Benny Chan’s pics of LA freeways have been mounted for a show at, appropriately, the Pasadena Museum of California.
Rush hour in Los Angeles is synonymous with gridlock, but the sheer enormity of the situation can be tough to grasp. Fortunately, there is the architecture photographer Benny Chan, whose Traffic! series depicts the scale of overcrowded lanes of rush hour traffic from high overhead.
Shot over a few years during various helicopter trips, the photographs now stand eight feet high and six feet wide, and convey, quite effectively, the enormity of the problem—as well as the need to get things moving.
Ah yes, “the need to get things moving” – the road builders’ mantra. That’s always worked.
More very-high-resolution images here.
Worth a read:
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/11/social-ideology-of-motorcar.html
The photos may not be unique to California, or even to the United States:
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=paris,+france&sll=49.220436,-122.6016&sspn=0.417988,1.069794&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Paris,+%C3%8Ele-de-France,+France&ll=48.901437,2.359389&spn=0.003935,0.012445&t=k&z=17
Paris
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=berlin,+germany&sll=48.901437,2.359389&sspn=0.003935,0.012445&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Berlin,+Germany&ll=52.501006,13.279488&spn=0.007315,0.024891&t=k&z=16
Berlin
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=london,+england&sll=52.501006,13.279488&sspn=0.007315,0.024891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=London,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.495118,-0.496337&spn=0.007481,0.024891&t=k&z=16
London
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=beijing,+china&sll=51.495078,-0.49623&sspn=0.007481,0.024891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Beijing,+China&ll=39.908749,116.538152&spn=0.004609,0.012445&t=h&z=17
Beijing
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=buenos+aires,+argentina&sll=39.908749,116.538152&sspn=0.004609,0.012445&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Buenos+Aires,+Argentina&ll=-34.622225,-58.379803&spn=0.004944,0.012445&t=k&z=17
Buenos Aires