Background: This huge north-south avenue officially opened in October 1937, but it was still being expanded through the 1980s. The road, modeled after France's Champs-Élysées, is one of the broadest avenues in the world.
How It's Unique: At the avenue's widest points, eight lanes of traffic run in each direction, and both sides of the road are flanked by smaller streets that carry two or more lanes of additional traffic. The total width of the road, when combined with the side streets, is just shy of 460 feet. While wider highways might seem like a potential solution to increased traffic in cities, Mahmassani points out that building them is usually not a feasible option. "You would be dealing with such expensive real estate, for one" he says. "Unless you had the foresight of Napoleon to give you the Champs-Elysées, you're just not going to have something like this."
Excerpt from http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture/4338387
No comments:
Post a Comment