The Asphalt Rebellion

While some Americans mourned the loss of the calmer life that preceded the automobile, most people loved the car's ability to carry them to many more places much more quickly. So the country built ever more roads, and spent billions of dollars ripping up millions of trees, tens of thousands of houses, and thousands of communities to make way for them. Now so-called "asphalt rebels" are restoring the peace that heavy traffic erased from neighborhoods where walking has become an unpleasant, even dangerous pastime, particularly for children and the elderly. Their strategy: traffic calming.