Synopses & Reviews
andlt;Pandgt;Urban freeways often cut through the heart of a city, destroying neighborhoods, displacing residents, and reconfiguring street maps. These massive infrastructure projects, costing billions of dollars in transportation funds, have been shaped for the last half century by the ideas of highway engineers, urban planners, landscape architects, and architects -- with highway engineers playing the leading role. In andlt;Iandgt;Changing Lanesandlt;/Iandgt;, Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis describe the evolution of the urban freeway in the United States, from its rural parkway precursors through the construction of the interstate highway system to emerging alternatives for more sustainable urban transportation. DiMento and Ellis examine the competing visions of the different professions involved in planning these highways and their varying approaches to improving city life. They describe controversies that arose over urban freeway construction, focusing on three cases: Syracuse, which early on embraced freeways through its center; Los Angeles, which rejected some routes and then built I-105, the most expensive urban road of its time; and Memphis, which blocked the construction of I-40 through its core. Finally, they consider the emerging urban highway removal movement and other innovative efforts by cities to re-envison urban transportation.andlt;/Pandgt;
Review
Freeways have had a stronger imprint on the form, environmental qualities, and social fabric of American cities than any single type of public investment. Yet until now, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been given to their evolution and cumulative impacts on city life. This timely book provides a rich historical account of how shifts in urban priorities, disciplinary mindsets, and regulatory climates have shaped and reshaped the designs, roles, and images of America's principal channel-ways. Underpinning most freeway projects, we learn, have been a host of competing agendas, be they job creation, blight removal, or exurban development. Political and social conflicts have been unavoidable, prompting a twenty-first-century movement of freeway demolitions, chronicled in the epilogue. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the planning and design of American cities, past, present, and future. The MIT Press
Review
Changing Lanes is a unique addition to American highway literature. Many have looked inside the highway establishment, but DiMento and Ellis place the evolution of highway policy within its rich context of urban politics and design. This work is deeply researched and subtle conclusions are illustrated by insightful case studies. < b=""> Robert Cervero <> , Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley
Review
Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis highlight a largely neglected part of freeway history, the contest of ideas and visions of the freeway's role in the city among professional architects, landscape architects, planners, and engineers. Their richly detailed case studies illustrate that the tension between the often-conflicting worldviews of these professionals ultimately resolved itself in a way that privileged the freeway's traffic-carrying role with profound consequences, both for good and for ill, for the development of the city and the lives of its residents. < b=""> Martin Wachs <> , Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA; Senior Principal Researcher at the RAND Corporation
Review
"Freeway histories have generally been of two sorts: stories of the builders of the Interstate Highway System, and stories of freeway planning and revolts in particular cities. Changing Lanes is unique in weaving these together to consider the competing visions for urban freeways that have so profoundly shaped American cities." -- Brian D. Taylor, FAICP, Professor of Urban Planning, Director, Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Freeways have had a stronger imprint on the form, environmental qualities, and social fabric of American cities than any single type of public investment. Yet until now, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been given to their evolution and cumulative impacts on city life. This timely book provides a rich historical account of how shifts in urban priorities, disciplinary mindsets, and regulatory climates have shaped and reshaped the designs, roles, and images of America's principal channel-ways. Underpinning most freeway projects, we learn, have been a host of competing agendas, be they job creation, blight removal, or exurban development. Political and social conflicts have been unavoidable, prompting a twenty-first-century movement of freeway demolitions, chronicled in the epilogue. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the planning and design of American cities, past, present, and future." -- andlt;Bandgt;Robert Cerveroandlt;/Bandgt;, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;" andlt;Iandgt;Changing Lanesandlt;/Iandgt; is a unique addition to American highway literature. Many have looked inside the highway establishment, but DiMento and Ellis place the evolution of highway policy within its rich context of urban politics and design. This work is deeply researched and subtle conclusions are illustrated by insightful case studies." -- andlt;Bandgt;Martin Wachsandlt;/Bandgt;, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA; Senior Principal Researcher at the RAND Corporationandlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis highlight a largely neglected part of freeway history, the contest of ideas and visions of the freeway's role in the city among professional architects, landscape architects, planners, and engineers. Their richly detailed case studies illustrate that the tension between the often-conflicting worldviews of these professionals ultimately resolved itself in a way that privileged the freeway's traffic-carrying role with profound consequences, both for good and for ill, for the development of the city and the lives of its residents." -- andlt;Bandgt;Jeffrey Brownandlt;/Bandgt;, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State Universityandlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Freeway histories have generally been of two sorts: stories of the builders of the Interstate Highway System, and stories of freeway planning and revolts in particular cities. andlt;Iandgt;Changing Lanesandlt;/Iandgt; is unique in weaving these together to consider the competing visions for urban freeways that have so profoundly shaped American cities." -- andlt;Bandgt;Brian D. Taylorandlt;/Bandgt;, FAICP, Professor of Urban Planning, Director, Ralph and#38; Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairsandlt;/Pandgt;
Review
Freeway histories have generally been of two sorts: stories of the builders of the Interstate Highway System, and stories of freeway planning and revolts in particular cities. Changing Lanes is unique in weaving these together to consider the competing visions for urban freeways that have so profoundly shaped American cities. < b=""> Jeffrey Brown <> , Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State University
Synopsis
The story of the evolution of the urban freeway, the competing visions that informed it, and the emerging alternatives for more sustainable urban transportation.
Urban freeways often cut through the heart of a city, destroying neighborhoods, displacing residents, and reconfiguring street maps. These massive infrastructure projects, costing billions of dollars in transportation funds, have been shaped for the last half century by the ideas of highway engineers, urban planners, landscape architects, and architects -- with highway engineers playing the leading role. In Changing Lanes, Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis describe the evolution of the urban freeway in the United States, from its rural parkway precursors through the construction of the interstate highway system to emerging alternatives for more sustainable urban transportation.
DiMento and Ellis describe controversies that arose over urban freeway construction, focusing on three cases: Syracuse, which early on embraced freeways through its center; Los Angeles, which rejected some routes and then built I-105, the most expensive urban road of its time; and Memphis, which blocked the construction of I-40 through its core. Finally, they consider the emerging urban highway removal movement and other innovative efforts by cities to re-envision urban transportation.
Synopsis
Urban freeways often cut through the heart of a city, destroying neighborhoods, displacing residents, and reconfiguring street maps. These massive infrastructure projects, costing billions of dollars in transportation funds, have been shaped for the last half century by the ideas of highway engineers, urban planners, landscape architects, and architects -- with highway engineers playing the leading role. In
Changing Lanes, Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis describe the evolution of the urban freeway in the United States, from its rural parkway precursors through the construction of the interstate highway system to emerging alternatives for more sustainable urban transportation.
DiMento and Ellis describe controversies that arose over urban freeway construction, focusing on three cases: Syracuse, which early on embraced freeways through its center; Los Angeles, which rejected some routes and then built I-105, the most expensive urban road of its time; and Memphis, which blocked the construction of I-40 through its core. Finally, they consider the emerging urban highway removal movement and other innovative efforts by cities to re-envision urban transportation.
About the Author
Joseph F. C. DiMento is Professor of Law and former Director of the Newkirk Center for Science and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He is the coauthor of Environmental Governance of the Great Seas: Law and Effect and Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways (MIT Press).Cliff Ellis is Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning at Clemson University.