Your city's urban expressways

[staff]

I can't find any pics (gotta take some soon), but the Yan'An Expressway in Shanghai is argubly the one that offers the coolest views of any urban expressway on the planet.

Inre Ringvagen is the most famous urban expressway in Malmo, however I don't have any pics of that one either.

[ChrisZwolle]

The next photo's are from Zwolle, The Netherlands (NL).
This 113.000 inhabitants, middle-sized city is the entrance to the north of the country.
There is only 1 motorway,the A28, which is only 2x2 lanes wide, but handles over 120.000 vehicles a day. Every day, over 100.000 persons commute into the city.

1. The bridge over the river "IJssel". This is just after the interchange with the A50/N50 motorway/National Road. Note the first real "skyscraper" of Zwolle (100m) in the background.


2. Exit Zwolle-Zuid, the first exit from the south.


3. Exit Zwolle-Centrum, the exit to downtown. This 4lane motorway still handles over 110.000 vehicles a day.


4. Now from the North: Exit Zwolle-Noord. (Zwolle-North). The N35 is one of the most congested road in Zwolle. It will be widened from 2x2 to 2x3 lanes, and the speed limit will raise from 50 to 70 by 2010.
That red sign says the extra lane is not opened for traffic. Now, the limit is 100km/h, when the lane is opened the limit is 80km/h, because that lane is not wide enough to support higher speeds.


5. Exit Zwolle-Centrum (Downtown). From the ONLY 3 exits in Zwolle, this is the less congested one. The sign says Utrecht 89km. For Dutch standards, that's quite far. (only 50 miles).


6. Exit Zwolle-Zuid (South). This is the last exit in Zwolle. The entire A28 near Zwolle is heavily congested at most times, because its way not wide enough.

[torke]

MADRID TRAFFIC LIVE (some 24 hours traffic cameras, picture update every 2 minutes):






























Refresh to update the images!

[ChrisZwolle]

Are there any stats on Madrilan motorways? I heard the M30 is the second busiest motorway from Europe, only second to the Moscow Ringroad.

[torke]

I could not find any updated map of traffic, the last official one, is dated in 2004 and says that M-30 carried 311.156 cars/day between Puente Ramon y Cajal and Puente de America (15 lanes now a days between these points), km 4 (this was the part with more cars/day of M-30 in 2004).



This camera is located in the A-2 (Puente de America), just over this part of the M-30, sometimes shows A-2 and other times shows M-30:


Refresh to update the image!

[torke]

I found something about the "IMD,intensidad media diaria" (dont know how to call this in english), this means the number of cars a day (24hours) which go through the most crowded point in a freeway or road. So I found that the IMD in 2006 for the M-30 never has been under 400.000 cars/day for the East Side, 200.000 for the West Side and 150.000 for the North Side in a work day.

[ChrisZwolle]

400.000 vehicles/day? That is extremely much, even more than the busiest stretch of road in LA's I-405 (390.000).

[torke]

I know it is extremely much, in that area M-30 has between 14 and 17 lanes, and I know traffic is completely stopped during rush hours and most part of the working days but 400.000 I think is pretty much, I mean I am sure sometimes has reached that number of cars/day but "never under"... ¿?
I will be searching for this info very seriously, I'll ask for official statistics in the city hall, I really would like to know about it, so I promise more info will be coming soon.

[Martin Ferraro]

Buenos Aires - Argentina

Acceso Norte (Panamericana)






















Ramal Pilar




Acceso Oeste



Autopista Richieri





Autopista General Paz


















General Paz - Perito Moreno intersection


Perito Moreno


Buenos Aires - La Plata


Autopista Illia




25 de Mayo - 9 de Julio intersection


25 de Mayo



Lugones



Project

[Martin Ferraro]

Doble Post

[Minato ku]

Originally Posted by torke

I think there are no similar highways, could you please show us any 17 lanes highway in Paris????

Ok

It is not 17 lanes but 14 (Not a big diference )

A1 motorway 14 lanes


A6 motorway 14 lanes


A86 motorway 10 lanes ( Small but it is similar )


Paris freeways system traffic


Green : traffic normal
Red : traffic jam
Grey : inalienable information

[ChrisZwolle]

14 lanes - 3 exit lanes = thru 11 lanes.

But the widest part of road, without parallelroads is in Buenos Aires i think.

[torke]

Great pictures!! I love Buenos Aires

[Alejandro_MEX]

Mexico City

Mexican expressways are not very special, but because of the traffic, some in Mexico City are double-decker freeways. This is the Periferico expressway. The film "En el hoyo" is about its construction.

[FREKI]

Copenhagen - Bispeengbuen

Pic NOT by me

[DiggerD21]

Those broad expressways cutting through the cities are ugly! They should transform them into tunnels and place greenery onto them.

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by DiggerD21

Those broad expressways cutting through the cities are ugly! They should transform them into tunnels and place greenery onto them.

Bad idea.

Because, in most countries, trucks with dangerous loads like chemicals, fuel, and other non-healthy products aren't allowed in every tunnel.

So when you tunnel most expressways, that traffic has to drive right trough the city, which is much more dangerous. (relatively, non-motorways have a much higher accident-rate).

Think of what would happen if a chemical-loaded truck get's an accident near a school!

[DiggerD21]

I think that shouldn't be such a problem if the tunnels are cut&cover-style and therefore close under the surface (with more possibilities for ventilation).
There are plans to transform a long stretch of the expressway north of the Elbtunnel into a cut&cover-style tunnel in order to raise the living quality of the neighbourhoods directly affected by the expressway. And the Elbtunnel is one of the heaviest-used tunnels in Germany, with 150.000 vehicles per day, among them a lot of trucks transporting various goods.

[ChrisZwolle]

I don't know how they qualify in Germany to tunnels, but with a certain distance, cut&cover tunnels are qualified as tunnels in The Netherlands, so trucks with dangerous goods are not allowed to use them, and have to take a ferry or bridge to cross a river or waterway. We have various tunnels like that here.

And besides that, it is extremely expensive to reconstruct or widen such a tunnel. So you have to build the right capacity for, say, the next 40 years.
They didn't did that near Amsterdam, with the Coentunnel. They have to construct a second tube, which costs more than a billlion euro's.

But in areas with very large ships (like Rotterdam, Antwerp or Hamburg), you just have to use tunnels, because you don't want a "viaduc de Millau" in flat landscape

[ChrisZwolle]

So next, the busiest motorway in The Netherlands: The A16 on the eastside of Rotterdam. With over 230.000 vehicles a day, the road is busier than any country near NL.

1. Some miles south of Rotterdam


2. Here starts the road with the most lanes: 18 in total


3. Near Rotterdam-Feijenoord. The lane on the right is a truck-lane.


4. The Van Brienenoordbridge; this is the busiest stretch.


5. Near Rotterdam-Centrum; 14 lanes across


6. End (or better: start) of the A16 which run from Rotterdam to the Belgium border near Breda.