“America’s New Design for Living:” The Interstate Highway System and the Spatial Transformation of the U.S.

Abstract

The Interstate Highway System is a 46,000 mi (74,030 km) freeway system created in 1944 and funded beginning in 1956, and which has thus far cost over $120 billion. It was created as a modern and fully planned highway system to connect metropolitan areas and serve long distance automobile and truck travel. The Interstate Highway System helped transform the spatial organization of the country as travel times and costs greatly decreased, reducing the importance of locations within the traditional manufacturing areas. Urban freeway systems have similarly transformed metropolitan areas into non-centered sprawling regions. Within several years opposition to the System began to emerge, growing in strength through the 1960s as the “freeway revolt.” Increased environmental requirements and growing costs slowed down construction and resulted in more flexibility. In recent decades attention has shifted towards a more multimodal transport system, but new highway projects in China and India are based on the U.S. Interstate System and explicitly seek to create similar outcomes.