Imperial Rome had over 1 million people at it’s height was was very densely populated. How did they handle things like traffic control, restaurants, and the other elements of urban living people today take for granted? I can’t imagine they just left the traffic work itself out.
There wasn’t much. Julius Caesar banned most wagons from the city of Rome during the daytime (with a bunch of exceptions), and later Hadrian put a limit on the amount of carts or wagons that could enter the city each day.
Rome didn’t have much on the way of enforcement, though. I’d imagine, during the empire, it was the vigiles’ responsibility, because most things related to city crime and public order were, but I think for the most part, the Romans did “just let the traffic work itself out”.
And did early-19th century London have traffic control?
I’m guessing that there was little or no traffic control. Check out this chaotic film clip of Market Street in San Francisco in 1905. Talk about suicide!
you don’t need traffic control when the carts are only moving at 10km or less. Everyone just flows around each other and the reaction times are long enough to (mostly) make that work.
go to India or Indonesia and watch the way a high volume intersection works, theres no right of way or rules but mostly people keep moving, slowly but they get there.
“Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!”
The thing you’d have to watch out for most is the cross traffic.
All roads lead to Rome, so there must have been quite some traffic going on. However, Rome will not have had much more than 1 million inhabitants. The estimate of 14 million is ridiculous.
Indian traffic cam, somewhat more recently (YouTube 1:06).
Holy shit. I’d expect a wreck every other minute or so.
Note that the video is indeed only one minute long.
Yes, of course. But considering that traffic is like that in, say, Mumbai for many hours a day (if not around-the-clock), I’d expect accidents about that frequently.
Some Roman urban ruins show some attempts to control carts in the form of raised blocks across the street. They were like stepping stones from one sidewalk to another that had gaps between them. A cart could fits its wheels between the gaps but it required care and thus forced the driver to slow. The aforementioned sidewalks also provided some control in that they provided a pedestrian space that was cart-free. An animal could still get up there though.
I seem to recall that one of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings is a plan for traffic control - apparently the idea of requiring people to keep to one side of the road was a revolutionary idea at the time.
Huh, I always thought those were so pedestrians could cross the street without stepping in shit/sewage/whatever.
That was the main purpose. Slowing down traffic was really a side benefit.
It should also be noted that such structures might not be present in older roman areas.
Traffic control in Rome is barely handled well today.
In a quarry in England the tracks from Roman times seem to indicate they drove on the left side of the road.
Take a trip to Port Au Prince in Haiti, that city has basically no traffic controls (mainly because people take them for the metal and other materials), but the traffic flows very nicely without them.
I know. I was just teasing.