Highways are designed for long-distance, high-speed travel. They’re great for moving freight across states or connecting cities hundreds of miles apart. But when we try to use highways to provide access to local homes and businesses, we end up driving up congestion and making travel unsafe—even deadly.

Highways come with massive short term costs in planning and construction, and long-term financial commitments for cities that are left with the maintenance and replacement bill.

Highways don’t generate wealth for cities. In fact, they often destroy it. When a highway cuts through a city, it lowers the value of adjacent land, displaces residents and businesses, and fragments neighborhoods. That’s not just a social cost, it’s a financial one. You lose productive land and replace it with something that doesn’t pay for itself.

Cities often get help from state or federal sources to build highways, but once they’re built, the maintenance, policing, and infrastructure around them become local responsibilities. That’s a huge burden.