most "choked" and "encircled" by highways (neighborhoods, bars)

[Taggerung]

Which cities ( big and small) have entirely too much highway roads?

[TheTimidBlueBars]

I honestly don't understand this concept of highways in cities being terrible.

I get how maybe having a thick artificial barrier may have historically exacerbated the segregation of poor minority neighborhoods in certain cities, but on a day-to-day level, I find them easy to ignore and even refreshing in some cases, sort of an expanse of open air in the middle of the concrete jungle, almost like what a river does for a city.

[MrJones17]

I think Atlanta fits this. Seems like they threw roads all over the place. Even in Buckhead where there's pedestrian crossing, you still have to cross like 6 lanes total. It's kind of a mess. But I guess this holds true for any boomtown city where there's lots of sprawl.

[FrankInPhilly]

It's hard to say what constitutes "too much," but while planning a trip to Cincinnati I was struck by how downtown and nearby 'hoods are defined by Interstates and rail yards. That feeling was reinforced by this piece on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kumKtY1n7Mo&t=1047s. I'll be interested to see if the "feel" of the city is different from my current perception once I've actually been there.

[mhays25]

I've never heard "open air" as a positive for a freeway.

[Vegabern]

Highways were my first impression of Asheville. Too many roads for such a small area.

[Joakim3]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

I honestly don't understand this concept of highways in cities being terrible.

I get how maybe having a thick artificial barrier may have historically exacerbated the segregation of poor minority neighborhoods in certain cities, but on a day-to-day level, I find them easy to ignore and even refreshing in some cases, sort of an expanse of open air in the middle of the concrete jungle, almost like what a river does for a city.

Never heard "open air" used to describe a highway

A lot of cities are tearing down urban core highways/expressways (San Fran, Seattle, etc..) because they inherently disconnect neighborhoods, act as barriers for harmonious development, and take away from street activity.

DC & Baltimore are classic examples of this.

695 in DC physically cut off the entirety of Navy Yards up until really the last decade, to the point no one would even venture there as it was the legit hood. Baltimore's I-83/JFX covered up the Jones Falls river and everything east of it once it enters downtown is pretty much a wasteland compared to the prospering Mt. Vernon the sits immediately west

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Originally Posted by Joakim3

act as barriers for harmonious development, and take away from street activity

These seem like very minor and subjective reasons to spend the billions of dollars to tear out a freeway, especially given the benefits they provide to the economy in providing an easy way to cross the metropolitan area.

Re: the segregation point - maybe it's hard for me to imagine this having grown up in Chicago, since there's a fairly rapid transition to poor and disinvested neighborhoods when you get west of Western or south of Pershing, and that happens on both sides of I-290 and I-90-94 respectively. In other words, the segregation happens perpendicular to the highways in both cases.

[mhays25]

Seattle's teardown was also because the viaduct was falling apart, and it was replaced with a two-mile bypass tunnel deep under Downtown. We've never cut capacity, aside from a couple years (now) where the surface waterfront boulevard isn't there yet. By building a tunnel instead of a replacement viaduct, we also didn't need to delete the highway for a long interim period...it was a simple three-week closure to complete ramps etc. The replacement viaduct would have been a stain on the city for generations, including being wider and taller than the old one.

From an urban improvement standpoint, the project was about getting the pass-through traffic out of the way, and opening up both the Elliott Bay waterfront and South Lake Union where 99 was a barrier.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Isn't most of New Jersey choked by expressways and turnpikes? I've heard Philadelphia too.

Here in Baton Rouge most of this area feels "suburban" but we can definitely use one more major freeway with an additional crossing of the Mississippi River, south of the two current bridges.