This is a problem with old highways that were upgraded to substandard interstates. That isn't the case here with plenty of room to build a safer design.
Texas has done a lot to increase the dangers caused by their roads, and don't seem like they plan to reroute. Just look at the current plans for the I-35, ffs.
That's a separate issue from how the interstates interface with cities. Interstates outside of city centers are fine (see European cities). The destruction of the human-scale urban fabric is the primary concern.
Don't quote me on this since I don't remember why I believe it, but I think it's part of the legally mandated design requirements for the US interstate system.
By the way, this article first appeared in a recent Something Awful thread. It is very long but has heaps of information for anyone interested in highway design.
I wonder if the passenger and freight rail lines the interstates helped kill were safer still and building the highways might have increased fatalities by switching from rail to driving despite being safer than the older US highways.
Parts of Highway 17 in South Carolina were recently upgraded to exactly this type of road. I've noticed many other highways (not Interstates) using this exact design. Admittedly, they do not always have a steel barrier.
Traffic circles are another thing going in all around where I currently live. Unfortunately many people still do not know how to use them, but they are learning.
That’s because it literally looks like 80% of the multiple lane roads in America. There are probably >20 intersections in my city that would be completely indistinguishable.
It’s also the point of the article. These very dangerous designs are everywhere and they kill thousands every year. A man was killed in my city two nights ago on an arterial just like this one.
The interstate system was responsible for decimating entire down towns, completely reducing any sense of mobility for all parties involved. Uprooting trolly systems that spanned across large parts of the country. It's not a specific issue with the word, it's a issue with what the overall view of highways portrayed by the article, and the reason it was done to begin with.
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