Civil Engineering Marvels

[Lemodular]

scroll a little South to see more of the same system:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=...2,-77.175951&spn=0.014568,0.026822&t=h

is this what they teach you in engineering school?

here's another one:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&t=...72291,-77.156011&spn=0.003638,0.006706

 

[bonkers325]

... what exactly are we looking at?

 

[Lemodular]

Originally posted by: bonkers325
... what exactly are we looking at?

actual roads that people have to navigate in Northen VA

 

[IronWing]

If they'd quit breeding like maggots this wouldn't be an issue. Sterilization FTW.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: Lemodular

Originally posted by: bonkers325
... what exactly are we looking at?

actual roads that people have to navigate in Northen VA

That is nothing compared to some of the highways in California. Taking into consideration some of the constraints that transportation engineers have to deal with (traffic, limited space, budgets, etc.), I'd say they are doing a pretty good job.

 

[bonkers325]

Originally posted by: Lemodular

Originally posted by: bonkers325
... what exactly are we looking at?

actual roads that people have to navigate in Northen VA

civil engineering programs dont teach you how to design the layouts of roads. they teach you how to design the actual road itself (i.e. for capacity and daily usage). the layout is usually constrained in such a way that there are only several feasible options.

in any case, i dont see what the fuss is about. unless you're complaining about traffic, in which case its not the design engineer's problem. someone gives him the #'s to work with, and he turns those #'s into roads.

 

[Jeff7]

Got to do what you can with the roads you've got.

Plenty of roads got their start as cattle paths. Places that were good for farming were places where people had to live. Eventually, such places would tend to increase in population. Once people were able to keep food cool, either with ice or eventually refrigeration technology, or various other preservation methods, they had the ability to move away, but some would invariably choose to stay near the place they grew up.
In the new towns, what would roads be? Dirt roads, probably for horses. At that time, you're not thinking "megalopolis planning," you're thinking "shortest route to the blacksmith and market."

 

[KK]

This one has me baffled.