Freeway
From Portland Afoot
A freeway is a type of highway on which the main flow of traffic almost never has to stop for stoplights or other traffic-control devices. It's typically grade-separated and, in urban areas, removed from the surrounding area by a wall blocking pedestrian or other vehicle access, except at onramps.
The U.S. Interstate Highway System consists of freeways. States also maintain freeways of their own. Freeways in the Portland area include Interstate 5, Interstate 205, Interstate 405 and U.S. Highway 26 (Sunset Highway).
[edit] Dead freeways
Portland has an unusually low number of urban freeway lane-miles per person compared to other U.S. cities. This is in part due to citizen activism in the early 1970s against the Mount Hood Freeway, Laurelhurst Freeway and other proposals.
Gov. Tom McCall, then-Mayor Neil Goldschmidt and then-Multnomah County Commissioner Don Clark were politicians who ultimately supported the anti-freeway efforts; Sensible Transportation Options for People, founded by TriMet planner Jim Howell and former Goldschmidt chief of staff Ron Buel, was a prominent citizen activist group.
[edit] See also
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