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Are Prefabricated Overpasses the Answer?

Posted by: Tim Halbur

20 November 2009 - 5:00am

Writer Sarah Lacey, stuck in hours of traffic in Bangalore, decides that prefabricated highway overpasses are the solution to the world's overcrowded, traffic-choked cities.

Lacey thinks that the unprecedented expansion of Indian and Chinese cities requires out-of-the-box thinking, like Elon Musk's proposals to build electric, supersonic planes and pre-fabricated freeway overpasses.

Lacey: "I have to admit, at the time, I was more excited about the planes. But his freeway idea may be a better business. It would dramatically affect the lives of billions (literally) and create at least millions of revenues in the developing world where quick, cheap options are needed and there is hot-and-heavy government money to pay for it."

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Source: The Washington Post, November 19, 2009
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Are Prefabricated Overpasses the Answer?

Submitted by capntransit on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 07:50.

No.

Oh, I see. Thanks for

Submitted by james.crossen on Wed, 11/25/2009 - 03:12.

Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining.

No Explanation Needed

Submitted by Charles Siegel on Wed, 11/25/2009 - 10:22.

Some things are so obvious that no explanation is needed.

Freeways have done so much damage to American cities that the last thing the world needs is a cheaper way to replicate the same mistake in India and China.

Charles Siegel

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water

Submitted by injunplanna on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 11:36.

I agree over passes aren't the silver bullet, but throwing them out all together isn't very prudent either. all forms of solutions, from overpasses to sidewalks need to be thought of as one cohesive transportation plan. The fact that China and India are vastly over populated and that road infrastructure and mass transit infrastructure wasn't up to snuff has lead to the humongous traffic chaos. Cities in these countries need to figure out a new balance of auto vs public transit that is different from the developed world as well as some of the much touted South American cheap BRT systems. There is a larger number of people in these countries urban areas with higher purchasing power, which means that there will be more cars compared to Curitiba or Bogota, hence there needs to be some investment in better road infrastructure.

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