Traditionally the twin objectives of high speed and high levels
of service yield an infrastructure agenda that consists almost
entirely of plans to build new streets and roads, and to widen,
straighten, and flatten existing ones. It was in response to
this culture of “transportation as if nothing else mattered”
that transportation agencies began to suffer the wrath of an
outraged public. It was this sentiment that sparked the “asphalt
rebellion” that has across the country, and the federal historic
and environmental protection laws of the 1960′s. But even before
the advent of federal transportation legislation through ISTEA
in 1991, federal, and in some cases state and municipal
transportation policy was beginning to change. By 1995, the
National Highway System Act would state that highway design “may
take into account…[in addition to safety, durability, and
economy of maintenance]… (A) the constructed and natural
environment of the area; (B) the environmental, scenic,
aesthetic, historic, community, and pres