North American cities, in general, have a freeway problem. Throughout much of the 20th century, federal governments, state (and provincial) departments of transportation, and city officials went all in on building freeways that cut through valuable urban land in the heart of our cities. Some cities have even doubled down, continuing to build and widen freeways in the new millennium.

Of course freeways are valuable for freight movement, emergency response, and limited personal travel, but the toll they impose on our cities through noise, pollution, and damage to the urban fabric is massive. So in this video we explore the top ten "freeway-light" cities in North America: cities that have managed to grow and thrive while keeping freeway building to a (relative) minimum.

On our road to number one, we check in with Robert Moses, touch on the freeway revolts that occurred in the mid-20th century in response to the Federal Aid Highway Act (aka National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956) building spree, and visit three neighboring countries, the US, Canada, and Mexico, that all approach freeway building differently.

Links to CityNerd videos referenced in this video:
- Ginormous Interchanges:    • Top 10 GINORMOUS Freeway Interchanges...  
- NBA/NHL Arena Urban Design:    • 10 Arenas That Fit Their Cities Seaml...  
- Canada High Speed Rail:    • High Speed Rail vs. Air vs. Car: Cana...  
- Airport/Transit Connections:    • North America's Best Airport-Transit ...  

Links referenced in the video:
- "The D.C. Freeway Revolt and the Coming of Metro" by Richard F. Weingroff https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhisto...
- "The 20-Lane Highway Texas Wants to Force Through Austin" by Henry Grabar (Slate) https://slate.com/business/2021/10/au...
- "Story of cities #38: Vancouver dumps its freeway plan for a more beautiful future" by Tyler Stiem https://www.theguardian.com/cities/20...

Credits:
- L'Enfant Plan map courtesy Boston Public Library under Creative Comons license available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
- Atlanta traffic: Video by citi-flix from Pixabay
- Traffic at night: Video by Coverr-Free-Footage from Pixabay
- Confett: Video by Ranieri Alves de Araujo Ranieri from Pixabay
- Chicago Bean: Image by BriBra from Pixabay
- Vancouver skyline: Image by Macmaus from Pixabay
- Mexico City statue: Image by German Rojas from Pixabay
- Philadelphia skyline: Image by magnumlifestylemedia from Pixabay

Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

Twitter: @nerd4cities
Contact: [email protected]