Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Cool cable cars

Cool cable cars:
The cable car track towards the vacation island of Vinepearl near Nha Trang in Vietnam is the longest cable car to cross a sea in the world. It is 3310 meters long. The system excists of 9 pillars each with a height of about 55 meters measured from the orange foundation structures (seen in the pictures below) to the top. This foundation structure is 8 meters above sea level so you are basically hanging 63 meters above the sea:




From this ideal height, sitting in the cabinet, visitors can enjoy the panorama of pretty Nha Trang city embraced by meandering beaches and the paradise-like beauty of Nha Trang bay, one of the world’s most beautiful and famous bays:



The system can transport 1000-1500 people an hour in 60 cabins, each of which contains 8 people. A similair cable car is this one in Singapore. This thing brings people from the main land of Singapore towards the resort island of Santosa. The cable cars start at the harbour front tower:


They are hanging 85 meters above sea level offering a great view over the skyline and harbour of Singapore:


And what about the cable cars that are going to the Langkawi sky bridge on the island of Langkawi in Malaysia. This sky bridge is 800 meters above sea level:


To get there you first have to travel from the village to the middle station 700 meters up in the sky. You can see that station all the way up the mountain in the picture below:


And from there you have to go to the top station station where the sky bridge is located. If you are afraid of heights this is probably one the most stupid things you can do:

Probably the most scary cable car in the world is situated near the mountain of Aguille Di Midi in France. This thing is also officaly the heighest cable car in the world and is going to the summit of this mountain:



This thing is going ridiculously steep and brings you 2800 meters in the sky measuring from the start point in Chamonix to the end station ( seen in the pictures below):







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Monday, March 23, 2009

Where city traffic "collides"

Where city traffic "collides":
I wondered where the busiest city cross roads in the world are. Places where city traffic metaphorically collides and traffic rulez no longer excist. I figured out that this cross road in Ho Chi Minh city might easy be the busiest and most chaotic crossroad in a city in the world. At this point 6 roads with huge amount of motorbycicles and other traffic, like seen in the picture below, come together at one point:



The number of motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh city is currently 4 million, more then in any other city in the world. There are also over 500,000 automobiles, packing the city's arterial roads and making traffic congestion and air pollution common problems. While Beijing used to be called "the City of Bicycles", Ho Chi Minh City is "the Capital of Motorbikes". Crossing a road in the centre of this city is a real achievement ( youtube video ). As you can see there are not many traffic rulez in Vietnam and due to this every year 30,000 people die as a result of road accidents in Vietnam (that doesn't include the number of people injured).

Another very busy crossroad ca be found here in Lagos in Nigeria:


At this crossroad ,in the middle of this metropol with 10 million people, two main roads come together. Most of the time this road is highly congested because of the Oshodi market nearby and the big busstation along the road.
Pictures of the Oshodi market nearby can be seen below:




The roundabout of Connaught place in New Delhi in India is also among the busiest cross roads in the world. This roundabout is situated in the middle of an agglomeration with 13 million people so it probably comes as no surpise that this roundabout is congested most of the day:


When you are talking about the busiest pedestrian crossroad in the world then you have to be in Tokyo in Japan. The Shibuya crossroad in the Shibuya district in Tokyo is considered as the bussiest pedestrian crossroad in the world ( youtube). In rush hours the entire crossroad is filled with one big human crowd:


In bejing, the city of bycicles, drive 3 million cars around. This is causing really big smog problems in the city. Despite rising expenditure on prevending pollution control, Beijing is facing increasing problems as its booming economy never slows its pace. One of the most bussiest crossroads in the city is where the 3rd ringroad meets the main boulevard of Bejing:


At this point the traffic is like hell on rush hour:


In Europe a place of crazy and busy traffic in a city is the roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris where 12 roads of this city come together. At the point you enter the roundabout there are no traffic rulez anymore and the law of the strongest flourishes:

In the picture below you can see the traffic on the Champs Elysees, the main boulevard of paris, going towards the roundabout.

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Friday, March 13, 2009

Longest bridges

Longest bridges:
The longest bridge in the world is the Lake Pontchartrain bridge which is 38.42 km long and is crossing the Pontchartrain lake from New Orleans to Mandeville. It is stretching as far as the eye can see:





The second longest bridge is also situated in the USA, and is the Chesapeake bay bridge that connects Norfolk to Northhampton county. This bridge is 37 km long. It als has 2 tunnels in it so the ships can pass into the bay. Like you can see below:



In China the third longest bridge is located. This bridge is called the Hangzhou bay bridge ( Not visible from this height in google maps ) and is 32.5 km long. It is connecting the Shanghai metropol to the city of Ningbo. It is an very important bridge for the regions economy, because it brings back the traveling time between these two cities with a couple of hours:





Equal in length (32.5 km) is the Donghai bridge which is located in the same region. It connects Shanghai with the Yangshan island.




The King Fahd Cause way which connects the state of Bahrain with Saudi Arabia is the fifth longest bridge in the world. It is 25km long. In the middle of the bridge there is an island with bording crossing posts on it:


Among the 10 longest bridges in the world are also: The Vasco de Gama bridge in Lisabon (17.2 km), the Painang bridge in Malaysia (13.5km) , the Rio-Niteroi bridge in Rio de Janeiro ( 13.29km), the San Mateo-Hayward bridge in the Bay of San Fransisco (11.26km), and the Seven mile bridge in Southern Florida.

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Monday, February 23, 2009

Busiest road bridges

Most of the busiest road bridges are located in metropolian areas where rivers devide them in two parts. These kind of bridges have to take a huge amount of traffic each day. The George Washington bridge, linking Manhattan to New Jersey, is the most heavily used bridge in the world, with a daily traffic of over 300,000 vehicles:


When also taking in acount the amount of pedestrians using the bridge the Howrah bridge in Kolkota is the busiest bridge crossing in the world. It connects the east and the west part of this city with 15 million inhabitants. It successfully bears the weight of a daily traffic of approximately 150,000 vehicles and an unbelievable amount of 4,000,000 pedestrians:






The Oakland bay bridge in san Fransisco which is the main traffic road bewteen east and west San Fransisco is also among the busiest bridge crossings in the world. It carries approximately 270,000 vehicles per day:


In Europe the busiest bridge is the Bosphoros bridge in Istanbul. This bridge is connecting the Asian part of Istanbul with the European part. Nowadays, around 180,000 vehicles pass daily in both directions, almost 85% being automobiles:




Other bridges which are also considered one of he busiest in europe are the Kingston bridge in Glasgow in Scotland (It is carrying around 150,000 vehicles every day), and the Van Brienenoord bridge in Rotterdam in the Netherlands with over 250,000 vehicles every day.

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Simulation of air traffic

There are around 2.51 million flights globally every month, which works out to 83667 every day, 3486 every hour or 58 taking off every minute, so about 1 every second (on average). The video below is a simulation of global air traffic over 24 hours.


Here you can find the worlds busiest arfields by number of passengers. Hartsfield Jackson airport in Atlanta in the USA is the worlds biggest with almost 83 million passengers handled here every year (birdview)

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Monday, January 19, 2009

Vehicle cemeteries

Vehicle cemeteries.
The Davis Monthan Air force base has by far the biggest airforce "parking lot" in the world. The precision in the way they are parked is impressive. It is difficult to comprehend the size of the "Bone yard" and the number of aircraft stored there. Of course the important thing to remember is that they are all capable of being returned to flying condition if the need ever arises.


The Bay of Nouadhibou, seven miles south from the Mauritanian city, hides one of the biggest ship cemeteries in the world. There are more than 300 wrecks around the harbour, resting for years and coming from all nations. Other ship cemeteries can be ound in the so called ship wrecking yards of Asia. Here ships from all over the world are taken a part. The enormous shipwrecking yards just north of Chittagong look like 'the frontyard to hell'. This is where all those old ships end their days, and they're taken a part by hand force. A dangerous place to work, but there're so many people in Bangladesh that need to earn some money to get by:




Another big ship wrecking yard is found in Alang, India. Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the leading centre of the worldwide ship breaking and recycling industry.The shipyards at Alang recycle approximately half of all ships salvaged around the world. The yards are located on the Gulf of Khambat, 50 kilometres southeast of Bhavnagar:




Another ship wrecking centre is The gadani ship breaking yard in Pakistan. The yard is located in Gadani, Pakistan about 50 kilometres northwest of Karachi. In the 1980's the Gadani yard was described as the largest ship-breaking yard in the world, with more than 30,000 direct employees. However, competition from newer facilities in India and Bangladesh resulted in a disastrous reduction in output, with the Gadani yard producing less than one fifth of the scrap it produced twenty years ago. A reduction in taxes on scrap metal led to a modest resurgence at the Yard, which now employs around 6,000 workers:


Another huge dump of vehicles is found in a consolidated diamond mine near Oranjemund in namibia. The Consolidated Diamond Mine, owned by De Beers which is situated on the skeleton coast. Nambia's Skeleton Coast is one of the most inhospitable and desolate environments on planet earth. There are hundreds of miles of dry, deserted coastline littered with shipwrecks that ran aground from treacherous crosscurrents and a pervasive nightly fog, which is the only life-giving moisture that the unique Namib desert ecosystem receives.

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Sunday, January 18, 2009

Crazy highway intersections

Complex highway intersections in the USA:
When you look for complex highway intersections you would most likely to find them in the USA. The USA is the country which has the most cars per citizens, and depends highly on travel by road. The city of Atlanta for example which is called the Los Angeles of the South has a lot of these complex highway intersections (Metropolitan Atlanta is approached by thirteen freeways ) . With a comprehensive network of freeways that radiate out from the city, Atlantans rely on their cars as the dominant mode of transportation in the region. This strong automotive reliance has resulted in heavy traffic and contributes to Atlanta's air pollution, which has made Atlanta one of the more polluted cities in the country. The most complex intersection and also the most famous of Atlanta is the Spaghetti Junction where the I285 and I85 cross each other: ( You can also see this junction in bird view with live search maps )



Another complex one in Atlanta can be found here, ( birdview )
Here is another crazy one in Los Angeles (This is the intersection of the I110 and I105 running trough this city):


Los Angeles is knows as the greatest city for cars on the face of the earth.
In Los Angeles a nice car is simply a must, considering the appalling amounts of time Angelenos spend behind the wheel. Because of the enormous amount of traffic found in the city there are a lot of roads. One of the busiest points in LA is this complex crossroad on the Southern part of the city. Other complex ones in he USA are this one in San Diego ( where a hotel is situated beneath ). This one in Chicago, this one in Detroit, and this one in New York.

Complex highway intersections in the rest of the world:
Here is a crazy intersection in Shanghai, China:


And this is not a very nice one to drive in Shanghai either. Some other
Incomprehensible Intersections can be found here in Tokio, here in Osaka Japan, and this one near Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

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