Driving back and forth to the Ozarks this weekend, I'm reminded how much damage has been done to small towns all over rural America by 20th century approaches to traffic engineering. This doesn't get as much attention any more in urbanist literature but I wish it would. 1/

We rarely discuss how certain approaches to highway design have effectively destroyed the local economies of much of our rural areas. I'll show a few examples 2/

Something very common of course is bypassing a rural highway around a downtown. Which inevitably causes major development & institutions to relocate to where the traffic (customers) are. Here's Tonganoxie, KS. Notice the sad downtown and the new commerce on the bypass

My high-school hometown, Marshall MO has a similar scenario. The downtown is somewhat healthier, but the bypass has the WalMart, the hospital, the fast food & new stores

Another common scenario is widening the highway through the center of town, effectively killing off anything attractive about the place. Here's Camdenton, MO, which is my nominee for saddest courthouse square in the state. Highway 54 rammed right through the square

A town I worked with years ago, Chillicothe, MO, has a similar problem. And a bank responded to the wider highway by tearing down one side of the square and making a big, suburban-style bank.

The widening mindset even destroyed early-car era cultural landmarks, like the Wheel Inn Drive-in, in Sedalia, MO. MODOT had to tear it down in order to widen a turning lane, so Sedalia lost a landmark.

All these changes have combined to not just visually blight the landscape, but most importantly destroy the local economy of so many places. So much of the business is done only at national chains now.

If we could get past our urban/rural tribes, we could find common cause and allies to suggest better approaches. I grew up in the rural Midwest, so I don't have the approach that people are stupid and don't know better. We've all been working w/ the same limited set of tools /END