A board game
that engages with the history of U.S. interstate highways.
The 1960’s saw an explosion of interstate highway construction through many major cities in the United States. Often, highway construction threatened to tear apart well-established neighborhoods, so residents staged so-called “Highway Revolts” in response. Revolts that were most successful in blocking highway construction relied on coalition-building and other collaborative political tactics.
I designed a game called Highway Revolt! in which players use their hand of cards to cooperate with each other against a house deck in an attempt to block highway construction through their neighborhoods. Throughout the game, players employ the same political tactics that historical protestors did and have a chance to learn about the motivations of key stakeholders in interstate construction, including state and federal departments, politicians, and lobbyists. Players appreciated the collaborative nature of the game in the face of systemic issues.