Tearing down urban freeways to make room for a new bicycle economy

From an article posted to www.grist.org this week.

Here’s one way to fund bicycle infrastructure: Stop building freeways in cities.

Better yet, tear down the ones we already have.

…

Bike lanes cost anywhere from $5,000 to $60,000 per mile to add to an existing road. That includes everything from engineering and design to paint and concrete to traffic signals.

Does that seem like a lot? Well, let’s compare.

Freeway construction in Michigan’s countryside clocks in at $8 million per mile. In the state’s cities, with their need for overpasses, underpasses, exits and entrances, and mitigation of construction impacts on health and commerce, the cost jumps to an average of $39 million per mile.

It’s just that simple