Johann Hunt
Stroads—roads that try to be both streets and highways—are everywhere, shaping our cities in ways most people don’t notice. They dominate neighborhoods, influence traffic, and quietly change how communities function. Their effects aren’t always obvious, but they add up fast. Read on to uncover why stroads are making places worse.
Parking Lot Wastelands
A stroad is lined with huge parking lots. The lots are rarely filled to full capacity. They take up a lot of community space and make land use inefficient. A single parking lot along one of the stroad can be bigger than an entire city block.
Hostile To Human Scale
Wide roads with speeding traffic make walking stressful and crossings risky. Missing benches and trees reduce comfort, while older residents struggle with safety and access. The area ends up feeling isolating, unfriendly, and hard to navigate for everyone on foot.
Deadly For Cyclists
Cyclists face much higher risks on stroads than on dedicated bike paths. Many lack safe bike lanes entirely, and fast-moving traffic—often up to 45 miles per hour—makes riding dangerous. These roads put riders’ safety at serious risk every day.
Disconnected Neighborhoods
The size and speed of a stroad act as a significant barrier. It makes it harder for you to walk between different neighborhoods. Residents sometimes report feeling isolated due to a stroad. Many areas remain physically divided, with few safe or inviting paths to cross.
Hidden Costs For Homeowners
Living near stroads can reduce home resale value. Noise, safety issues, and traffic make buyers less interested. Home insurance tends to cost more in these areas. In some cities, residents have started moving away from stroad-heavy zones.
Environmental Hazards
The paved surfaces on a stroad increase stormwater runoff and pollution. Pavement can reach 130°F in summer, but tree-lined streets dramatically reduce this. In many cases, stroads add to the urban heat island effect because their asphalt absorbs heat.
Inaccessible Transit
Public transit is rarely a priority on a stroad. A stroad tends to have no safe bus stops or shelters. Many bus stops on a stroad are simply located on a highway shoulder. It is a big reason people don’t use transit.
Congestion And Emergency Delays
Stroads cause frequent traffic jams and slowdowns that disrupt deliveries and emergency access. High crash rates and dense traffic often force cities to reroute ambulances and make these roads unreliable for urgent response and everyday mobility.
Commercial Corridor Blight
Stroads often suffer from high vacancy rates and declining business activity. Poor customer experiences in these areas lead to falling retail values over time, and many end up with dead malls. Some cities are addressing this by converting stroads into streets to bring life back to shopping districts.
Wasted Public Investment
Cities spend taxpayer money on stroad expansions, which often provide only small gains in safety or traffic flow. Maintenance costs grow over time, and these roads require repaving far more frequently—sometimes three times as often as regular streets—making them an expensive investment.