Appropiate Roads

Remembering the ugliest thing San Francisco ever built

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‘A monstrous mistake’: Remembering the ugliest thing San Francisco ever built

 

The plan was simple: Connect the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge via a freeway. It was the 1950s and everyone loved freeways. What could go wrong? Nearly everything.

The Embarcadero Freeway is widely considered one of the biggest mistakes the city ever made. For 32 years, a concrete monstrosity barricaded San Franciscans from the bay waters, shrouded the iconic Ferry Building in smog and made lots of residents very mad. Photographs of it now look like a very different, unsightly city. And while (nearly) everyone hated it, it took an earthquake to tear it down.

Highway Nicknames

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Back in the 1950s, local expressways in their planning stages were always known by their nicknames — the proposed Riverfront Route (Interstate 787), Northside Route (Interstate 90), and Crosstown Arterial (NY 85).

Some names have remained — like Alternate Route 7, the Thruway, and the Adirondack Northway but those are the exceptions rather then the rule. I think we should go back to calling the local roads the Riverfront Route, the Northside Route, and the Crosstown Arterial.

In South Bend, he challenged assumption that streets are for cars above all else – The Washington Post

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Pete Buttigieg: In South Bend, he challenged assumption that streets are for cars above all else – The Washington Post

When Pete Buttigieg took office as mayor of the Indiana city in 2012, he changed that. He pitched a $25 million plan to convert downtown’s wide, one-way roads into two-way streets with bike lanes and sidewalks. He hoped making it safer to get out on foot would encourage more people to spend time and money in the area.