In my opinion, freeways are the main reason neighborhoods crumbled in Detroit. They leveled homes. They destroyed neighborhoods. And they provided an all-to-easy way to escape the neighborhoods into the "grass and garage" of the suburbs. I think that a good step to repairing Detroit would be to fill in all of our cobo canals.

The main snag on this plan is traffic. People will complain that trips will take longer and traffic will increase on mainline roads. This isn't completely true. Studies have even shown that removing freeways reduces traffic. I'm not saying removing I-94 will fix traffic problems, but removing I-375 will. Instead of routing cars on one road, people will use the service drives, Randolph, Rivard, Beaubien, or Public Transit Systems. With expansion of public transit, some of the load will be taken off the road! [[Just thought of that)

Let's say we tear up the Chrysler Freeway from 8 Mile south an put a park there instead. If you live in Hazel Park and work in downtown. Instead of using I-75, take Woodward south. The traffic will start to flare up as you cross the Davidson, so you have several alternates:

  • Take an alternate route, like 2nd, John R, Hamilton, or Cass
  • Drive along the I-75 service drive [[Now renamed Hastings)
  • Park at New Center then take the M-1 Rail to Downtown
  • Park at the fairgrounds then take the 53 bus to Downtown

All of this helps to even out traffic.

With public transit along mainline roads, the traffic flow will be transferred onto the "US-12" rail or any other public transit forms. Also, with bike lanes, commuters within a few miles of their workplace can use this option.

When removing freeways, there are several options to use the reclaimed land. Again using I-75 as an example, land could be used as
  • A wide boulevard, widening the service drives to 4 lanes in each direction. A park in the middle, with bike and transit lanes
  • New residential and retail neighborhoods
  • Commercial Space
  • Parks


Even with no modifications, getting from the Ambassador Bridge to 8 mile without using the chrysler [[instead the I-96 and Davidson) takes only about 4 more minutes.

As for which freeways to remove, the first I'd say would be I-375, M-10 south of the Fisher, and the M-3 connector. Then the fisher from I-96. A long time after that the Davidson and the Southfield. Then the Chrysler. I can't really picture the I-94 and M-10 being removed. They've been here for a lot longer and they carry the most traffic.

So I think it would be effective to remove freeways and replace them, instead of using more money to fix freeways.

Thanks,
MicrosoftFan