What's the situation in your city with one-way streets?
Here in Chicago we have roughly 2,080 KM of one-way streets within the city limits. A very large % of the residential streets in Chicago are all one-way streets, and almost all main streets and arteries are all two-way streets. The exception is downtown, where nearly every street except for around 3 are one-ways.
This started in the 1950's and 1960's in the city center as a means to help traffic flow with one-ways on main roads. The program then switched, and thousands of petitions were granted to change smaller, and residential streets to one-way in the 1960's and 1970's. This was because the streets were too thin for two way traffic with parking on each side. If streets were one-way, you could have parking on each side of the street, and a one to one and a half lane space in the center for driving. As a result of this, almost all residential streets in Chicago are now one way streets.
Main city streets are mostly 2-lane, two-way streets that transgress the entire city. Some streets farther out from downtown are 4 lane roads, and a few far out streets are even 6 lanes (but not many).
What's the situation in your city? Are residential areas mostly one-way or two-way?
Most of downtown Seattle is one way streets, few residential areas have it , too. I have no idea how many miles of one way streets in downtown Seattle alone.
Edmonton has exactly one one-way street (avenue in this particular case) with the exceptions of any single one leading to a bridge (all bridges in Edmonton's downtown are one-way).
Downtown Denver is almost all one-way, I can think of a couple that aren't but not many. I live in cap. hill and alot of the residential streets in my neighborhood are one-way, I'd say maybe 40%, I think thats alot for residential.
Downtown has a few one-ways, but I would say at least 90% of the city has two-way streets.
The problem of this is that many people park their cars on the street, making a drive down a residential street when a car is coming the other side a gamble.
Ahh Melbourne, where the CBD streets still have room for 45 degree parking in the middle of the road (or a dual track tram line).
Of course, a lot of people thought that the streets were ridiculously wide when they were first built, but it comes in handy, 150 years and 3.8 million people later.
Some streets here are too narrow to fit two-way traffic along with parking - but it just becomes an etiquette thing when one car pulls over to let the other pass.
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