How To Effectively Fight for Freeway Removal

Writing in Streetsblog USA, Ben Crowther, Aaron Brown, and Martha Roskowski outline the goals of ‘freeway fighters’ for 2023, noting the successes of the past year, when federal officials finally began centering the equity impacts of transportation planning and promoting policies that purportedly work to address them, such as the Reconnecting Communities Act. 

“But rhetoric (and a small pot of money) aside, the reality is that in 2022, not a single highway was removed to reconnect communities. Moreover, only three major highway expansions were dropped: the 710 Freeway in Los Angeles County and I-25 and C-470 in Denver.”

The article describes five key ways that freeway opponents can be successful in their efforts for freeway removal. These include nationwide coordination with other activists that can lead to federal legislation and support for freeway removal efforts; clear and effective communication strategies to assuage common concerns; access to more legal and traffic modeling expertise; collaboration with community organizers; and funding from state and federal transportation agencies.