Worst City Planning

[Drumbum034 0]

I'm surprised to see that no one mentioned NEW ORLEANS! When I think poor city planning I think of the giant fish tank that once was.

[hamsterTK 93]

New Orleans is actually such a cool city, at least culturally, architecturally and by virtue of that it is so different from anywhere else in the US. Its also the oldest big city not on the east coast

I think NO's problems are from its location. 1 of course, its geography below sea level and in a hurricane prone region means that it gets trashed by storms, and 2 being a trade hub in the middle of one of the poorest parts of the US, it has lots more poverty and crime

I dont know then if planning has anything to do with it.

[jamietoronto 0]

Toronto is definatly one of the worst, as is the entire Golden Horseshoe Area. (Area around Toronto.) 8 Million people live in the GH, and there aren't many highways. Toronto was a great city planning wise before the 70's. in the 70's, we had a world class metro. system (TTC). Of course the city was much smaller. In the 80's, the city grew faster than anyone thought, and now traffic sucks. The 401 is the only east west highway in the city, and is the busiest highway in the world through Toronto. (about 555,000 vehicles at busiest point). It's a great city, but the whole GTA has become a traffic nightmare.

[saltandsauce 0]

of course your opinion that highways cutting through a city is a good thing i percieve it as a bad thing the highway probably allowed sprawl around toronto and that means public transport is expensive to run

as for old cities remember their transport was focused on the pedestrian not the motorcar

[putz_2006 2]

Two words: Stillwater, Minnesota (including the exurbs in St. Croix County, Wisconsin) The shortest route to the Twin Cities is along Wisconsin Highway 64. Highway 64 was recently upgraded to a hybrid freeway/expressway between New Richmond, WI and Houlton, WI (at the state line). About 3 miles before the state line, the entire expressway is pushed down into a 2-lane highway so that it can cross the ancient and decrepit Stillwater Lift Bridge. The lift bridge has been slated for replacement by a 4-lane (upgradeable to six) about a mile downstream; however, every environmental and special interest group has stood in the way of a replacement for the last 20 years. Since then, the population of St. Croix County has grown but access to the Twin Cities has stayed the same resulting in miles of backup through downtown Stillwater. It's not only a result of poor city planning from an old town, but a result of poor future planning of the region as a whole. I hope that everybody opposing the new crossing will see how much friendlier the area would be without the smell of hot tires and exhaust fumes.

Just my two cents.

[Airwonka 0]

Bloomington, Indiana. City Population during summer: 69,000. During School terms: over 100,000. Not a single East-West Highway/direct route in the City. Main streets are not wide enough to accomidate the poorly designed bus system. Horrific traffic at any/all intersections. If it was in a game, I'd press the reset button for sure.

[City2TheMax 3]

It sounds like we can conclude that all cities suck in city planning.

[patriots_1228 51]

definetely boston....worst road system (in terms of trickyness ) in american.

[panthersimcity4 162]

Jakarta is my new choice as worst planned city.... (This view doesn't look so bad, except for the unnatural haze in the sky...)





Bangkok is up there... but ya gotta love the city...

[beedubaya 4]

As much as I love Houston, I have to say it probably is the worst planned city I've been to. The lack of zoning is a major culprit, plus the lack of mass transit. The Woodlands, a northern suburb, is very nice. I love how they managed to blend the development with the existing nature instead of making it a concrete jungle.

[Trainmaster423 0]

My town of Saint Clair, PA isn't that nice. We're 10x5 blocks with 10x6 in one place. There's one SC4 "road" that runs the length of town one block from the edge. There is an "avenue" that runs the length of town on the other side of that block. Both roads split at the South end of town and merge at the North. Only two cross-streets connect the two at opposite ends of town, which is a mile long. All trucks come off the avenue at the bottom and take the road to the top just to re-join with the avenue. Unfortunately, I live on the corner where they turn and hundreds of trucks a day can be distracting from homework.

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The periods are only in place of spaces.

[WillG_75 19]

I vote for Columbus, Ohio

Whoever chose the layout of I-70/71 split and I-670 need checked for brain injury. Rush hour there is complete gridlock. And the maitainance crew for the roads are just flat out slow. I remember when they redid the Morse Road area. A 2-3 mile stretch where they were widening the roads from two to 4 lanes, it took them about 8 years to complete that project I don't know when they are going to finish Route 315 through Franklinton/Grandview either, seems like they have been working on that my whole lifetime.

[gothlolitaalice 1]

For me i vote for George Town, Penang, Malaysia as worst city planning.

Firstly, my car stucked in city center for more than an hour because not given notice there is a tribute and god's feast. or dunno what ritual that will block the road. In fact, almost everyday it is.

Second, tram dismantled, dissolution of major bus companies, only have "black market" taxi service. (even though now have rapidpenang that just started bus service, it is not enough.)

Third, i wondering why Penang Island Municipal Council build PGCC (Penang Global City Center, equilavent to KLCC) in Batu Gantung where is in the suruban area near hillside high wealth residentials (many bungalows built in 19th - early 20h century). Bayan Baru and Tajung Tokong which at seaside have more development potential.

Fourth, ferry service to butterworth (mainland) infrequent. The way to get out from the island is only through air and penang bridge, causing penang bridge have unusual serious traffic jam during rush hours, national and state events and when accident occured on bridge.

Five, very very dirty streets, even in city center and some tourist attractions.

Six, KOMTAR, prangin mall, etc etc modern buildings should not build in national heritage site.

Seven, lack of maintainance of heritage buildings, and even demolish the pre-war buildings (pre WW2 buildings in malaysia is precious because many of them demolished by japanese) because to etliminate the history that the country being colonized by United Kingdom?

and a lot.

[J-Dub 6]

Take a look at this http://www.goodexperience.com/tib/archives/2003/07/highway_signs.htmlhref>bad plan

[tjperry88 24]

Okay, Detroit has an excellent transit system even though we don't have sprawling highrails, and monorails like most urban places. We rely on simply automobiles since we are the MotorCity. However, we have it made, most of our roads are in miles going in all directions. Downtown Detroit is the only mess but out of that area is completely easy to navigate.... look at it here and read about it....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_Road_System_(Detroit) Its amazing! I am near Ford Rd and Telegraph area so its what.... 0 Mile Rd and US 24. lol

[tjperry88 24]

I SEE A SMART CAR! Near the bottom left corner. I want one so bad but they aren't released until 2008 here in the USA.

Originally posted by: ilikehotdogsalot

That's the circular road around the Arc De Triumph in Paris. It's very busy quote>

[nazaguy 0]

Parts of manamah, bahrain. driving and parking there is useless. If only people had thought of car access hundreds of years ago....

[Hahayoudied 3]

In West Lafayette, we rarely get traffic, but road department rather repair residental streets than repairing an avenue that needs to repaired badly. Also, they are pretty dumb because this one road  was built on a swamp and it's sinking little by little every day. They constanly shutdown the road to repave it instead of building a bridge over the swamp.   

[hamsterTK 93]

Every city in the world absolutely sucks!

Paris should be flattened and rebuilt so that everyone can drive their cars to the cafe and sit in them like sonic, and cuz they should liek have sonic in france cuz thos commie yuppie historical buildins should not exist because leik free market is teh better option and ron paul 08 omg lolll!!!!!!!!

[Odainsaker 2,134]

Careful...Le Corbusier actually proposed such a concept. All of historic central Paris bulldozed and replaced with a grid of superhighways and a monotonous domino field of concrete apartment superblocks. After some criticism, he relented and and adjusted his scheme to at least spare the Louvre.

[Silur 3,304]

Originally posted by: Odainsaker Careful...Le Corbusier actually proposed such a concept. All of historic central Paris bulldozed and replaced with a grid of superhighways and a monotonous domino field of concrete apartment superblocks. After some criticism, he relented and and adjusted his scheme to at least spare the Louvre.

quote>

Yes, Le Corbusier building in Moscow:  

Only one and this is fortune ...

[screamingman12 30]

 Good God, what is that?

[tigerplayer91 3]

i vote chicago for one of the most poorly planned highway systems. I live in the south suburbs and every day my commute to the city is horrible. They are constantly doing construction work on the Dan Ryan because of how many cars there are. the minute they finish the highway gets so worn down that they just have to start working again. The "spaghetti bowl" took a while to figure out and i often got lost trying to get into the city. I usually ended up in Chinatown. I live about 30 minutes away but its usually an hour and a half drive. Sure the highways were fine about 30 years ago but now that the suburbs are booming with people there just isnt enough road. Many of the highways are only 3 lanes each direction when they should be designed to hold the population of some 2 million people that commute from the suburbs each day to work in the city. the whole system is older than time itself and everything is always in need of repair. I think they should demolish the whole thing and rebuild. People can find alternate routes in the meantime. Heck, i make it their faster sometimes if i take the city streets instead of the highway.

[Silur 3,304]

Originally posted by: screamingman12  Good God, what is that?quote>

 

This a building by Le Corbusier on Kirov street in Moscow for Soviet bureaucrats from 1938 ...

And this is a monument of Great Peter 1 in Moscow by Tzeretely ( about 1995):

And this is simple every day moving in Moscow:

The same street now (10 minutes ago):

#1

 

# 2

[phattonez 1]

I really need to defend Los Angeles here. Sure there's a ton of traffic, but the city grid stays pretty consistent and it's pretty hard to get lost in the city. In time it will get a great rail system, and then it will no longer be in this thread.

[nolocond 15]

Atlanta, esp gwinnett and barrow county suck. traffic is a nightmare and there is little to no room for expansion along 85 anymore. we are 10 years behind ourselves!!!!

[super_monkey 0]

I vote Guelph Ontario Canada, not the city its self, it is planned extremly well and there is never any traffic, The Hanlon Pwky is the problem, in 1969 the neighbouring city of Kitchener built a expressway... so we desided to build one to, But the city kinda ran out of money to build Any intrecahnges so know it is called the Parking lot!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon_Parkway

[Mogwai1313 2]

If I were going to throw in my two cents, I would say Osaka, Japan has to be up there on the worst planned cities list. Not so much for architectural choices but more for how the transit system is set up around the city. You can definitely tell that the railroad system was put into place before they rebuilt the road system after WWII. Driving anywhere remotely close to Osaka is a nightmare.

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Originally posted by: Odainsaker Careful...Le Corbusier actually proposed such a concept. All of historic central Paris bulldozed and replaced with a grid of superhighways and a monotonous domino field of concrete apartment superblocks. After some criticism, he relented and and adjusted his scheme to at least spare the Louvre.

quote>

He Proposed the same for London too, and Birmingham or Manchester i cant remember.

[simsider 4]

It's not a city but it may count as bad planning. The US Canadian Border is way to small to handel the flow of traffic it took meand my family over 1 hour just to cross from canada back intoo the us this was at the border by NY