Where did the interstate highway act contributed to?

Answer 1

With the increase of autos in the 1950s, the demand for good quality roads increased. The federal government passed the Interstate Highway Act, 1956, pumping $1 billion a year into the construction of roads. By 1960, $2.9 billion was being used a year. The construction encouraged urban sprawl, as more people could now live in the suburbs and drive the freeways into the cities for work. But it also marked the beginning of the end to the city as a livable location. The middle class left the city to live in the suburbs, urban neighborhoods were split into isolated residential islands walled off from each other by concrete abutments of the freeways. Cars clogged the roads and parking spaces of every major city. Noise and pollution increased in cities and the middle class tax base caused a decay in the necessary city services. Crime increased. Schools were neglected. Health care could not afford to keep up its services. By the 1960s, major department stores and light industries left the cities and relocated in shopping malls and centers in the suburbs, taking jobs with them and further decreasing the tax base for the city.