[M II A II R II K]

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF URBAN HIGHWAYS


March 2012

PDF Report: http://www.embarq.org/sites/default/...n_Highways.pdf

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In practice, many urban highways were justified with some form of cost-benefitanalysis. However, most experts in cost-benefit analysis point out that the tool was never meant to evaluate whether or not to build urban highways but rather to prioritize between competing inter-urban highway projects. Additionally, the analysis ignored important secondary effects, such as the adverse impact of the new road on surrounding property values, or the environmental costs that are generated by new induced traffic (Wheaton, 1978).

Cities are removing urban highways in very specific circumstances, which include:

• Costs of Reconstruction and Repair

• Economic Revitalization

• Increased Property Value

• Making Waterfronts Accessible

• Offering Better Solutions to Meet Mobility Needs

When cities took down or chose not to build urban highways, what they got instead was:

• Harbor Drive, Portland, USA: The Tom McCall Waterfront Park has helped property values in the downtown rise on average 10.4 percent per year and led to a sharp reduction in crime in the area.

• Embarcadero, San Francisco, USA: A world-famous boulevard surrounded by a 25-foot-wide promenade led to a 300 percent increase in adjacent property values.

• Park East Freeway, Milwaukee, USA: Halting construction of the freeway preserved Juneau Park. Taking down the highway has opened 26 acres of land to be redeveloped and added back into the tax coffers. Land values have risen faster than in the rest of the city and the area is now reconnected with Milwaukee.

• Cheonggyecheon, Seoul, South Korea: An international best practice for greenways that has also seen an increase in development and rents along the corridor and a decrease in air and noise pollution and traffic.

• Bogotá, Colombia: A 45-kilometer greenway now connects low-income neighborhoods to the downtown, and includes a mass-transit system that revolutionized bus rapid transit and carries 1.8 million people, and over 300 kilometers of bike lanes. By taking down or not completing their highways, these cities found that reimagining urban highways created better places and attracted higher investment in the surrounding area. More cities around the world, having learned from the cities presented here, are removing highways. Other cities might consider highway removal or halting construction as well. These case studies illustrate how it was done.

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Cheonggyecheon in Seoul, South Korea is an international best practice for greenways that has also seen an increase in development and rents along the corridor and a decrease in air and noise pollution and traffic. Photo by Sarah Kim.