Worst City Planning

[Zakumi 29]

It's Washington DC, because it's a very old city and has a bunch of old roads. Then later City Planners in DC laid out roads next to the old crumbling roads that are leading to the same direction which I don't see the logic of. But you could combine the old roads and the new ones to make a bigger road. Not only that but there are roads with the EXACT same name in completely different places such as Backlick Road and Frying Pan Road. I lived there for 3 years and it was a bit of a pain in the neck.

Here's a image

[Priyon 16]

My city, Bhopal, which is right in the centre of India, has some of the worst city planning you'll ever see anywhere. There are even worse cities here, but Bhopal is pretty bad too.

 

The map of roads themselves are not so bad. The problematic thing is the extremely unplanned buildup alongside these roads, done by severely undereducated and extremely corrupt city planners, most of them being dumb fools who probably have never seen a real city in their life. Most of them are old and are only good at making attempts at copying big cities based on 20th century socialist models. Hence, almost nothing.

 

Firstly, the city is de-facto divided in two zones. One is old Bhopal, the city that existed from 16th century onwards, and everything else that is called new Bhopal, which has some decent road planning. The old city resembles an Arab town from 12th century in the Middle East, not surprising it since it was built under Muslim governors (and later independent feudal lords) from central Asia brought during Mughal Imperial era. It has extremely narrow dirt streets where most cars cannot reach, extremely closely built houses that resemble a rich stone slum, and has little to none space for modern facilities like schools and sports facilities. What land remained was occupied by the mosques, ending any semblence of city planning it might've ever had. It is commonly referred to as Muslim quarter by the people of the city.

 

The rest of the city (AKA new Bhopal) is different. It has wide roads up to 6 lanes, many bus lanes, two well established railway lines. We have a business district, a market zone, an industrial township constructed back in '80s unfortunately in the middle of the city, a lot of housing areas with parks and etc. No high rises, but after all Bhopal is a quiet, suburban residential city.

 

Now that might seem like a decent place, but then the problem starts kicking in. There are absolutely NO pavements/footpaths beside the roads. What pavements are there are from '80s as well, and they are just huge ugly concrete platforms, simply pathetic attempts to make them look like a pavement. They are almost completely unwalkable, because the city planners (with their undeveloped brains) planted trees in the middle of the pavements. There are no drains besides the roads, so if it ever rains heavily the people suffer massive floods on the roads that cannot be dealt with until it naturally dries up after a few weeks. There is no parking system anywhere.

 

There are NO zebra crossings. Well there are some, but they wear out within a week and no one uses them. There are no traffic lights at almost all the crossings either. They just built a stupid-looking roundabout at almost every single road junction. The bus lanes are completely unplanned as well. They just arbitrarily destroyed the divider of a 4-lane road, and took the inner two lanes as bus lanes and walled them up. It failed because only one bus at a time could pass through the road, so much narrow it had become.

 

Besides, the shopkeepers have a tendency to snatch land and build upon the roads, which leaves out any possibility of correcting the damage done to the city. Parks, they are there but only in name, most have delapidated and become hubs of criminals, smokers and drinkers by the evening. What parks remain safe have nothing a park should have - benches, swings, decent lighting and such, just wild trees. There are frequent traffic jams everywhere. There are maybe two fire stations in the city, but they don't have any fire trucks (because they don't actually know what a fire truck is). The ambulances never take anything less than an hour or two to reach a small distance, so ambulances are as good as nothing. The police are divided in zones to handle, but those zones are so badly designed that the policemen are always confused as to take any action at all when called for help, or just let the men from the neighbouring zone to handle it.

 

The worst thing that has happened over time is forceful land snatching and building of unplanned concrete jungles over it. Some real-estate managers just snatch thousands of acres of land wherever they find it, build hundreds of monotone housing units on that land and sell it out. The city officials, the same uneducated lazy men, just stand by and watch (since they get a share of the profit as well)

 

Overall, it is a vehemently wild city. The road map was well planned, but that's about the only good thing about urban planning this city. It is in it's current state because of uneducated, lazy and corrupt men ruling over it, and the sick mentality of the population living in the city.

 

Large metropolitan cities in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and others are completely different, they are usually well planned and built, like any decent city of the western world, but Bhopal is really bad in terms of urban planning.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Bhopal, this sounds familiar. Is this related to the chemical/industrial disaster? 

 

At least you don't have traffic lights that are not even fifty meters away from each other. 

 

====|road to mall|====|road to another mall|====|road to bus terminal|====

 

I really don't understand why these junctions all have traffic lights when in fact, the traffic lights are causing the traffic. I will definitely rant about this as this is the reason that I keep getting late every now and then. 

[Saint Andrew 6]

Cool thread. I haven't read all 16 pages so maybe it has already been mentioned but from a highway design standpoint, the worst planning goes to:

 

Montreal, Canada

 

 

 

Okay so all is not bad; the public transportation system is well developped (the subway system is the 3rd busiest in North America) but the highway system is VERY dysfunctional.

 

The city proper has 1.6 million people (2nd largest in Canada, 6th largest in Can/USA) but the metro area has a population of 3.8 million. The city is on an island, and most of the suburbs are off the island. That geography makes matters worse. But bad planning and pressure from anti-highway groups have made it a nightmare fo anyone who doesn't live near a subway line (the majority of the metro population) to get around.

 

 

On the island, there is only one east-west highway that runs the lenght of the island, and for muchof its length it only has 3 lanes in each direction and is gridlocked.

 

 

 

But the worst part is getting on the island, especially on the busiest side, the south shore. There are only 5 crossings and to make matters worse, only two carry highways. All 5 crossings are completely congested every single day. Despite this fact, there are absolutely no plans to even consider building a new crossing. The most recent crossing was built in 1967, the others in 1962, 1934, 1930 and 1859 (!). 

 

 

 

The busiest bridge in Canada with nearly 200k daily crossings, the Champlain Bridge, carries not one, not two, but three major highways. It has a total of 3 lanes in each direction. Yeah you read that right, three major highways (A-10, A-15, A-20) and three lanes. The good news is they are rebuilding the bridge, the bad news is they are doing it in a hurry because the whole thing is collapsing (they had to install a large beam directly on top of the roadway to keep it standing). Even worse, they are going to go to 8 lanes total instead of 6, which will obviously do nothing to ease the problem. The 4 other crossings have respectively totals of 6 lanes, 5 lanes, 4 lanes and 2 lanes total. 

 

 

 

 

Up until two years ago, Montreal was the largest metro area in North America (by far) to not have a bypass highway. There was no for people to go through the area without crossing two bridges and making traffic worse. Now that the A-30 southern bypass highway is complete, traffic on the island has not even gotten better. But at least those who don't have to go onto the island can avoid it.

 

 

 

Finally, just so you get a visual of all the ''stubs'' and ''highways to nowhere'', here is a map of the highways in the area. In red is the Ville-Marie expressway which runs directly under the downtown core:

 

[Sabretooth78 808]

...The road map was well planned, but that's about the only good thing about urban planning this city. It is in it's current state because of uneducated, lazy and corrupt men ruling over it, and the sick mentality of the population living in the city...

You just described Buffalo to a tee.  So much potential.  So much waste.

[iLoveMusic 66]

The region I live in (although I would say that I'm in the better part of it), known as the "Inland Empire" in Southern California, was declared by Smart Growth America as America's absolute worst example of urban sprawl in 2002:

• Poor city planning
• Complete disregard for the environment
• Lack of any city centers
• Incomplete/missing public transit system
• Greedy developers/builders from other states
• Heavy traffic (some of the country's most notoriously congested routes are here)
• Smog
• Uneven zoning laws from one city to the next
• Poorly gridded road system, further contributing to bad driving and road rage
• Most Inland Empire residents commute to job centers over 60 miles away in Los Angeles or San Diego
• Cheap, haphazard yet fancy-looking housing (for those looking for affordable housing in Southern California)
• Drugs (methamphetamines in particular) & Gang violence
• One of the worst-hit areas in the U.S. during the 2008 mortgage crisis - foreclosure rate rose 3,500 percent between 2006 and 2009 = mass abandonment)
• Political corruption in some cities (the cities of Perris and San Jacinto come to mind)
• Outdated infrastructure
• Groundwater pollution (the Stringfellow Acid Pits, Norton Air Force Base and March Air Reserve Base have all been designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as Superfund toxic waste sites)
• Very poor academic performance, high dropout rate, low college attendance rate
• High unemployment rate

From Wikipedia, regarding transportation in the Inland Empire:

 

 

Traffic congestion problems on the roadways, as with elsewhere in Southern California, is the result of the steady increase in the number of vehicles and a transportation network that has not expanded accordingly. Many of the existing freeways were completed in the late 1970s, with the exception of the segment of the Foothill Freeway, California State Route 210 (SR 210) between San Dimas and San Bernardino completed in July 2007. New freeways or highways "fix-ups" are being planned, such as the expansion of the length of the 215 freeway around Inland Center Mall. However, other problems exist, one being the jobs vs. housing imbalance. The Inland Empire population grew as a result of affordable housing, at least relative to the rest of Southern California. But most of the higher paying jobs are located in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties. Thus, many workers must drive daily from the Inland Empire to their jobs in these counties - sometimes up to two hours in each direction, and even longer if by public transportation. Forbes Magazine recently ranked the area first in its list of America's most unhealthy commutes, beating out every other metropolitan area in the country, as Inland area drivers breathe the unhealthiest air and have the highest rate of fatal auto accidents per capita.

 

According to a 1999 report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the Inland Empire lead in fatal crashes caused by road rage. The theft of copper, brass and other materials from highway and road fixtures has also led to decreased public safety on IE roads and freeways. Gas siphoning has also been noted as a problem for vehicles left unattended in the region.

 

See main article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Empire

 

Furthermore, here's something interesting - my city has rejected three bids from one persistent developer who is interested in building a massive waterpark in the city. This is all during the area's worst drought in decades (frequently featured on the news), and in a semi-arid region where water must be conserved. We've had water rationed twice since 2007. The same developer recently put in a fourth bid for the waterpark, despite three rejections by the city already. There was also a plan to build a badly-needed overpass/freeway exit near an extremely congested freeway exit recently, however, only one off-ramp was completed and absolutely nothing else. No overpass or other ramps. Now it just sits there, weeds galore. No reason for this was given, and has stopped being covered in local news outlets. I know that the city has not run out of money, so I don't know what the problem is. There is also a heavy presence of empty commercial/office buildings (low-rise) in the next town over, all built in a rush a couple of years ago, occupying what was formerly beautiful open space. These buildings cannot be filled, as retail across the entire U.S. seems to be crumbling in slow motion this year, especially in my area. Vacancies have been increasing even in the older shopping centers here, including the big-box stores. I've also noticed an explosion of homeless camps recently, springing up usually near freeway exits.

 

The truth is seldom pleasant, but it is what it is.

[frukox 8]

The worst is the biggest city in Turkey and bigger-than-most-countries:Istanbul. You cannot dare to use your own car or you will face serious problems at the traffic lights on the busiest junctions around the world. I remember waiting for traffic lights having turned red at least twice before passing under it. Despite having an extensive bus system around the city, when you are in the inner city, you cannot move for a bit because of terribly narrow streets and even avenues. Your best bet is to park your car somewhere(if lucky, you can park on the last lane) not enough parking lots- forget those multi-storey ones in the Minor Asian side- and walk the rest to your destination. I am happy for not living in that city. 

[RLS0812 11]

Come on down to Pittsburgh    !

 The entire city looks like they threw roads and bridges and highways any were they fit !

It is very easy to take a wrong turn !!!

[MrGovernor 20]

I reckon Auckland, New Zealand is not well planned. Even at about 1 million people the traffic becomes horrific due to the fact that the city has a horrible public transport network. One example is the city rail lines that only serve small portions of the city, and they don't even have a direct line to the airport. Because of this everyone takes the bus leading to even more heavy traffic on the very few highways that travel through the city. 

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Time to bump this thread, because I found I found this little collection of trumpets just east of Wichita, KS. I don't care if it's not a terribly built up area. It's stupid.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Maybe some civil engineering office was so crazy about the new RHW features that they just had to try them out?

[Compdude787 916]

Trumpets are often used in this fashion on toll roads in America because you can have just one tollbooth in one place. In this case the freeway running from top to bottom in this image is the Kansas Turnpike, which is routed along I-35 here.

[Mesaman87 6]

I live within the Greater Milwaukee area, and there is quite a lot of terrible planning around the place. Many of the major avenues within the City of Milwaukee have only enough room for only one lane of traveling traffic on each side of the road, while the remaining room is used for local parking. That really just snarls all the traffic coming out of the downtown back into the suburbs. Some of the freeways in the area have left hand exits, like over by Miller Park (The only way to reach the stadium is by the freeway. Fun traffic after ball games), and the freeways in the area don't have the capacity to carry the ever increasing traffic from the surrounding counties into Milwaukee. Waukesha has a love affair with confusing four or five point intersections that aren't signal controlled, plus to add to the fact that Wisconsin drivers can't drive to save themselves. Public transit in the area is also non-existent. Milwaukee and Waukesha are the only two cities in the metro with adequate bus coverage, and even so, some key areas of the cities are not well served, because we love our cars, not so much the bus, or any public transit for that matter here in Southeast WI.

[SteveMSim 275]

Dothan, Alabama, where my sister lives, is not noted for its city planning.  Dothan is a hub for a region encompassing southeast Alabama, southwest Georgia, and part of the Florida panhandle, a region known as the Wiregrass for a type of grass.  Dothan has a ring road encircling it with most of its shopping centers, big box stores, and motels on that ring.  The ring road gets congested on weekends as shoppers from the surrounding area converge on Dothan.  The retailers on the ring road have sucked life out of Dothan's downtown.  In fact, murals were painted on some of the remaining buildings in downtown Dothan in an effort to stem blight and bring people back there.  Housing development has also centered on the ring road so residents are constantly using it.  

[Odainsaker 2,137]

Some of our budding planners might enjoy this article published earlier this week by The Rivard Report on city planning gone horribly wrong:  "Hausman Road: The High Cost of Sprawl in San Antonio."

Some chewable excerpts:

"The project, which is nearing completion, is the most expensive street improvement project in city history, costing a total of $75,189,555.  Yet many in San Antonio would be hard pressed to identify the road’s exact location."

"Add it all up and the cost is $75.1 million, or $22.1 million a mile."

"...while its near-completion promises substantial traffic relief and flood control, no one expects that public investment to generate significant economic development.  It's sprawl relief, a costly fix to a traffic problem caused by unplanned growth.  The result is that taxpayers across the city are paying the bill for upgrades needed in the aftermath of continuing suburban sprawl.  The only alternative in such locations is to live with gridlock, especially in the absence of multimodal transit options to reduce vehicle congestion."

"It's a clear example of the tension between the inevitable costs of unplanned-for growth and our need as a city to be more sustainable.  The reality is I could find four roadways in District 8 of similar size and need that need to be put on the bond, but there simply isn’t the money in the city, much less this district, to address all these needs.  We need to stop doing what we are doing, or we are going to be faced with endless demands for expensive projects like Hausman Road."

"The City’s own figures show an accumulated $1.4 billion shortfall in street construction and maintenance and an accumulated $1.1 billion shortfall in sidewalk construction and maintenance.  Officials with the City’s Transportation and Capital Improvements say there are more than 32 miles of urban streets without sidewalks.  Poorly maintained sidewalks on some inner city neighborhoods streets cause pedestrians to walk instead in the streets."

 

Yikes, a $1.1 billion shortfall just to retrofit sidewalks.  Meanwhile, suburban voters two years ago fiercely howled to kill the City's $32 million investment in former mayor Julián Castro's downtown streetcar project, and State politicians further tried to grab those funds to use for on a highway interchange augmentation in order to offset potential future toll roads.  Amusingly, even as the costs of these suburb-servicing roads skyrocket as the sprawl continues to spread, suburban flight ever further outwards is partly being pushed by a desire to avoid the city taxes needed to pay for servicing the demands of the sprawl.