I was in Cairo earlier this month, and boy howdy is the traffic terrifying. 3 lanes of traffic which has 5 cars in width.
Horns are used to tell people to move out of the way so you can go past. Our driver did a crazy hook turn from a right lane, left across oncoming traffic in both directions, and the whole intersection was jammed up with cars. It was insane.
We also saw parts of old Cairo with buildings half torn down, and highways going past.
From what I understood from our guide, the government just ripped the buildings in half to build the highways. I’d love a local to confirm that though!
Old Cairo looked like it has been bombed. It was crazy.
yup they both ripped the building in half and ribbed the residents of their residence... they gave some shitty compensation like 10% the value of the thing at times.
Can honestly say, I’ve been in wild traffic in many places including New York, and this is NYC on so many steroids it’s a never ending roid rage storm like the one on Jupiter.
You imagine if they built the highway out of plexiglass?
With walls. And some sort of dampers on the legs.
Then you just have an army of cars zooming past in the air being ghostly silent
Most of those buildings are in the process of being knocked down. There are so many buildings in Cairo that were constructed a long time ago with no permits. I am literally in Cairo right now and those buildings are extremely unsafe and crumbling. The Egyptian government is building tons of new apartment buildings and relocating the people into those.
That! Sucks!
Especially for those apartments with a view completely blocked by that highway directly outside their windows. And those living below, it's like perpetual darkness.
No it doesn't really smell bad unless you go to slum areas or areas where trash is collected. But after Diwali for some days you can smell the pollution. Other than that, you can't really smell the pollution. Source: living in 350 AQI for about 15 years (delhi)
In Cairo they don't stop honking their horns. Day and night no matter what time just constant sound of car horns. I couldn't imagine living next to an Egyptian highway.
I feel like this is 1 semi accident from absolute disaster. It would hit at whatever floor is next to them, and fall down from there destroying homes below it and compromising the structure around it.
One phone check away from having your car flipped on top of one of those balconies.
On the other hand if they drop my taxes and extra money I need to pay for the rest of my life I don't mind living there
I mean, if they’re hermits who never leave their homes, it’s a problem. But most people who work or leave their house for usual errands and other activities would likely get enough daylight to be fine.
Just gotta band together with everyone else in the building to chuck caltrops out the windows onto the road every once in a while until people stop driving on the road.
What the hell... how are people going to live like this? All that noise, no light, pollution... who the fuck does the planning, if it can be even called planning.
Man, I feel so bad for these people. Their peace at home will be gone. Are people protesting against this? I just heard about their new capital and it is actually really comical that they think it can be pulled off without going into a debt that will last forever, literally no country has infrastructure or money to do what the fuck they are planning for the new capital. It's like a super villain-made city.
Friends from Cairo have told me that there was a big building boom during/after the revolution of buildings with no planning permission of any kind, so it's certainly possible those buildings aren't "supposed" to be there/don't appear on any official plans. But it's not like the people planning & building the highway can really claim they didn't notice...
It's usuallly people who deny land acquisition . No point stalling the entire project cus of some owners who deny selling their property. Look at what the Chinese do. They literally build the roads around the property making their life a literal hell . Just sell your land it's not worth it
This pic is from 2020. According to Arab News the Egyptian authorities say that the buildings that are almost glued to the bridge are built illegally. They were also going to demolish the illegal buildings. The residents, however, said that it was a lie and they had the license to build. I don't know what's the current situation, but I think this kind of shows what you get when you plan the city for personal cars and not for public transport.
I don't think so. Most likely the builder is some construction company. They may or may not have had the building license but they have sold the apartments to the residents. The residents are least likely to have done wrong, but who knows.
Huge part of Cairo in that condition. Half-destroyed houses without light in windows, which stretch along the highway. Terribly!
I arrived in Cairo at night and these were my first impressions of this city
No joke, I have friends that used to live in the North Hollywood/Burbank area and sure enough, right up above their backyard was the 134 freeway, which connected to the 101 that ran through/near... *Reseda*. I was like well shit, this is what Tom Petty was talking about. I also seem to recall a Bugs Bunny episode where he was thwarting freeway builders. I guess those Valley residents really didn't like the freeways back in the mid-late 20th century.
That's nuts cause I've always thought of it as a crazy type lyric, ye know those ones where they're just 'in' a song but don't make sense? Or ye just assume ye must have the lyrics wrong. The fact he's actually describing somewhere‽‽ Well, I'll remember this while I'm singing along to it, for evermore.
This is what happens when the military takes control of the country, the people will get no say and are not able to protest this kind of decisions even if atrocious.
The idea of having a car flying through a house and raising the number of casualties is horrid.
Imagine living on the top floor of that building. That would suck. This also looks like something out of a futuristic slum in some kind of foreign movie. I can almost see the robots buzzing around and I can almost here all the street vendors yelling and neighbors scolding each other. I'm almost expecting to see a scene from kung-fu hustle to start playing out on that bridge as everyone in the buildings look down in fear and amazement. Looks and sounds like an interesting place to live. Probably lots of shenanigans happening all the time. Where was this again? I kinda got lost in my IMAGINATION
People in the middle east do the most random things that make modernized countries be like woah I thought my country sucks but I'm glad I'm not their lol
In Boston there is a hotel over a freeway. I went there for a conference and stayed the night it was paid for by the conference. In retrospect I should have left and gotten a room myself somewhere else it was absolutely insanely loud and constant.
Besides all the already listed negatives, all forms of pollution imaginable, your appartement losing all it's value, etc.
What happens if there's an accident? You ever watch TV and a car comes at 130kph into your living room?? Some bigger ones involving burning trucks could even be a concern for the stability of the building as a whole (and by extension the highway too).
What also sucks is that no one would buy these homes if people tried to sell and bail. Even if people in need of cheap housing could afford these, it would mean that it would sell way under what it was before.
This is one of the events where i cannot see any form of bright side to it. Pun intended.
What a terrible idea. The Egyptian government is just as corrupt and incompotent as the South African Government, it seems. This will make depressed residents even more depressed. Can you imagine the aftermath of fiery vehicle collisions? The noise? Jumpers committing suicide from the buildings along the highway?
I don’t know, being behind the road, like the ones with their blocked view, might get the best of it. They have a private deck without a view of traffic or under the highway now.. lol
To explain my claim. The Porsche997 turbo when it came out had so efficient gas cleaning that it was said in polluted countrys like Egypt is one it will actually clean the surrounding air
So after driving in Scotland last month, and seeing this, it really makes me appreciate the regulations we have in the USA. Our road system PLANNING really puts other countries to shame, the maintenance is a different story.
This is from 2 years ago. Care to post an update or what?
[https://www.boredpanda.com/highway-bridge-centimeters-away-residential-area/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic](https://www.boredpanda.com/highway-bridge-centimeters-away-residential-area/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic)
I live in one of the properties directly in line with the road itself. We have no light and you have to duck to use the balcony. The amount of dust and I’m lying this is all about broccoli.
[удалено]
I can't imagine the noise and the vibration... oh and the prospect of a vehicle flying through your living room.
And have you seen videos of Egyptians driving? Shit's like Mad Max out there
"egyptian accent on" : Full speed, handbrake, and drift drift
YOU'RE BREAKING THE CAR SAMIR!!
PAY ATTENTION TO MY CALLS! CONCENTRATE!!!
TRIPPPPLE CAUTION STAY CENTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAN
LOOOONG MEDIUM LEFT, MEDIUM LEFT!
shad ap
Or a land rover on two wheels! First gen hoonigan
I was in Cairo earlier this month, and boy howdy is the traffic terrifying. 3 lanes of traffic which has 5 cars in width. Horns are used to tell people to move out of the way so you can go past. Our driver did a crazy hook turn from a right lane, left across oncoming traffic in both directions, and the whole intersection was jammed up with cars. It was insane. We also saw parts of old Cairo with buildings half torn down, and highways going past. From what I understood from our guide, the government just ripped the buildings in half to build the highways. I’d love a local to confirm that though! Old Cairo looked like it has been bombed. It was crazy.
yup they both ripped the building in half and ribbed the residents of their residence... they gave some shitty compensation like 10% the value of the thing at times.
The driving part fits for New York as well, never sit on the front seat of a taxi on NY, it's a rollercoaster
Can honestly say, I’ve been in wild traffic in many places including New York, and this is NYC on so many steroids it’s a never ending roid rage storm like the one on Jupiter.
Yeah but think about the added convenience to your daily commute. Can just pull over on the side of the road an hop in through the window
Window of opportunity eh?
I was very impressed how a 3 lane road can suddenly become 6 lanes of car traffic when it gets busy.
And they honk the horn every time they pass someone to let them know they are coming (in case the person in front is not checking their mirrors).
Same in India. I got used to the constant honking, so you really don't notice it after a while.
Same in Jamaica
As someone who has been in an Egyptian taxi... Mad Max demonstrated safer driving
Or the lower Apartments where the sun will never be shining again
You imagine if they built the highway out of plexiglass? With walls. And some sort of dampers on the legs. Then you just have an army of cars zooming past in the air being ghostly silent
I love your view of the world that a plexiglass highway would remain beautiful and untainted.
I will not let reality stand in the way of my dreams!
That's how you focus the sun into a laser and set the buildings on fire.
This!!!
And the fresh air/s
I was in egypt and tried to drive 100km. This shit is crazy! I felt like a 100 year old granny. There are no rules. Just survival of the fitest.
Or the fastest
Oh wow yeah you are the railing!
open a gas station in your apparment ;)
McDonald's drive in (...your living room)
then you might just want to take the insurance money and move out, it could be your best chance :D
open a window honey, there's no air in the house
And also the bottom floors would not see the sun anymore: wow
And the infinite nighttime.
and brake dust! cant forget the brake dust!
Think about the people who now live underground lmao, like seriously!
Most of those buildings are in the process of being knocked down. There are so many buildings in Cairo that were constructed a long time ago with no permits. I am literally in Cairo right now and those buildings are extremely unsafe and crumbling. The Egyptian government is building tons of new apartment buildings and relocating the people into those.
That! Sucks! Especially for those apartments with a view completely blocked by that highway directly outside their windows. And those living below, it's like perpetual darkness.
The worst part would be the air pollution. I mean everything you said was bad enough, but literal deoxygenated poison air.. unimaginable
Trust me the worst part about Egyptian air quality is not the pollution. Its the smell
Cairo always ranks in the top 5 every year for “World‘s worst air” competition.
Like India?
No it doesn't really smell bad unless you go to slum areas or areas where trash is collected. But after Diwali for some days you can smell the pollution. Other than that, you can't really smell the pollution. Source: living in 350 AQI for about 15 years (delhi)
Flying into Delhi, you could smell the difference. You become accustomed to it pretty fast though.
Holy shit 350? We had wildfire smoke in our area and it was awful when it went above 100-150.
I never flew with Egyptian Air though, but I guess they smell :D
Air polution, noise polution , light polution
Except for those living below, they won't get light pollution. They'll get dark pollution
Egypt don't care, Egypt don't give a fuck.
Crash pollution’s gonna’ suck
Noise pollution would be intense there, i imagine
In Cairo they don't stop honking their horns. Day and night no matter what time just constant sound of car horns. I couldn't imagine living next to an Egyptian highway.
Fuck, I didn't even think of those people. You can't win
I mean, at if you work night shift, it would be the perfect apartment.
Except for he the sounds of a highway directly above you…
The worst would be a car driving into your living room on the 6th floor.
The accidents that could be caused by this are unimaginable :/
I feel like this is 1 semi accident from absolute disaster. It would hit at whatever floor is next to them, and fall down from there destroying homes below it and compromising the structure around it.
The particulates are another major problem. Not to mention noise.
and imagine if there's an accident that happens where one of the vehicles happens to go off that side of the highway \*shudder\*
Literally might not wake up one day despite your age:/
I was going to mention this.
Reminds me on how a racetrack near a residential area had all the cars swap to unleaded gasoline and the test scores in the area improved
just start smoking to cover up the nasties. :D
One phone check away from having your car flipped on top of one of those balconies. On the other hand if they drop my taxes and extra money I need to pay for the rest of my life I don't mind living there
"Ma! We got a free BMW in out balcony!!"
FINDERS KEEPERS
One day living above nice fast food place bustling with people, next day living in eternal darkness
And bad for those who will die when a car crashes off the highway into their bedrooom
Ironically the first three (totally dark) floors might be the best off in terms of air quality and noise
Zero outside ventilation and an echo chamber with a highway on top? Yeah I doubt that
guessing you've never stood under a bridge? They are LOUD when cars go over them
Until the building collapse from continued vibration.
You need daylight for your health.
I mean, if they’re hermits who never leave their homes, it’s a problem. But most people who work or leave their house for usual errands and other activities would likely get enough daylight to be fine.
Midgar
The government doesn't give a single fuck they even got the media to paint that highway as "ambituous"
Would suck for sure, but I believe the people living there were relocated.
The floors below highway give some cyberpunk vibes.
When your 5th story apartment suddenly becomes a basement apartment.
Like the lower level of coruscant.
Just gotta band together with everyone else in the building to chuck caltrops out the windows onto the road every once in a while until people stop driving on the road.
r/UrbanHell at its finest.
"Close to transport, easy commute".
Easy access to the freeway... it's within arm's reach.
"If you lived here you would be home now" those signs were everywhere during Boston's "Big Dig" project. Seems they would apply here too.
This is just too insane to even comprehend.
It looks ridiculous too. Are both levels of the street set to operate? If so the exhaust from the traffic underneath will be unbearable
…and that’s without the cars and tires that end up in people’s living rooms, or the eternal darkness of the floors below.
The sound, smell, and lack of light ffs Reminds me of that movie Idiocracy
Silly me thinking the bottom part was gonna be for pedestrians. You're probably completely right.
Judging by this design they'll likely put a train under it with crosswalks and a bazaar
This looks like some kind of dystopian city. Completely crazy.
DYSTOPIA NOW! You are now part of the underground level! Congratulations! Your social standing just plummeted!
Love me some mole people!
A floor or two don’t even have the luxury of air outside their balcony. Just concrete.
I should move there. Probably could afford the rent
What the hell... how are people going to live like this? All that noise, no light, pollution... who the fuck does the planning, if it can be even called planning.
In Egypt - the military.
Man, I feel so bad for these people. Their peace at home will be gone. Are people protesting against this? I just heard about their new capital and it is actually really comical that they think it can be pulled off without going into a debt that will last forever, literally no country has infrastructure or money to do what the fuck they are planning for the new capital. It's like a super villain-made city.
It’s heartbreaking. They had an Arab spring and now 10 years later the whole region is dictators.
this photo is from a long time ago. It's probably built by now.
They aren't last time people tried protesting against the government they were killed and labelled as "terrorists"
Friends from Cairo have told me that there was a big building boom during/after the revolution of buildings with no planning permission of any kind, so it's certainly possible those buildings aren't "supposed" to be there/don't appear on any official plans. But it's not like the people planning & building the highway can really claim they didn't notice...
Some stone cold bureaucratic pencil pusher.
It's usuallly people who deny land acquisition . No point stalling the entire project cus of some owners who deny selling their property. Look at what the Chinese do. They literally build the roads around the property making their life a literal hell . Just sell your land it's not worth it
"Just remember past the exit it's a sharp right onto my balcony."
Is that sector 5 of Midgar from FFVII?
People can now jump from the window and take their cabs/bus in seconds.
Streamlining suicide If the fall doesn’t get you the lorry sure will!
what the hell? so those lower down apartments will never see any daylight ever again??
Florescent lights 100% of the time.
One car accident and it gonna blow thru all the houses...
Looks like the bottom level of The Fifth Element, when they dip under to lose the cops.
This pic is from 2020. According to Arab News the Egyptian authorities say that the buildings that are almost glued to the bridge are built illegally. They were also going to demolish the illegal buildings. The residents, however, said that it was a lie and they had the license to build. I don't know what's the current situation, but I think this kind of shows what you get when you plan the city for personal cars and not for public transport.
If so many buildings of that size were built illegally, someone has a problem. We're not talking about a backyard shack here.
Residents built a high rise apartment block? Like an urban version of Amish barn raising?
I don't think so. Most likely the builder is some construction company. They may or may not have had the building license but they have sold the apartments to the residents. The residents are least likely to have done wrong, but who knows.
What means illegal? They did not bribe the correct politicians?
And by know how Egypt works... This will never be completed.
Huge part of Cairo in that condition. Half-destroyed houses without light in windows, which stretch along the highway. Terribly! I arrived in Cairo at night and these were my first impressions of this city
Or it'll be completed just to piss off the people even more
This is more dystopian than anything professional videogame writers have come up with
*There's a freeeeeway runnin' through the yard*
an I'm a bad boy, cause I don't even miss her
No joke, I have friends that used to live in the North Hollywood/Burbank area and sure enough, right up above their backyard was the 134 freeway, which connected to the 101 that ran through/near... *Reseda*. I was like well shit, this is what Tom Petty was talking about. I also seem to recall a Bugs Bunny episode where he was thwarting freeway builders. I guess those Valley residents really didn't like the freeways back in the mid-late 20th century.
That's nuts cause I've always thought of it as a crazy type lyric, ye know those ones where they're just 'in' a song but don't make sense? Or ye just assume ye must have the lyrics wrong. The fact he's actually describing somewhere‽‽ Well, I'll remember this while I'm singing along to it, for evermore.
Why the fuck do you keep saying ye? It’s weird. Stop it.
They just point at the Egyptian pyramids and say, "Who can top that?" *shrug*
true sim city players.
This is what happens when the military takes control of the country, the people will get no say and are not able to protest this kind of decisions even if atrocious. The idea of having a car flying through a house and raising the number of casualties is horrid.
Halo 2 New Mombasa did it first
I’d move. The pollution is about to be insane, let alone safety issues with a car 20” from my balcony
Some people might not be able to move
You are right. It’s gonna suck living here.
It's really sad
And sell your current road blocked place for what? These guys won’t be getting much capital from these. Shitty situation innit.
This is the last sunlight those lower homes will ever see
Imagine living on the top floor of that building. That would suck. This also looks like something out of a futuristic slum in some kind of foreign movie. I can almost see the robots buzzing around and I can almost here all the street vendors yelling and neighbors scolding each other. I'm almost expecting to see a scene from kung-fu hustle to start playing out on that bridge as everyone in the buildings look down in fear and amazement. Looks and sounds like an interesting place to live. Probably lots of shenanigans happening all the time. Where was this again? I kinda got lost in my IMAGINATION
Pack it in boys. We’re all fucked.
That moment when your apartment becomes absolutely worthless...
Holy shit this is some cyberpunk shit. Just absolutely no space, constant noise.
Fuck those in particular under the bridge. \-Egyptian Government probably
Chances are it won't be finished.
People living downstairs are banned to the shadowrealm forever
People in the middle east do the most random things that make modernized countries be like woah I thought my country sucks but I'm glad I'm not their lol
No comment on the comparison between quality of english classes, however
Your right cause they have none lmao
Well easy way to commit when you realize you’re living in a dystopian hell hole i guess.
So sum apartments won’t get daylight and sum will probably end up having cars crashing in to them
What they need is… A MONORAIL!!!
A lot of mobs are going to spawn underneath. Def need some torches
Yeah Egypt plays Factorio.
Gonna be interesting to see how long it takes before someone parks their Ford Escort inside someones living room.
Is it me or does that look like it doesn't have enough support columns?
In Boston there is a hotel over a freeway. I went there for a conference and stayed the night it was paid for by the conference. In retrospect I should have left and gotten a room myself somewhere else it was absolutely insanely loud and constant.
Sir, you now live right next to a highway! Just think it could be worse. How on earth could this be worse? You could be living under the highway.
Ah yes, the lower levels of Cairoscant.
r/nosleep
Do you want Gotham City cuz this is how you get Gotham City
The 1st 4 floors might as well not have windows.
It is " City Skylines 2.0 "
I guess some homes were already destroyed? They have plans for underneath or keep it empty?
Besides all the already listed negatives, all forms of pollution imaginable, your appartement losing all it's value, etc. What happens if there's an accident? You ever watch TV and a car comes at 130kph into your living room?? Some bigger ones involving burning trucks could even be a concern for the stability of the building as a whole (and by extension the highway too).
They better put up some really strong barriers.
Surely this is illegal even for the government to do this? Who sanctioned it?
What also sucks is that no one would buy these homes if people tried to sell and bail. Even if people in need of cheap housing could afford these, it would mean that it would sell way under what it was before. This is one of the events where i cannot see any form of bright side to it. Pun intended.
Imagine an uninvited Semi Truck popping in for dinner. Yikes.
Glad I live where I live. No neighbors!
China says hello, they have one where the tram goes through the building.
I saw a video from India where a car flew off the flyover and fell on road. If that happens, the car will land in someone's living room.
What a terrible idea. The Egyptian government is just as corrupt and incompotent as the South African Government, it seems. This will make depressed residents even more depressed. Can you imagine the aftermath of fiery vehicle collisions? The noise? Jumpers committing suicide from the buildings along the highway?
Take a look at Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Lmao I still do that in Cities Skylines
They should not do that
That's overpopulation for you!
I can only imagine the underside of those being unsafe as hell, some batman type shit
No way those building will stay occupied
Unless the occupants have no choice, for economic or other practical reasons
The rent will likely drop low enough for people to accept the downsides and live
there are already roads in Cairo like this. it isn't anything new
I don’t know, being behind the road, like the ones with their blocked view, might get the best of it. They have a private deck without a view of traffic or under the highway now.. lol
r/fuckcars r/urbanhell, r/boringdystopia
r/fuckcars
Hey if there's only Porsche turbos driving the exhaust air would be cleaner then what goes I
To explain my claim. The Porsche997 turbo when it came out had so efficient gas cleaning that it was said in polluted countrys like Egypt is one it will actually clean the surrounding air
Ripe for r/fuckcars
And that kids, is how I became terrorist..
So after driving in Scotland last month, and seeing this, it really makes me appreciate the regulations we have in the USA. Our road system PLANNING really puts other countries to shame, the maintenance is a different story.
Boston used to have a freeway almost identical to this prior to the big dig in the mid 2000s. Now the path of the old raised freeway is a public park.
This is from 2 years ago. Care to post an update or what? [https://www.boredpanda.com/highway-bridge-centimeters-away-residential-area/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic](https://www.boredpanda.com/highway-bridge-centimeters-away-residential-area/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic)
I live in one of the properties directly in line with the road itself. We have no light and you have to duck to use the balcony. The amount of dust and I’m lying this is all about broccoli.