Semantics & the Expanding Highways

My daily thoughts are consumed with ideas of creating cities that work, complex architectural strategies and how to implement those tactics in the development field, and making the most out of life. I also think about current events and how local occurrences affect the built environment.

Recently, I was thinking about urban mobility, public transit, and the state of our road system, especially during this time of pandemic. I found myself in traffic during a rush hour that was more tame than normal but still stifling. Driving through congestion in the pandemic, where traffic was somewhat reduced would be like walking through the desert when it’s 110 degrees rather than 120. I just find it so interesting how we, as a society, continue to construct the built environment in ways that are detrimental, inefficient, and inevitably destructive. I understand that there is an economic component to this “drive” to build and expand highways. I understand that we must keep people working and we need big projects for people to work on.

I asked myself - why cities continue moving forward in ways where they implode and collapse internally? Why don’t they see this? We clog roadways with small cars which disrupts the movements of large trucks, which creates an inefficient and ineffective road network? One problem is that it is too painful to stop. The public demands that we have efficient roadways. They say “make them wider” and the highway is congested again post construction. The locals say: “we don’t want to become like Los Angeles” without realizing that are already on that path. I asked why?

I looked to see what the underlying aspect was. I removed the economic element to see things through a clearer lens. My idea is that the reluctance to move away from the sprawling auto centric culture contains two factors: time and semantics. The first, time, is simple: I am going to drive rather than take transit because my time is valuable and public transit in this city cannot deliver me to my destination. I get in the car and drive from point A to point B. Being stuck in traffic is still more efficient than riding a sparse transit system. The second idea is semantics. Could it be that we fight for expansion because we call our highway network “freeways?” I know it sounds crazy but I must present the question. I would never get rid of something that was “free.” In fact, I don’t want to get rid of it, I want more and I want wider. Could it be that our intense connection is somewhat unconscious and psychological? It is like driving, you just don’t think about it. Call something “free” and it creates a dynamic around that object. Based on that, freeways are here to stay and even with a push for increased density, our cities will eventually stand still and become trapped in the bubble.