Here's more proof that highways are terrible for cities

A recent study highlights the significant impact of urban highways on social connectivity, revealing that all major cities in the U.S. assessed experience reduced neighborhood ties due to highway presence. The research, published in a leading journal, provides quantitative scores for highway disruption and identifies Cleveland, Orlando, and Milwaukee as the most adversely affected cities. Utilizing social media data, the study reinforces longstanding qualitative claims about barriers to community cohesion, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods, presenting a fresh perspective on urban infrastructure's social consequences.

"Nobody could put a number on the disruption, and now we can give a score to every single highway segment," says Luca Aiello, a professor at the IT University of Copenhagen and the study's lead author.

"The problem is that nobody had any way to quantitatively measure how much this infrastructure impacts or decreases people's opportunities to connect across these large highways," he says.

"If we can quantify and put a number on this, we can quantify the damage that it is doing to our social fabric."

"If someone wants to cross a multilane highway, it takes a lot of effort," explains coauthor Anastassia Vyb.

Read at Fast Company