Although some cities are in favor of removing or reducing urban freeways in favor of more walkable spaces, guidelines like the 11-year-old MUTCD still encourage a 'throughput at all costs' mentality.

As the movement to remove urban freeways and reconnect neighborhoods gains strength, writes Scott Beyer, Northern Virginia's National Landing provides a sample of the conflict between freeway removal advocates and the state and federal programs that perpetuate freeway building and expansion. "The local business improvement district (BID) wants to convert U.S. Route 1, an elevated highway that divides National Landing’s downtown, into a walkable boulevard with narrower lanes and slower car speeds." But state officials want to keep the road at its current width, citing concerns "that narrowing Route 1 would divert too much traffic to local roads."
In Boston, mobility advocates are calling for "an at-grade reconstruction that is less disruptive than the elevated highway" of the city's Interstate 90 viaduct, but are facing similar opposition from the state's department of transportation, which, according to reports, "may even make the elevated viaduct taller and wider."
The conflict stems in part from the seldom-updated, federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), whose guidelines "dictate lane widths, shoulder widths and curve radii, and are written with automobile speed in mind." Because "[h]ighway engineers tend to use a 'level of service' (LOS) metric to determine whether a road has adequate capacity," typical designs focus on prioritizing vehicle speed with little regard to pedestrian or cyclist safety or convenience.
With local residents and businesses on board with less car-centric retrofits of urban freeways, it's time that state and federal DOTs understand "it may be unwise for them to force this 'throughput at all costs' vision onto the urban parts of state and federal routes" when cities are realizing the "tremendous economic and cultural value that is diminished" by reducing roads to simply corridors for moving traffic as efficiently as possible.
FULL STORY: Will States and the Feds Let Cities Tame Urban Highways?

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie