If it had focused on railways instead of highways we wouldn't see it as that negative, because rail lines already existed and widening that would have little impact.
And rail is incredibly more efficient, you need very little space to transport a gigantic amount of people.
This is especially true for interchanges, highway interchanges are freaking gigantic. Railway interchanges are cooperatively tiny.
For railway you wouldn't need nearly as much removal, and a railway is far, far easier to cross then a highway. You can start with at grade crossings early on and then overtime add grade separation. Grade separation is much cheaper for a railway.
Or you can build the whole railway above or below grade quite reasonably.
This rail line here can beat most giant US urban highways, Zürich Switzerland: https://ibb.co/sv8tzYK
With cut and cover, you can pretty cheaply build a railway and then build new building above, where the same people who live there before can live.
> For me, the fundamental issue is the highways that divided cities and split the populace between those who can afford cars and those who can't.
So by that logic it good to build highways, as long as the government also makes sure that everybody has a car?
If everybody can use the least space and energy efficient method to get around, surely we have great solution.
And rail is incredibly more efficient, you need very little space to transport a gigantic amount of people.
This is especially true for interchanges, highway interchanges are freaking gigantic. Railway interchanges are cooperatively tiny.
For railway you wouldn't need nearly as much removal, and a railway is far, far easier to cross then a highway. You can start with at grade crossings early on and then overtime add grade separation. Grade separation is much cheaper for a railway.
Or you can build the whole railway above or below grade quite reasonably.
This rail line here can beat most giant US urban highways, Zürich Switzerland: https://ibb.co/sv8tzYK
With cut and cover, you can pretty cheaply build a railway and then build new building above, where the same people who live there before can live.
> For me, the fundamental issue is the highways that divided cities and split the populace between those who can afford cars and those who can't.
So by that logic it good to build highways, as long as the government also makes sure that everybody has a car?
If everybody can use the least space and energy efficient method to get around, surely we have great solution.