Freeway and Expressway Revolts

Freeway And Expressway Revolts

Many highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, road protests) took place in developed countries during the 1960s and 1970s, in response to plans for the construction of new freeways, a significant number of which were abandoned or significantly scaled back due to widespread public opposition; especially of those whose neighborhoods would be disrupted or displaced by the proposed freeways, and due to various other negative effects that freeways are considered to have.

In the United States the "revolts" occurred mainly in cities and regions, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Long Island, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In many cities, there remain unused highways, abruptly terminating freeway alignments, and short stretches of freeway in the middle of nowhere, all of which are evidence of larger projects which were never completed.

In Canada, similar revolts occurred notably in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Halifax, Montreal and Quebec City. Road protests in the United Kingdom have taken place since the 1960s. Protests on a smaller scale occurred later in the 1970s in Australia.