Highway revolts in the United States
In the post-World War II economic expansion, there was a major drive to build a freeway network in the United States, including (but not limited to) the Interstate Highway System.
The rhetoric became so heated that in 1973 a non-binding public advisory election was held, resulting (largely due to Pulliam's regular editorial tirades) in an overwhelming "no" vote for the existing plan.
By 1984 traffic gridlock had reached the point where planners devised a new plan, with I-10 still running although roughly the same alignment, but instead with the central city portion tunneled through downtown, with a large park on top.
Construction of the elevated Embarcadero Freeway along the downtown waterfront also helped to organize the opposition, articulated by architecture critic Allan Temko, who began writing for the Chronicle in 1961.
A planned Interstate 470 beltway around Denver met opposition, including from Governor Richard Lamm, an environmentalist, who promised to "drive a silver spike" through the project.
Currently, a gap remains in the beltway, as it stops short of reaching the Denver suburbs of Broomfield and Golden, where fierce opposition to the road continues.
Environmental concerns in Connecticut and Rhode Island led to the cancellation of this extension, and I-84 was shifted to the existing Wilbur Cross Highway (which had been designated I-86; this number has since reappeared on a partially completed expressway in northern Pennsylvania and Upstate New York) between Hartford and Sturbridge, Massachusetts in 1983.
After 40 years since it was first planned, CONNDOT, the FHWA, and local officials remained deadlocked with the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers over the routing of the US-6 Freeway.
Local opposition, particularly in the town of Wilton, convinced a federal judge to halt construction of the U.S. Route 7 Expressway (originally envisioned to be a segment of the then-proposed Interstate 89 through western New England) between Norwalk and Danbury in 1972.
Some in Connecticut have been seeking to revive the expressway proposal, including those who originally opposed it, citing the rapidly increasing volume of traffic and the number of fatal accidents on the existing Route 7 over the past 20 years.
The completed section in Orange was initially used as a commuter parking lot, but now serves as an access road to Yale New Haven Hospital's Regional Operations Center.
In the 1970s, most of South Florida's expressways were canceled due to voters choosing to direct funding away from roads toward mass transit projects and the planned Miami Metrorail.
The high cost of acquiring right of way in this densely populated area, as well as community opposition, were the key factors in canceling most of these freeways.
The highways would have intersected in a large stack interchange complex roughly where the Carter Center exists today, east of downtown Atlanta.
Various attempts through the years to construct a freeway through the outer western suburbs of the Chicago metropolitan area were met with strong resistance and were ultimately unsuccessful.
In February 2002, IDOT stated there were no traffic need for the freeway, only political and economic reasons for advocating it; and that they only studied the issue because Peoria asked for it.
Due to opposition from environmental and community groups; and operators of the Indiana Toll Road, the section east of I-65 was dropped, but the Illiana Expressway was extended westward to Interstate 55 in Illinois.
Because of this, it would earn its nickname "The Other Green Monster", both a play on its greenish color and on the name of the tall left field wall in Fenway Park.
The cancellation also scrubbed plans to connect the Mound Road freeway which had already cleared the land to the existing M-53, Van Dyke Expressway, although further development of Macomb County has revived speculation on at least this portion of highway.
As construction progressed on the massive ramps that would connect I-275 to the existing interchange of I-96 and the western terminus of I-696, fierce opposition rose up from residents within several Oakland County communities, including Commerce Township, through where much of I-275 would have run.
Grading for I-335's connections to I-35W and I-94, as well as land acquisition and demolition for the road's right-of-way, had already begun when local residents protested I-335's proposed path through their communities.
In addition, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, whose roadway runs from the Delaware Memorial Bridge to New York City, feared that the paralleling toll-free highway could take away traffic (and revenue) south of the I-287 interchange.
A similar plan involving Interstate 78 would have bisected the town of Phillipsburg, but NJDOT and PennDOT, under opposition from local residents, decided to reroute I-78 south of the Lehigh Valley area.
Several expressways in New York City, mostly planned by Robert Moses, were canceled because of public oppositions, including two that would have been built through Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
After a long battle, the expressway was canceled in the 1970s by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller due to prospects of increased pollution and negative effects on such cultural neighborhoods as Little Italy and Chinatown.
Also, the Cross Brooklyn Expressway, a faster commercial route paralleling the Belt Parkway from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to John F. Kennedy International Airport, was canceled.
This resulted in the lack of a direct freeway connection between existing Interstate 74 and its proposed extension along Ohio State Route 32 to the east toward the Carolinas.
Interstate 40 in Tennessee was planned to go through Memphis's Overton Park but public opposition, combined with a United States Supreme Court victory by opponents, forced abandonment.
The Trans-Texas Corridor plan was cancelled due to widespread opposition from environmental groups, fiscal conservatives, and property rights activists.
Opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor plan was so strong that then-Governor Rick Perry and other high-level state officials were threatened with impeachment had they given final approval to move forward with construction.
