Editing Interstate Highway System (section)

==Impact and reception==

Following the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, passenger rail declined sharply as did freight rail for a short time, but the trucking industry expanded dramatically and the cost of shipping and travel fell sharply.<ref>{{Cite web |date = July 20, 2017 |title = American Railroads |url = https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/essays/american-railroads |access-date = October 2, 2023 |website = National Museum of American History |language = en |archive-date = November 25, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201125062816/https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/essays/american-railroads |url-status = live }}</ref>{{Citation needed|reason=Need source for costs of shipping and travel|date=October 2023}} [[Suburbanization]] became possible, with the rapid growth of larger, sprawling, and more car-dependent housing than was available in central cities, enabling [[racial segregation]] by [[white flight]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last = Kruse |first = Kevin M. |date = August 14, 2019 |title = How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam |work = [[The New York Times]] |url = https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/traffic-atlanta-segregation.html |issn = 0362-4331 |archive-date = November 17, 2023 |access-date = November 16, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231117205110/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/traffic-atlanta-segregation.html |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url = https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater-la/robert-fuller-freeways-urbanism-race/la-freeways |title = How freeways represent the racial divide in LA |date = June 30, 2020 |publisher = KCRW |last = Chiotakis |first = Steve }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title = Highways and segregation |first = Avichal |last = Mahajan |date = June 26, 2023 |journal = Journal of Urban Economics |volume = 141 |page = 103574 |doi = 10.1016/j.jue.2023.103574 |s2cid = 259681981 |doi-access = free }}</ref> A sense of isolationism developed in suburbs, with suburbanites wanting to keep urban areas disconnected from the suburbs.<ref name=":0" /> Tourism dramatically expanded, creating a demand for more service stations, motels, restaurants and visitor attractions. The Interstate System was the basis for urban expansion in the Sun Belt, and many urban areas in the region are thus very car-dependent.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |series = History in Dispute |volume = 2 |title = American Social and Political Movements, 1945–2000: Pursuit of Liberty |date = 2000 |publisher = St. James Press |isbn = 978-1-55862-396-5 |editor-last = Allison |editor-first = Robert J. |location = Detroit }}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> The highways may have contributed to increased economic productivity in, and thereby increased migration to, the [[Sun Belt]].<ref>{{cite book |type = Report |last1 = Glaeser |first1 = Edward L. |last2 = Tobio |first2 = Kristina |title = The Rise of the Sunbelt |year = 2007 |publisher = Taubman Center Policy Briefs |id = PB-2007-5 }}</ref> In rural areas, towns and small cities off the grid lost out as shoppers followed the interstate and new factories were located near them.<ref>{{cite magazine |last = Blas |first = Elisheva |title = The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways: The Road to Success? |url = http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/pdfs/N10_NHD_Blas_Junior.pdf |volume = 44 |issue = 1 |date = November 2010 |pages = 127–142 |magazine = The History Teacher |publisher = Society for History Education |location = Long Beach, California |issn = 0018-2745 |access-date = April 27, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170402233423/http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/pdfs/N10_NHD_Blas_Junior.pdf |archive-date = April 2, 2017 |url-status = live |jstor = 25799401 }}</ref>

The system had a profound effect on interstate shipping. The Interstate Highway System was being constructed at the same time as the [[Intermodal container|intermodal shipping container]] made its debut. These containers could be placed on trailers behind trucks and shipped across the country with ease. A new road network and shipping containers that could be easily moved from ship to train to truck, meant that overseas manufacturers and domestic startups could get their products to market quicker than ever, allowing for accelerated economic growth.<ref name="fox1"/> Forty years after its construction, the Interstate Highway system returned on investment, making $6{{among whom|date=March 2024}} for every $1 spent on the project.<ref name="Cox & Love">{{cite book |last1 = Cox |first1 = Wendell |last2 = Jean |first2 = Love |date = June 1996 |title = 40 Years of the US Interstate Highway System: An Analysis The Best Investment A Nation Ever Made |url = http://www.publicpurpose.com/freeway1.htm |publisher = American Highway Users Alliance |via = Public Purpose |access-date = November 21, 2022 |archive-date = November 21, 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221121185957/http://www.publicpurpose.com/freeway1.htm |url-status = live }}</ref>{{Better citation|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=January 2025}} According to research by the [[Federal Highway Administration|FHWA]], "from 1950 to 1989, approximately one-quarter of the nation's productivity increase is attributable to increased investment in the highway system."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Phelps |first=Haley |date=2021 |title=When Interstates Paved the Way |url=https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2021/q2-3/economic_history#:~:text=According%20to%20research%20by%20the,market%20for%20goods%20as%20firms |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307231408/https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2021/q2-3/economic_history |archive-date=March 7, 2023 |access-date=May 17, 2024 |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond |language=en}}</ref>

The system had a particularly strong effect in Southern states, where major highways were inadequate{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}. The new system facilitated the relocation of heavy manufacturing to the South and spurred the development of Southern-based corporations like [[Walmart]] (in Arkansas) and [[FedEx]] (in Tennessee).<ref name="fox1">{{cite news |last1 = Fox |first1 = Justin |title = The Great Paving: How the Interstate Highway System Helped Create the Modern Economy—and Reshaped the Fortune 500 |url = https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/01/26/358835/index.htm |work = Fortune |date = January 26, 2004 |access-date = May 10, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180601030412/http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/01/26/358835/index.htm |archive-date = June 1, 2018 |url-status = live }}</ref>

The Interstate Highway System also dramatically affected American culture, contributing to cars becoming more central to the American identity. Before, driving was considered an excursion that required some amount of skill and could have some chance of unpredictability. With the standardization of signs, road widths and rules, certain unpredictabilities lessened. Justin Fox wrote, "By making road more reliable and by making Americans more reliant on them, they took away most of the adventure and romance associated with driving."<ref name="fox1"/>

The Interstate Highway System has been criticized for contributing to the decline of some cities that were divided by Interstates, and for displacing minority neighborhoods in urban centers.<ref name=StrombergVox>{{cite news |last1 = Stromberg |first1 = Joseph |title = Highways Gutted American Cities. So Why Did They Build Them? |url = https://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917/highways-interstate-cities-history |work = Vox |date = May 11, 2016 |access-date = May 10, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190425175726/https://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917/highways-interstate-cities-history |archive-date = April 25, 2019 |url-status = live }}</ref> Between 1957 and 1977, the Interstate System alone displaced over 475,000 households and one million people across the country.<ref name=GamboaNBC>{{cite news |url = https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/america-highways-inequality/ |title = Bulldozed and bisected: Highway construction built a legacy of inequality |date = June 18, 2021 |first1 = Suzanne |last1 = Gamboa |first2 = Phil |last2 = McCausland |first3 = Josh |last3 = Lederman |first4 = Ben |last4 = Popken |publisher = NBC News |access-date = June 18, 2023 |archive-date = June 24, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230624054418/https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/america-highways-inequality/ |url-status = live }}</ref> Highways have also been criticized for increasing racial segregation by creating physical barriers between neighborhoods,<ref>{{Cite news |last = Miller |first = Johnny |date = February 21, 2018 |title = Roads to Nowhere: How Infrastructure Built on American Inequality |url = http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere-infrastructure-american-inequality |access-date = April 3, 2021 |website = The Guardian |location = London |language = en |archive-date = April 4, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210404202301/https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/21/roads-nowhere-infrastructure-american-inequality |url-status = live }}</ref> and for overall reductions in available housing and population in neighborhoods affected by highway construction.<ref>{{cite web |last1 = Nall |first1 = Clayton |last2 = O'Keeffe |first2 = Zachary P. |title = What Did Interstate Highways Do to Urban Neighborhoods? |website = Nall Research |date = 2018 |page = 30 |url = http://www.nallresearch.com/uploads/7/9/1/7/7917910/urbanhighways.pdf |access-date = March 17, 2022 |archive-date = April 3, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210403042929/http://www.nallresearch.com/uploads/7/9/1/7/7917910/urbanhighways.pdf |url-status = live }}</ref>  Other critics have blamed the Interstate Highway System for the decline of [[public transportation in the United States]] since the 1950s,<ref>{{cite news |last1 = Stromberg |first1 = Joseph |title = The Real Reason American Public Transportation Is Such a Disaster |url = https://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9118199/public-transportation-subway-buses |work = Vox |date = August 10, 2015 |access-date = May 10, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190510182647/https://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9118199/public-transportation-subway-buses |archive-date = May 10, 2019 |url-status = live }}</ref> which minorities and low-income residents are three to six times more likely to use.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last1 = Fitzgerald |first1 = Joan |last2 = Agyeman |first2 = Julian |date = September 7, 2021 |title = Removing urban highways can improve neighborhoods blighted by decades of racist policies |url = http://theconversation.com/removing-urban-highways-can-improve-neighborhoods-blighted-by-decades-of-racist-policies-166220 |access-date = December 4, 2023 |website = The Conversation |language = en-US |archive-date = December 4, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231204234127/http://theconversation.com/removing-urban-highways-can-improve-neighborhoods-blighted-by-decades-of-racist-policies-166220 |url-status = live }}</ref> Previous highways, such as [[U.S. Route 66|US 66]], were also bypassed by the new Interstate system, turning countless rural communities along the way into ghost towns.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schulten |first=Susan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2g1uDwAAQBAJ&dq=how+many+small+towns+on+route+66+fell+into+decline+after+the+interstate&pg=PA229 |title=A History of America in 100 Maps |date=2018 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-45861-8 |page=229 |language=en}}</ref> The Interstate System has also contributed to continued resistance against new public transportation.<ref name=":0" /> 

The Interstate Highway System had a negative impact on minority groups, especially in urban areas. Even though the government used [[Eminent domain in the United States|eminent domain]] to obtain land for the Interstates, it was still economical to build where land was cheapest. This cheap land was often located in predominately minority areas.<ref name=":1" /> Not only were minority neighborhoods destroyed, but in some cities the Interstates were used to divide white and minority neighborhoods.<ref name=":0" /> These practices were common in cities both in the North and South, including [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], [[Miami]], [[Chicago]], [[Detroit]], and many other cities. The division and destruction of neighborhoods led to the limitation of employment and other opportunities, which deteriorated the economic fabric of neighborhoods.<ref name=":2" /> Neighborhoods bordering Interstates have a much higher level of particulate [[Air pollution in the United States|air pollution]] and are more likely to be chosen for polluting industrial facilities.<ref name=":2" />