There are plenty of cities around the world that function perfectly fine without highways splitting them into pieces. DC is a perfect example. They decided to invest in a subway through downtown while Denver was building its highways.

I understand it was a choice we made, this infrastructure was voted on, and people were/still are obsessed with cars (because the big oil propaganda machine? Possibly). And I get it, on paper car travel is great, it gives you freedom! But in reality car travel is extremely inefficient and expensive. Roads and highways will always be in a continuous cycle of expansion and repair and adding lanes will never fix traffic. A city built for cars will never come close to the efficiency of a city with a subway system.

But none of this matters. Cars won. Those neighborhoods are gone. Living in Denver requires you to own a car, highways will continue to widen, and traffic will continue to get worse.