> I don't know about North America but absolutely not in the UK. They
> were supported largely by a pseudo-aristocratic rump of village
> dwellers concerned about protecting the beauty of their (hugely
> expensive) rural homes and country life. Whatever popular support
> they did get was just a way of giving a two-fingered salute to the
> deeply unpopular Major adminstration.
This isn't even slightly true: the two most prominent large scale anti-road protests in England were Twyford Down and Wanstonia, organised by (Twyford Down) greens and (Wanstonia) a mix of local (East End of London) working-class residents and anarcho-squatters.
See e.g.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twyford_Down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M11_link_road_protest
John Kozak