(somber music) - Roads, highways, overpasses, bridges were constructed in a way that tore through whatever community had the least social and political power to insist that it go somewhere else.

Often low income communities, typically communities of color, sometimes it was even considered a feature, so-called slum clearance or blight elimination to destroy what had in fact been a thriving Black neighborhood.

- Transportation is the number one contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

In other countries around the world where people drive 50% less than Americans do, their greenhouse gas emissions are much lower and lung disease is one of the major causes of death in the United States, and it's particularly bad in communities of color and low income communities near highways.

- A lot of destructive, and in many cases irreversible damage was visited on the landscape and on cities in the 1950s and 60s and into the 70s.

And I think that some of the damage came out of World War II.

It's like, look at us.

We beat Japan, we beat Germany.

We know how to just get things done, so now we're gonna get things done.

We're gonna build interstate highways.

We're going to tear down neighborhoods and build more efficient new neighborhoods, and this, "We're America.

We can do anything.

We know what we're doing," sparked this very strong reaction, which became, we can't trust you to just tell us this is all gonna work out, and then you're gonna screw up the environment.

You're gonna destroy cities.

- We now have such a car-based society, such a car-based life, that it's very difficult for Americans to envision a different way to get around.

We need to come to a new consensus around other options for investment, but getting there is gonna require a different way of thinking in our politics.