'Freeway fighters' want to remove urban highways and reclaim cities for people, not cars

America's Interstate Highway System cut through the hearts of many downtown areas when it was built in the 1950s and '60s, leaving a legacy of inequality and urban impoverishment.

Today, a new generation of "freeway fighters" wants to reclaim that land for transit and walkable neighborhoods. Author Megan Kimble writes about the movement in her new book, "City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways."

Kimble lives in Austin, Texas — a city notorious for bad traffic — a mile away from Interstate 35. The Texas Department of Transportation plans to expand the massive double-decker highway from 12 to 20 lanes.

The expansion will overtake 100 properties and land in the middle of the city, which horrified Kimble.

“I quickly learned about an activist group called Rethink35 that has advocated for removing the highway altogether and rerouting interstate traffic that’s not coming to a destination in Austin around the city,” Kimble says, “and putting that land to better use for housing or transit or places that people can meet and walk and be together.”

By Megan Kimble

From the book "City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways" by Megan Kimble. Copyright © 2024 by Megan Kimble. Published in the United States by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.