Worst City Planning

[mikey.bruin742 0]

Out of all the cities I've been to all across the country I have to say my home city, Seattle, is disasterous in thhe planning. I love this city, but not the traffic and roads, lol. Firstly Seattle is built above the old city (seattle underground) putting it in a complicated position. Roads are tangled everywhere and its very easy to get stuck somewhere you don't want to be. Seattle is almost always in the "top 10 cities with the worst traffic".  Seattle is an amazing city with alot of stuff to do...but its going to take you awhile to get there...

 This should be a sign here...

[Poetic 0]

Nice summary of Detroit's layout Jasoncw. I always loved Detroit's Downtown layout & I like southeast Michigan's mile roads, Michigan Left's, etc... I think it's pretty well organized compared to other places.

[Mulefisk 15]

Jasoncw: Are all American downtowns as barren as that? I might be wrong, but looking at the pictures in the link, it looks like downtown is basically just a collection of new and old buildings, with more or less no significant street-life.

[ilikehotdogsalot 308]

Mulefisk: I was looking over Detroit and although it has some nice architecture and buildings, It is fairly dead with many parking lots and looks rather empty [no offense to residents of detroit]

Sadly, Many of the Downtown Districts empty out by night because everybody goes home, like Los Angeles' CBD. I think the only Downtowns in the US that aren't barren might be San Francisco's, New York's, Chicago, Washington D.C and a few in between like Seattle, Dallas. Hopefully new residential projects will make them more lively in the next years.

[pgwrules 0]

downtown residence projects wont help, what needs to happen in those cities is to expand rapid transit systems and force buisnesses to allocate land beneath their buildings to shops, stores, and clubs. The Problem with the modern American city is just that, when work is over, everyone leaves for home (thank the highways and the car). my suggestion to urban planners? stop being stupid and building highways, build new mass transit systems and create mixed zoning areas. Oh and dont expand roads, build new sidewalks and bike paths instead.

[willfryar 0]

I have to disagree with the poster who mentioned D.C. The areas around downtown are wonderful. The lack of highways, in my opinion, are a plus. Highways are the most overrated engineering marvels of all time.

I can only comment on cities Ive been to. That being said almost all of the large Texas cities are a mess.....Houston in particular. There seems to be zero zoning there. You will see a big-box store right next to house. Its very odd.

[willfryar 0]

The new wave of planning is Smart Growth, look it up.quote>

Oh no! Robert Moses is rolling in his grave!

BTW, Moses didn't only have his hand in screwing up NYC's outlying areas.  His influence can be partly to blame for the messy state of just about every other American city.

[ACEfanatic 7]

Originally posted by: Mulefisk Jasoncw: Are all American downtowns as barren as that? I might be wrong, but looking at the pictures in the link, it looks like downtown is basically just a collection of new and old buildings, with more or less no significant street-life.quote>

That's not the fault of the urban planning, Mulefisk, but economic troubles.

Anyway, I nominate Myrtle Beach, SC.  Once you get inland of the Intracoastal, there's absolutely no plan.  Nothing but sprawl.  Ick.  Not to mention that there's no way to actually *get* there.  (New interstate looks like it'll solve that problem, though.)

-ACE

[commanderkai 38]

Toronto is probably the worst city outside of Los Angeles for road planning. And the subway system sucks as well. They really should extend it towards the East, though they do have the GO trains which help a bit

[gml_josea 2]

I nominate Caracas, Venezuela. Traffic is a pain in all the 4 highways and nearly every avenue, road, street or mass transit system. The subway is as congested as the roads over it, you can barely move inside the stations at rush hour, hey, you even need to be careful, if you're too near of the subway tracks someone may push you into them.

Crime is a serious problem, anywhere you go you can get robbed easily, specially around the downtown. There's garbage all around the city thanks to the government's stupidity, and the homeless people make the garbage look even more dirty throwing it around when searching for food. We ran out of space loong ago, since this is a valley, and there's absolutely no space to any major development of highways, mass transit or in general efficient transportation systems. The mountains around the city are all covered with ugly low wealth neighborhoods, and since this city has NEVEr been planned it is common to see big (+10 floors) buildings right next to a home.

Sorry, I just had to rant about my city, this place could be a lot of better if the government actually focused on fixing the small issues instead of giving free money to other south american countries.

[Mike the Mayor 51]

I'd have to say Cordoba, Spain or perhaps even Bristol, England. Cordoba is a picturesque city with idyllic architecture but half of it is paved with no car access and what roads, there are get congested very quickly. Bristol also only has one way into the city centre from the south causing tale-backs every morning and afternoon whatever day it is.

[Juan Rico 0]

Originally posted by: RobledoRessainance I doubt that cities in the US could be as badly planned as other really chaotic cities in the world like Manila, Bangkok, Lima, Mumbai, Mexico, Lagos, etc etc. The government would rather do something to improve sewage system, electricty and squatter settlements than designing a good transit system.

Look:

Lagos, Nigeria

Dhaka, Bangladesh

El Alto-La Paz, Boliviaquote>

Manila???

The only bad thing about it is the squatters and homeless.

[Sticksboi05 2]

DC wasn't poorly planned in 1800.  Few could come up with the system Lafayette came up with in 1800.  First off, the subway does not suck.  It's highly regarded nation wide and TravelChannel's #3 subway in the world.  It's not that small, it is the 2nd largest in the U.S.  It's ridership will go over 1 million a weekday once the Dulles Airport extension is complete in 2015.  The problem with DC roads are that they haven't modified for the future.  But tourists almost never drive into DC because Metro takes them where they need to go.

Two, few buses?  It  has the 4th largest bus system in America so I'm sure there aren't enough....

No highways is a good thing.  Northern VA is so sprawly besides Arlington/Alexandria.

The problem with DC is the moronic people ion government obsess over roads and not more mass transit.

Btw, even in the summer, nowhere near half of DC's metro ridership is from tourists except on July 4th.  It's alot but not half.

The worst planning in DC in M Street in Georgetown.

[MonkeyMan09 2]

mexico city, 'nuff said...

[villagemayor 0]

A lot of cities that were originally planned in the 1800s such as Detroit and Washington D.C. followed the City Beautiful movement. The idea of the City Beautiful movement was to enhance the design of the streets so that every street corner either had a landmark or a fountain/park. In addition, some designs had a military use in forcing enemies to take a couple of strategic routes, kind of like a boobie trap. Whatever the case, it was usually the town planner or the architect, or whomever famous at the time, planning the new city. These concepts and original ideas were implemented over time, but these ideas became lost due to development, or simply the fact that forgot the original purpose of the design.

[villagemayor 0]

To further reply to my reply above, the examples of Bolivia, Nigeria, or other third world country is the exact opposite of Paris, Washington DC, or Detroit. Third World cities are being planned organically, with no purpose and no design whatsoever. The reason why these are so poorly planned is, because, there is no planning. Shanty towns are create at whim, and to the needs of the local public. Local streets cannot handle the increasing population, thus creating traffic jams and hoards of people on the streets. Planning is done to the wealthier parts of the city to keep the poor, the homeless, and unwanted land uses out (kind of like exclusionary zoning).

[hamsterTK 93]

Any city that did any Robert Moses type stuff

You know, freeways through downtown, housing projects, tearing down entire neighborhoods. All that stuff that was supposed to "renew" the city...

[saltandsauce 0]

i believe many americans life story gooes like this:

parents moved to the sububrbs in the 50s

had american subject about

american subject grows up in a suburban school

they move into the city possibly to go to college/university

get married/whatever

all of a sudden go hey i only have 1 child and 2 bedrooms that isn't nearly enough room. shame nowhere else here has 5 bedrooms 2 TV rooms dining room bathroom,toilet,jucuzzi room etc.

oh well lets just see im too poor to move just now

kid grows up in inner city urban school

american subject got a promotion/can move now to the suburbs and get a huge house

move to suburbs

schools just as bad if not worse than inner city schools

child depends on 1 parent being "chauffeur"

child loses independance

child goes into teens

teen gets grouchy because they can't have a car etc.

goto begining

and that is the circle of american liiiiiiiife

this is no problem of city planning its the american mindset that they pick having land over being close to others thats what held many european cities together during the second world war

[inquisitor 0]

Hands Down, Houston.

Therer's no cohesive zoning policy in effect.

Second Place: Atlanta

[Shingure 56]

I will say once again Phildelphia. This city is grids grid grids. And the only place where you find them sparingly is outside of town. The mass transit system is crappy. And plus the schools are terrible excet 4 or 5 of them. There are good neighborhoods but there are alot of ghettos. And plus may I add that this was the city who had people build houses on creeks only for the houses to start sinking into the ground about 100 or so years later. Yeah Like I said. Phildelphia hands down.

[panthersimcity4 162]

I'd definetally say Paris. Or Sao Paulo.

[montrouge 2]

Paris is not the besy but not the worse

[DARKO 3]

As far as why people are afraid of giving up their cars . . . it tends to severely limit one's independence and geographical mobility.  Mass transit decides where you go, and when you go.quote>

This comment didn't sit well with me, as someone who works within the field of planning.

Actually, having one mode of transportation(automobile) severely limits one's independence and geographical mobility. Mass transit give you options, options some who are forced to drive everywhere, do not have.

Not everyone can drive. Here's a list.

Many Elderly

Many Disabled

Groups whose mobilization is restricted by economic situation

People not of driving age(Soccer moms get a day off perhaps every so often)

In a completely sprawled out strip mall, 8 laned median, built environment, those people are completely screwed for the most part and have to rely on others precious time to just get on with daily mundane routines. I would call that a far more inconvenience than Mass transit "deciding" where you go . 

The biggest liability with spread out low density is the unneeded amounts of impervious surfaces. Does anyone even give a seconds thought to water quality and soil contamination? This is more serious than you think.

The other problem is when land use rises in a certain metro yet its population either stays stagnate or even better, DECREASES. I love to hear people when they actually try to defend and justify instances like this. Ignorance is bliss as they say I guess. The Metro Detroit area is perhaps the best example of this.

The profession of planning is to help improve ones quality of life, not dictate how one should live. There are though consequences to certain ways of "living", and if you choose to carry out those living standards you as better as hell be prepared to take your fair share of criticism. The landscape has changed, and attititudes and views should accordingly follow suit.

The days of Mcmansion cookie cutter homes and stretching municipalities budgets thin to accommodate expensive, new tax hiked infrastructure(water  & sewage lines, roads....etc) are over. Of course the ones who are flippant about anyone who works in a field like planning, will always pay to live the  way only they can afford. Kudos to them though. Many of us only wish we can be as self-serving, self-righteous and self-absorbed.

I'm for the most part not a  fan of "New urbanism", in fact I hate the term. Almost as much as smart growth. Most New urbanist ventures are merely disguised gated communities. They are nothing more than the same type of greenfield developments we have seen for 30 plus years, but veiled in a "Truman show" coating. They still exclude and offer limited or no affordable/mixed income housing. Plus I think they are just but ugly. 

Saying that, they still are better than clearing a huge of land and trying to squeeze as many lots as possible onto the acreage to build houses with builder grade everything and connected via limited access feeder roads(which create traffic headaches).

The best community is one with great zoning regulations and code enforcement. Zoning laws are the key to the whole thing, without it, developers and corporations have most communities at their mercy. It's all about the unsustainable vs the sustainable.

 The fact of the matter is 90 percent of the low density built in the last 30-40 years has been of the unsustainable fashion. This will change, and is.

[maraniac 2]

ooooh no...the worst city planning has Sofia in Bulgaria.See:

really horrible condos built in the communism time

narrow streets

Can u believe that there isnt a single highway in a city with nearly 2 000 000 population?!?!

[sEAhAwk fAn121 0]

Dubai... all i can say... tons of skyscrapers along 1 road? crazy?!

[panthersimcity4 162]

Sao Paulo...

[DARKO 3]

+1

Most overrated city on the planet. If you want to call it a city. It's more or less a Rich Oil Barron Prince playing sandbox mode Sim City. With a 10 year old at the controls....yuck

[screamingman12 30]

On the first few pages I saw a lot of people talking about how the MAX blue line sucks, I think that I'll explain why. In the late '80's, when they built it, pretty much everyone who was planning it had no idea ***** they were doing (remember that this is only the 3rd "new" LRT line built in the US, and the 4th "new" one in N. America). We know now that development occurs in a nodeular style around subway and light rail stops, and NU developments are best suited for streetcar-circulator lines. But they probably didn't know this in the 80's. Another thought, you seriously screw up NU development when you don't give it transit.

[yoshikoroyimara 5]

Indian traffic is bad...most places don't have road dividers...

some places should have a separate lane for cows (remember...they are holy), cars, bicycles, people, carts, skooters, and other animals  

at least China got it right!

chinese traffic...how did they get in this formation anyhow?

but the record holder is not these countries...but Thailand!

even traffic on boats! 

But for the worst city planning...I want to agree with you guys...but Las Vegas should be up there...urban sprawl out of control!

this picture explains it all from May 13 1973 to February 21 2006

  

[City2TheMax 3]

The worst city planning I have personally seen is in Halle a.d. Saale, Germany (Sachsen-Anhalt). It was built about 1000 years ago, so there is absolutely no grid system. The streets are narrow, and are very crowded. There are even intersections where you have to wait 5+ minutes because they don't have proper traffic lights.

When you hit the new section of the city (with new I mean communist apartment districts), things are a bit more organized, but still very confusing. Even here there is practically no parking space. The city has a street car system, which in some places makes things even worse. The worst part of the traffic system is this large round-about/crossing/complex mess of roads and street cars. On average there is one crash every three days. The intersection was planned like a round-about - in a sense. Instead of going all the way around, you either go left or right, and take the next turn. Alternatively, you can keep going straight. This system is complicated by the streetcars, which have the right of way, with some exceptions. Then this is complicated by the mess of traffic lights.

This is only the traffic system, though. You now have the density problem. There is basically no room to expand, so all buildings are crowded in one way or another. And old abandoned buildings aren't torn down, so no one can build there. Again, since this is an old city, it has never been developed with proper grids. Apartments, shops, and in some cases factories are mixed here and there, with no patterns, even for newer sections.

There are probably more issues with Halle, but these are probably the main ones. Problems not dealing with city planning include the dilapidated buildings, excessive graffitti (literally on everybuilding in the city), gangs, huge unemployment rate, underfunded schools, old pipes (some public schools need water trucks to come to the schools, since drinking pipe water is hazardous), and many more issues (no wonder it was rated the second-worst place to live in Germany).

A picture of the water tower. This is actually a wide road.

This is an example of one of the many communist blocks.

An entrance to an aprtment. Notice the gang signs? (NOTE: German gangs operate very differently than American gangs. They are typically non violent and composed of only a group of friends. They do a god job at defacing the city though.)

In the middle is the Riebeck Platz (trust me, it is a whole lot more complicated than it looks).