In case you thought America had a monopoly on giant urban expressway interchanges, then see what the Japanese have been up to.
These surreal photos are by Ken Ohyama.
November 6, 2009 by Drunk Engineer
In case you thought America had a monopoly on giant urban expressway interchanges, then see what the Japanese have been up to.
These surreal photos are by Ken Ohyama.
I’ve been following Ken’s photos for a while so I’ve seen a lot of them. Go to YouTube and see if you can find a video taken from the dashboard of a motorist driving on all these highways.
It’s odd because a lot of them are one-lane and they also have a lot tunnels. From the driver’s perspective, it seems you can go an hour without seeing a “city” (aside from a skyscraper).
Even their pedestrian infrastructure is stacked and on a different level than the street in many cases. Like in this photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7591050@N06/4062770624/
Or this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7591050@N06/3890708411/
Both of those photos are taken at rail stations, but I don’t know if the frequency of a pedestrian deck increases because of the presence of a rail station.
Japan has had more than 10 years of economic stimulus projects…we are just starting.
looks pretty bad. But at least the difference between the US and Japan is that in Japan, most people are not driving every day, whereas in the US, it would be very unusual to see a highway or freeway empty like in your second picture.
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