Community consequences of highway improvement

A state-of-the-art appraisal was made of studies conducted throughout the United States concerning the economic impact of various types of freeway facilities. The largest volume of literature occurs in the analysis of the effects of bypasses, particularly upon small communities. Next in significance to the bypass studies are the urban freeway studies, which have dealt mainly with land value changes in various distance bands from an urban radial freeway and at different distances from the central focus of the urban region. The few studies dealing with circumferential roads in urban areas are too diverse in their nature to lead to any integrated results. Some general guidelines for conducting future impact studies are discussed and areas for future research are proposed.