Joseph DiMento's latest book charts evolution of urban freeway

January 3, 2013

Image of Joseph DiMento

In Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways, Prof. DiMento and a coauthor write about the evolution of the urban freeway in the United States. They examine the competing visions of the different professions involved in planning these highways and their approaches to improving city life. They focus on three cases: Syracuse, which embraced freeways; Los Angeles, which rejected some routes and then built I-105; and Memphis, which blocked construction of I-40 through its core. Finally, they consider the urban highway removal movement and other efforts to re-envison urban transportation. This book comes on the heels of one DiMento coauthored earlier this year, Environmental Governance of the Great Seas. Prof. Dimento also spoke on climate change at a recent conference at the Universitat de Barcelona.