Writer's Research Query: Freeway Revolts

[dewline]

I stumbled across something today on Wikipedia that struck me as Interesting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_revolt

Does anyone here have any memories or recommended reading on the subject on or off-line?

Comments

[realtegan.livejournal.com]

I don't have any certainties, but for a long time there were a whole bunch of "offramps to nowhere" at the I-5/I-90 interchange in Seattle, and a few further down I-90 that still exist. I remember asking my mom about them as a little girl and she said something about people not wanting their homes destroyed by the routes. It kind of blew my mind, because I was young enough not to realize that people's homes could be destroyed for public works. I think most of the offramps are gone now, removed with new construction, but as a child I thought there was some great poetry in the concrete ramps that lifted into the sky and ... just stopped.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

If you can provide some pointers to photos of these ramps to nowhere someday, I'd be glad of it.

Here in Ottawa, there seems to be some revival of what I suspect it might have been like in those days of the protests going on re: the Queensway. Partial details, subject to editing, here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensway_%28Ottawa%29#Present_controversy)

[realtegan.livejournal.com]

Can't find any pictures on a regular search... although I've found lots of references to them in editorials about the monorail and viaduct (current subjects of much debate in Seattle). Maybe I'll figure out exactly which interchange they were at (by asking my mom, of course) and then I could find some images.

[madlycool.livejournal.com]

Your link is incorrect. It's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_revolt (and Wiki's search engine is too stupid to figure that out).

The most notable one i know is the Spadina Expressway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spadina_Expressway

"The debate over the Spadina Expressway, and its eventual cancellation, are regarded as a turning point in local history."

Here's an expressway in Hamilton that spawned opposition, but is going through anyway (no wealthy voters lived in its path):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hill_Valley_Parkway

[dewline.livejournal.com]

The correction's been made.

As to the Red Hill Valley Parkway, I'd heard about that on either Sounds Like Canada or The Current a year or three ago. The battle's been lost there?

[madlycool.livejournal.com]

It is being built now.