University of California Transportation Center

Planning and construction of metropolitan freeway systems in the 1950s and 1960s frequently cited examples of planning gone awry. Critics point to insulated and indifferent highway builders, who concern themselves more with traffic flow than communities and carve up cities with little regard for the negative social, psychological, and aesthetic effects of freeways. Many freeway projects in cities around the country provoked "freeway revolts" - intense community opposition to specific freeway projects which led officials to delete controversial routes from state freeway plans.