HOME

When choosing products or services, please consider our advertisers.

THE DAILY GROOVE
ISSUE 004-07:
PLACES 11

ARCHIVES:
ALL ARTICLES 'THE DAILY GROOVE'

ABOUT THIS WEBSITE

MASTHEAD

The path on 'The Black Lake' was elevated and lined with trees and drains in 1771....
 
Herbert Schwarzwälder: History of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Tome 1, page 499 ^anotation

It's only natural that roads in a city are surfaced. A few weeks ago I happened to see a road which was under construction. The road was looking like a dirt track. I started to think about the implications of surfaced roads.
 
A surface improves the 'loading capacity' of soil. Soil gets an armour. The picture demonstrates how heavy vehicles churned up unsurfaced soil. The armour enables heavy and fast vehicles to be used. Traffic flow can better be planned.
 
In the street, which you see in the picture, is a drive leading up to a central hospital. One can quickly take accident casualties and sick persons to the hospital from remote places thanks to surfaced roads. Surfaced roads make it easier to centralize social and commercial services. They make it posssible that people can make use of services which are only available at centralized institutions.
 
Surfaced roads make it possible to settle a vast number of people in cramped surroundings. If all people, who live in those multistorey buildings in this street, passed a dirt track on foot or by a vehicle several times a day, the dirt track would be impassable for a time after a heavy shower.
 
People are not able to see immediately the interaction of rainwater and soil on the surface of a road, because man took a hand in the interaction. But man didn't cancel the interaction, he only changed it.

A road under construction
 
People who walk on a pavement don't experience an other perception. Their bodies don't touch soil because they wear shoes and the road 'wears' a surface. They are not able to experience the effect which their movement has on natural soil.
(My wife Christine helped me to translate the text. Thanks.)

Anotation The road you see in the picture is a side street of the modern road named 'On The Black Lake'.  to the top

Please also read:

Revisited places (16)  about a large crossroads

Charlie Dittmeier's diary entry of November 7, 2005 about a street in Phnom Penh. The link leads to the latest entry of the notebook. Please scroll down.


Next issue 'The Daily Groove'
on Thursday, March 15 2007

< previous issue    next issue >

We would like to point out that we translated articles from German into English for the purpose of service. We would like to make it clear that the German translations are deciding, because the articles are directed to users who live in Germany.

Wir möchten darauf hinweisen, dass wir zu Servicezwecken englische Übersetzungen vorgenommen haben. Klarstellen möchten wir, dass maßgeblich die deutsche Übersetzung ist. Grund dessen ist, dass wir uns an in Deutschland ansässige Nutzer wenden.



Please also read Cats Talk (33)

to the top                 sitemap