working paper

Public Works, the Courts, and the Consent Decree: Environmental and Social Effects of the “Freeway With a Heart”

Abstract

Transportation planning in the United States has undergone a revolution in the past two decades. As recently as the late 1960s, with little citizen participation apart from public hearings on specific routes (Rosener, 1975), technical experts laid out plans for major transportation facilities, and their agency colleagues implemented those plans through standard routines. These routines often included noncontested condemnation and considerable alteration of the physical environment.