Wow, DougC, that is truly messed up. In New York City they alternate. I don’t think you can hit more than two consecutive streets that are one way same direction.
Three, maybe, but that would only be where the middle one is a main road with no left turn, or something. I think.
From a purely personal standpoint, I detest one-way streets because I cycle, not drive, and it is a hell of an inconvenience to have to travel an extra quarter or half a mile to get round a one-way system.
Sounds like you’re one of the few cyclists who understand that cycles are supposed to follow the same rules as motorized vehicles.
I have to agree with Gazpacho. The number of people living in surburbs passed the number of people living in cities a few censuses ago. And since about a quarter of the population lives in rural areas, the vast majority of Americans in fact live outside of center cities.
If you check the population of cities against the population of their metropolitan areas you will quickly see that cities proper have less than half the population of their metro regions. I don’t think there are any major exceptions except those few places that politically merged the city and the larger area, like Jacksonville.
I’ve noticed that in cities as varied as New York City and Philadelphia and San Francisco, the wider streets are two-way. You’re simply ignoring all the disadvantages of one way streets and the enormous disruption that occurs when a two-way street is converted. One-way streets aren’t a panecea: look at the gridlock that NYC gets even with them. Most downtowns have already converted all the streets that traffic engineers think will work as one way. If they haven’t yet, there’s undoubtedly a good traffic reason why not.
audiocarp, if it makes you feel any better, think of two-way streets as pairs of one-way streets, really close together.
Quoth scr4:
Am I the only one who understood this? When I’m crossing a two-way street in the U. S., I know that until I reach the center of the road, all (legal) oncoming traffic will be from the left. After I reach the center of the road, I know that it’ll all be coming from the right. If I’m crossing a one-way street, though, it’ll depend on which way the street is, which may not be marked at my crossing location.
GaryM, that’s another of the reaons I dislike one-way systems - they do force me to go up onto the pavement (either cycling or walking with the bike if it’s too busy). With the distances I cycle I really don’t want to go further than I have to, and besides, this is England, it rains all the Goddamn time. 
(And there is no freaking way I’m cycling the wrong way down a one-way street; no lemmings in my ancestry).
Frankly I don’t understand cyclists who always use the footpaths. They’re too bumpy, there are too many kerbs to bump up and down, there are those pesky pedestrians getting in your way, and all in all you can’t go very fast, and you stand a good chance of being tipped off your bike. And then you still get knocked off your bike by cars when you cross the road, because they’re not expecting anything that fast to come at them from that direction.
[/rant] Sorry about that.
That’s only true if you are comparing a two-way road with a single-lane one-way road. But to handle the same amount of traffic you need a two-lane one-way road. The only saving in real estate comes from eliminating the left turn lane where possible.
By the way, cyclists in Japan are not required to follow one-way roads. We even have traffic lights pointing the “wrong” way with a sign saying “for bicycles only.” I’m still trying to decide if that’s a good idea - personally I don’t feel very safe doing it.
NYC is a special case: We have gridlock because there are just too many cars. I favor the idea of shutting the city to all non-commericial vehicles and eliminating the roving “yellow cab”. That one day when Giuliani blocked them was so quiet and less chaotic… And why should cabs be allowed to roam for fares? It wastes fuel, creates congestion, adds to the smog…
I will concede the point about pop. distribution, as I was thinking of the metro area as part of the city’s population.
Sorry to hijack, but I would add that many NYC cab-drivers impede traffic in many many ways. Frequently they intentionally block other cars to maximize their chance of getting a fare. Also, they frequently cross 5 or more lanes of traffic in just one city block; block traffic when the light turns green because they’re picking up or dropping off a fare, etc.
I would guess that the average NYC cab adds 3 to 5 times as much congestion as a non-cab. The one time I drove in Manhattan on a day when there were few or no cabs out was so nice, so pleasant, so CIVIL . . .
ok, sorry again for the hijack.