The Debate About Urban (Re)Design in the United States

Amidst the mosaic of national debates surrounding climate change, economic justice, and public health, there is a growing focus on the intersection of these issues and the design of our communities. The overwhelming majority of U.S. households own at least one vehicle, and the number of vehicles registered in the United States has continued to rise in recent years.[1] Some argue that car dependency is a symptom of the design of American cities, others argue that it’s the cause.

Climate scientists have made the case that continued suburban sprawl and car dependency are detrimental to fighting climate change, and that urban life leads to a smaller carbon footprint.[2] With Americans moving to the suburbs and out of urban and rural areas in greater numbers, many urban theorists and planners have been working to find ways to make cities more desirable places to live. Some communities around the country have already implemented radical programs with some measures of success.[3]

Highway History and Reckoning

The design of many U.S. cities is due to political battles in the early 20th century, when cities expanded rapidly. Typically, these cities expanded outwards rather than upwards. Many urban planners chose to build large highways to facilitate the movement of cars into and out of city centers each day.

In 2022, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced a $1 billion program, Reconnecting Cities, to help rectify the harm caused by 20th-century highway projects, particularly to lower-income areas and communities of color.[4] This initiative, part of a larger investment in infrastructure by President Joe Biden’s administration, offers federal aid to cities and states that wish to add public transit, bike lanes, and/or highway crossings, or even partially remove highways.

The association of highways with racial justice drew some attention in the press, echoing a history of citizen action against highway construction in the 1950s.When the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads originally published the blueprint of the Interstate Highway System (all 41,000 miles of it), some Americans in larger cities pushed back on the urban redesign out of fear that the highways would disrupt or destroy certain communities. Citizens protested, blocked construction, and filed lawsuits. These efforts became known as the “highway revolts,” and they took place in cities around the United States, most notably in Washington, San Francisco, and New York City.[5]

In recent years, some have pushed for the outright removal or urban redesign of the freeways that cut through the center of cities. One city that paved the way for urban freeway removal was Rochester, New York.[6] The I-490 Inner Loop, a freeway that closely encircled downtown Rochester, was built in the 1950s and functionally divided the center of the city with a massive trench to bring commuters in and out of downtown. Starting in 2014, the city closed the eastern portion of the loop and began to fill it in with dirt, then paved a wide avenue with bike lanes, storefronts, and new housing in the form of apartments. The goal was to make downtown Rochester a more livable place. The popularity among residents was mixed, but the city considers the project a success and says it plans to remove further sections of the loop. Rochester transportation specialist Erik Frisch called the project “a bit of a proof of concept.”[6]

Highway removal and 15-minute city redesign have drawn detractors as well, both in the public sphere and in government. Critics argue that implementing the 15-minute city concept in the United States is considerably more difficult than it is in other countries, as our cities were largely designed during the automobile era. The transition would be very complex and resource-intensive, challenging social and economic habits and needs in American culture such as dependency on cars and perceptions of urban and public spaces. Highway removal projects also face opposition in some areas where they’ve been proposed. Rochester’s highway removal took two decades to get started, and it faced less opposition than it would have in other places (the portion of the highway removed carried very little traffic).

Still, urban redesign projects are often popular among Americans, especially younger generations, and may drastically change our cities in the coming decades.