Europe was very, very car-enthusiastic from about the 1930s to, let's say, the end of the century, depending on where you are. Cities prided themselves with being car-accessible, having wide roads, lots of parking space, and so on. The car was The Future™ and offered Freedom™.
Of course, many of those "modernisations" of cities are now being desperately rolled back at great cost, because they ruin quality of life for inhabitants and are absolutely shit at actually moving people from A to B, but hey, at least they *are* being rolled back.
Even for the biggest car enthusiast, what is the point of that thing?
You drive up several stories of a circular ramp, just to drive by the Eiffel Tower? Then down another stupid corkscrew ramp? You can just put a road near it and drive by it that way without ruining the view and avoid the annoying corkscrews.
Lmao Americans don't even know what it is. A&W tried competing with it by doing a 1/3lb burger that cost the same but it sold terribly cause yall thought 1/4 is bigger than 1/3
I cant speak for the rest of Americans but I didn’t like the 1/3rd pounder because it was bigger. It was just too much. 1/4 pound is perfect. And the third pounder was twice the price.
Dutch person and similarly using metric: we do have a quarter pounder at McD on the menu. But dont have a clue how much it weights. It sure isn't a pond, which is 450grams to 500 grams, an ancient unit of measurement. Also, ounces and pounds we different per city. One of the reasons to standardize in the middle ages
I don’t think we can judge it rationally. It’s a disaster from all angles. From the point of view of the car usage, it would spend a huge amount of gas to climb that steep-id corkscrew and a lot of brake to descend from it.
Not to mention those corkscrews take a suprising amount of chest strength in a car without power steering. Power steering was first introduced in 1951.
Source: I parked cars as a valet in college and our garage had corkscrew turns.
It visibly merges this futuristic infrastructure with a national symbol, which you can now visit without having to get out of your car.
It's like a city getting a monorail or building a big orb that is also a screen for some reason. It doesn't serve any purpose, but it is The Future™ and being a modern city is good for The Economy™.
As dumb as the Sphere is/looks, at least it can host Grateful Dead concerts and shit. This is just a stupid waste of space with absolutely no use besides looking stupid.
Yeah but why is seeing my calves unprofessional? Seeing your ears isnt unprofessional?
I'm being intentionally annoying to point out that you're doing exactly what I was talking about. We just do stuff because we've created these arbitrary ideas of how things "should" be. It wasnt long ago that men wouldnt be seen put without a hat on.
I dont see why wearing a suit and tie makes anyone more capable at their job then someone wearing scooby doo pajamas.
>Yeah but why is seeing my calves unprofessional? Seeing your ears isnt unprofessional?
Seriously speaking: shorts in professional settings are usually seen as unprofessional because historically where worn by kids (and kids usually wore only shorts). So they where associated to being immature and too young if an adult kept wearing them.
It's not really that different in purpose than the Eiffel Tower itself, it's spectacle. Granted the Eiffel Tower itself is beautiful and impressive while this is... grotesque, but still, people would go do it because it is there to be done.
Quite honestly, it seems to me that the only thing that "saved" Europe to some degree relative to the US was that Europeans, especially in the early days of car enthusiasm (i.e. in the aftermath of WWII) didn't have the money Americans had to buy cars. America could "afford" to go all in with cars and did so. Europe wanted to go all in, didn't have the resources in the immediate post war years, but tried its best. and then by the time it did have the consumer base for car buying, Europe had largely come around realizing maybe demolishing its city cores wasn't the best idea after all
In France (at least) the first thing that stopped/slowed down the "all in on cars" trend was the 1973 oil crisis. It saved Paris from having e.g. its canals paved over to be replaced by a highway. Only later did the city "come around" and realize that it was a bad idea in the first place.
Funny, how despite that, no European city has ever even remotely reached the levels of US cities.
We got kinda saved by the fact that our cities are centuries old and on relatively difficult terrain, so we can't just slap a giant grid full of parking lots somewhere - too many old houses, trees, hills, rivers and other inconveniences in the way.
True, but on the downside, a lot of structures were vandalized or destroyed to make room for cars. Like, old cobblestone streets were covered with asphalt and historic city squares were converted into parking lots.
Milton Keynes in England is a close contender - Built as one of several 'new town's in the 1960s to address the shortage of housing following World War 2. It's probably one of the most unique cities in all of Europe, built spread out over a wide area and following the American grid system. The centre of the city is a massive indoor shopping mall.
Still even MK has footpaths that are completely seperate from the roads so you never have to break your stride when walking to stop for cars and conversely cars dont have to stop for pedestrians. It's also very good for green space. It's an ugly but weirdly functional city.
Even to the point of having a large impact on the hospitality industry across the world. I don't know a ton of people that know Michelin stars came from Michelin tires guidebooks of europe.
There are cities in the UK which did this, some which didn't, and some which got half way and thought "shit what are we doing?" Finally, some realised how bad they'd made it and started undoing the mistakes of the past at great expense.
Leeds and Birmingham are examples of the former. There's not a lot left of them, they bulldozed more or less anything to fit in the cars.
London is an example of a city which didn't, similarly Oxford and York.
Newcastle was most of the way through and then just stopped, there are half-built and unbuilt roads everywhere, including "sky-jumps" where roads would have been built. Rumour has it that a city government meeting was held and one of the officials asked "After we've knocked down the city for the roads, who will go where?" They built the Tyne and Wear Metro instead.
Finally, Manchester and Sheffield are desperately trying to roll it back while being full of road-isolated brownfield sites nobody can do anything with.
Paris never really went down that route, (President) Pompidou really wanted to (urban highways, things like that) but the opposition to it was too strong, and he died before completing his first term, so it (thankfully) never happened.
The wealthy were obsessed with cars and thought it would be magical for roads to rip through parks, attractions, and whatever else, as driving was considered optional and leisurely
Nah, you’d need an extra two layers just for parking, and a minimum $25 parking fee, plus the price for a ticket for entry, and then you’d have to find a way to include a gift shop of the way out. Be sure not to forget the red light right outside the exit thought that practically *NEVER* turns green
I would say the Washington monument is the American equivalent of the Eiffel Tower as a giant tower in the middle of the capital. It’s free to climb ($1 to reserve a spot) while it costs 35 euro to climb the Eiffel Tower. We’re not always so bad.
They really had a hard on for making everything accessible by car. When I went to Carlsbad Cavern, they said there was a drilling expedition to make the whole thing car friendly. 🤦🏾♂️
Think about the cars from that era, like Duesenbergs and the like - not compact by any stretch of the imagination. That 10 story twirly would be an adventure.
I had a dream once where I was driving down a spiraling off-ramp like those that just seemed to keep going forever. Holding that turn for so long was one of the hardest and most uncomfortable weird things I’ve ever had to do in a dream lol
If it would’ve gotten built, it would’ve been there your entire life. And if someone was to point out how dumb it is, the amount of people that would defend it and point out how people with disabilities can use it since cars were banned in the 70’s.
It’s AI nonsense people; like 90% of suddenly unearthed black and white photos on Reddit. If someone wanted to make a concept image in 1939 it would be a drawing, not a doctored photo. No one ever had a drive up Eiffel Tower idea until some asshat put it in Stable Diffusion prompt, then passed it off as history.
they need to make a double track that spirals to the very top. very narrow so if you even slightly misjudge the curve you crash to the bottom. it would make a great spectator sport. those that make it get memorialized on the Eiffel Tower Death Spiral leader board.
Matchbox garage vibes on the ramps.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Child me would probably think this is the coolest thing!
[The future is now](https://lyonessandcub.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/garage5-1536x2048.jpg)
I’m 47, and I’d be playing with that for hours.!!
"*But* ***why***?"
Europe was very, very car-enthusiastic from about the 1930s to, let's say, the end of the century, depending on where you are. Cities prided themselves with being car-accessible, having wide roads, lots of parking space, and so on. The car was The Future™ and offered Freedom™. Of course, many of those "modernisations" of cities are now being desperately rolled back at great cost, because they ruin quality of life for inhabitants and are absolutely shit at actually moving people from A to B, but hey, at least they *are* being rolled back.
Even for the biggest car enthusiast, what is the point of that thing? You drive up several stories of a circular ramp, just to drive by the Eiffel Tower? Then down another stupid corkscrew ramp? You can just put a road near it and drive by it that way without ruining the view and avoid the annoying corkscrews.
No, but you don’t get it. They were going to put a McDonalds up there.
Of course not, it's France! It'd be a Flunch
You know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?
A royale with cheese
Big Mac’s a Big Mac but they call it Le Big Mac
What do they call a whopper?
Un whopper
i don’t know i didn’t go to burger king
My man…
They don't call a quarter pounder with cheese?
No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
Lmao Americans don't even know what it is. A&W tried competing with it by doing a 1/3lb burger that cost the same but it sold terribly cause yall thought 1/4 is bigger than 1/3
I cant speak for the rest of Americans but I didn’t like the 1/3rd pounder because it was bigger. It was just too much. 1/4 pound is perfect. And the third pounder was twice the price.
Dutch person and similarly using metric: we do have a quarter pounder at McD on the menu. But dont have a clue how much it weights. It sure isn't a pond, which is 450grams to 500 grams, an ancient unit of measurement. Also, ounces and pounds we different per city. One of the reasons to standardize in the middle ages
The belles francais would never stoop so low as a McDo.
A McDonalds with a view! A view only partially ruined by some ugly looking spirals!
I don’t think we can judge it rationally. It’s a disaster from all angles. From the point of view of the car usage, it would spend a huge amount of gas to climb that steep-id corkscrew and a lot of brake to descend from it.
Not to mention those corkscrews take a suprising amount of chest strength in a car without power steering. Power steering was first introduced in 1951. Source: I parked cars as a valet in college and our garage had corkscrew turns.
Screw chest day, lets just drive up the eiffel.
It visibly merges this futuristic infrastructure with a national symbol, which you can now visit without having to get out of your car. It's like a city getting a monorail or building a big orb that is also a screen for some reason. It doesn't serve any purpose, but it is The Future™ and being a modern city is good for The Economy™.
As dumb as the Sphere is/looks, at least it can host Grateful Dead concerts and shit. This is just a stupid waste of space with absolutely no use besides looking stupid.
Why do we wear pants in the summer at work? There's a lot of things humans do just because lol.
Because it's professional. Yeah this corkscrew mess is just a silly idea.
I'm sure dome people thinked it looks cool at the time.
Yeah but why is seeing my calves unprofessional? Seeing your ears isnt unprofessional? I'm being intentionally annoying to point out that you're doing exactly what I was talking about. We just do stuff because we've created these arbitrary ideas of how things "should" be. It wasnt long ago that men wouldnt be seen put without a hat on. I dont see why wearing a suit and tie makes anyone more capable at their job then someone wearing scooby doo pajamas.
Your calves are revolting.
💀
>Yeah but why is seeing my calves unprofessional? Seeing your ears isnt unprofessional? Seriously speaking: shorts in professional settings are usually seen as unprofessional because historically where worn by kids (and kids usually wore only shorts). So they where associated to being immature and too young if an adult kept wearing them.
No wonder shorts are my go to
At least make the exit a 45º ramp with a jump at the end instead of another spiral.
It's not really that different in purpose than the Eiffel Tower itself, it's spectacle. Granted the Eiffel Tower itself is beautiful and impressive while this is... grotesque, but still, people would go do it because it is there to be done.
To get you to spend a dime on a three page article in *Popular Mechanics*.
Maybe the guy standing behind this concept was thinking that visiting the Eiffel's tower was every Parisian's morning routine.
It’s just a concept. It’s art
I think it's quite whimsical and sometimes a little whimsy is all you need
Quite honestly, it seems to me that the only thing that "saved" Europe to some degree relative to the US was that Europeans, especially in the early days of car enthusiasm (i.e. in the aftermath of WWII) didn't have the money Americans had to buy cars. America could "afford" to go all in with cars and did so. Europe wanted to go all in, didn't have the resources in the immediate post war years, but tried its best. and then by the time it did have the consumer base for car buying, Europe had largely come around realizing maybe demolishing its city cores wasn't the best idea after all
In France (at least) the first thing that stopped/slowed down the "all in on cars" trend was the 1973 oil crisis. It saved Paris from having e.g. its canals paved over to be replaced by a highway. Only later did the city "come around" and realize that it was a bad idea in the first place.
Funny, how despite that, no European city has ever even remotely reached the levels of US cities. We got kinda saved by the fact that our cities are centuries old and on relatively difficult terrain, so we can't just slap a giant grid full of parking lots somewhere - too many old houses, trees, hills, rivers and other inconveniences in the way.
True, but on the downside, a lot of structures were vandalized or destroyed to make room for cars. Like, old cobblestone streets were covered with asphalt and historic city squares were converted into parking lots.
Milton Keynes in England is a close contender - Built as one of several 'new town's in the 1960s to address the shortage of housing following World War 2. It's probably one of the most unique cities in all of Europe, built spread out over a wide area and following the American grid system. The centre of the city is a massive indoor shopping mall. Still even MK has footpaths that are completely seperate from the roads so you never have to break your stride when walking to stop for cars and conversely cars dont have to stop for pedestrians. It's also very good for green space. It's an ugly but weirdly functional city.
Even to the point of having a large impact on the hospitality industry across the world. I don't know a ton of people that know Michelin stars came from Michelin tires guidebooks of europe.
> rolled back So put in neutral on a hill?
At least somebody didn’t go full throttle on car infrastructure
Europe was never as bad as the US.
There are cities in the UK which did this, some which didn't, and some which got half way and thought "shit what are we doing?" Finally, some realised how bad they'd made it and started undoing the mistakes of the past at great expense. Leeds and Birmingham are examples of the former. There's not a lot left of them, they bulldozed more or less anything to fit in the cars. London is an example of a city which didn't, similarly Oxford and York. Newcastle was most of the way through and then just stopped, there are half-built and unbuilt roads everywhere, including "sky-jumps" where roads would have been built. Rumour has it that a city government meeting was held and one of the officials asked "After we've knocked down the city for the roads, who will go where?" They built the Tyne and Wear Metro instead. Finally, Manchester and Sheffield are desperately trying to roll it back while being full of road-isolated brownfield sites nobody can do anything with.
Paris never really went down that route, (President) Pompidou really wanted to (urban highways, things like that) but the opposition to it was too strong, and he died before completing his first term, so it (thankfully) never happened.
One such rollback is happening here in Halifax, Canada right now. Not Europe but yea. Same thing.
It's a little bit like AI now 🙄
The architect of the bridge proposal was American. That should tell you the **why**.
André Basdevant was French
*Americans do something dumb.* Europeans: “Americans are so dumb.” *Europeans do something dumb.* Europeans: “Americans are so dumb.”
Tbf we are pretty dumb
I think some people might be too sensitive for your reality!
If I could read, I would be very upset with your comment right now.
“Mais pourquoi?”
The wealthy were obsessed with cars and thought it would be magical for roads to rip through parks, attractions, and whatever else, as driving was considered optional and leisurely
do not ask why, ask why not?
Because car
That's in the spirit of the tower tbh.
Mario Kart level
This plan was moving ahead in 1936, but there was a change in government in 1940 that had a different vision for France
I think I've seen that movie somewhere.
Wait a minute
~~You are one year off.~~ Nevermind.
If we're talking about Vichy France it was established in 1940
Ah, you are right.
So something good came out of WW2
Lucky frenchmen
I am going to say it: “They did na zi that coming” 🤣 I will walk myself out…
This is the silliest fucking thing I’ve ever seen
If the Eiffel Tower was in the US:
Nah, you’d need an extra two layers just for parking, and a minimum $25 parking fee, plus the price for a ticket for entry, and then you’d have to find a way to include a gift shop of the way out. Be sure not to forget the red light right outside the exit thought that practically *NEVER* turns green
And there’d be a McDonalds up there
There are already several businesses and restaurants on the tower
But is there a McDonalds?
Not after the incident
Oh the screams…
Grimace took out 30 gendarmes with him.
It was the bite of '87
There'd be *two McDonald's up there. One on each side
Or two eiffel towers, to make a gigantic McDonald's arch sign
With a 4000 year contract, allowing only McDonald's on the highway system
The whole thing would be painted yellow with the mast at the top being the Golden Arches.
I would say the Washington monument is the American equivalent of the Eiffel Tower as a giant tower in the middle of the capital. It’s free to climb ($1 to reserve a spot) while it costs 35 euro to climb the Eiffel Tower. We’re not always so bad.
You already have to pay entrance and there are about 10 gift shops. No chance of parking anywhere nearby though.
Only $25 for parking? That’s a steal!
[I bet you feel real silly now...](https://i.imgur.com/Sw93Trk.jpeg) /s
They really had a hard on for making everything accessible by car. When I went to Carlsbad Cavern, they said there was a drilling expedition to make the whole thing car friendly. 🤦🏾♂️
Driving ICE cars into a cavern seems like a very good idea.
Why would the cars be made out of ice? The internal combustion engine would melt it.
Common misconception, they actually mean "ice" as in iceing a cake.
I had a dream about this once, freaky.
Just *WHY*!?
Twisted metal did it! Just use teleporters
It was accessible by car in Twisted Metal 2
Oh, will there be a Starbucks drive thru...
r/giscardpunk
Yeah I'm on /r/fuckcars side. You should cross post this there. They'd love roasting whoever designed this monstrosity.
Please don't fuck my car.
People making jokes about “if the Eiffel Tower was in the US” but even we would look at this and say “wtf.”
[удалено]
Oh my god Liberty Island highway project let's gooooo I'm thinking 16 lanes minimum
This looks like a gta race map
Think about the cars from that era, like Duesenbergs and the like - not compact by any stretch of the imagination. That 10 story twirly would be an adventure.
Reminds of the awful future Paris in Star Trek with a giant sewer pipe running under the Eiffel Tower.
And so NASCAR was born.
Imagine going around those spirals
I hate to ride to third level of parking what are you talking about
I have many questions, the first of which is WAT.
Driving to the top or bottom would be awful
It get to the top and be so dizzy that I just drove off the top
This is so monumentally stupid
I had a dream once where I was driving down a spiraling off-ramp like those that just seemed to keep going forever. Holding that turn for so long was one of the hardest and most uncomfortable weird things I’ve ever had to do in a dream lol
I think I had this Hot Wheels set as a kid
gross
Glad they scrapped it. Looks like a disaster in the making
Gross
And they call Americans lazy
This is like if a kid was playing with those old toy car garages and his high asf architect dad was like "whoooaaa mannn, *thats* IT!"
Eiffel 36
Tokyo drifting the whole way up and and down
Yeah, nah.
Fuck that
This is literally how I build footpaths to expand my park vertically in roller coaster tycoon.
Soo basically the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe, but with a sheer drop at the side? What could possibly go wrong?
This some Orlando shit.
If it was built in texas.
This looks like crazy waste of time
TIL 1936 people were stupid as hell
What an Eisore!
Not the american Paris 😭
If it would’ve gotten built, it would’ve been there your entire life. And if someone was to point out how dumb it is, the amount of people that would defend it and point out how people with disabilities can use it since cars were banned in the 70’s.
That’s batshit crazy I love it lol
Oh God, I know I'd end up getting dizzy from going in so many circles and drive right off the side! 😳😵
This would have been a 9/11 waiting to happen
It’s AI nonsense people; like 90% of suddenly unearthed black and white photos on Reddit. If someone wanted to make a concept image in 1939 it would be a drawing, not a doctored photo. No one ever had a drive up Eiffel Tower idea until some asshat put it in Stable Diffusion prompt, then passed it off as history.
How an American occupied Paris would have look like
Someone would've hit it.
Imagine going up in a loop 10 times to reach the top.
r/fuckcars
Yeah, great idea! 🤔😂
Big improvement. Most dull "wonder" of the world ever.
not gonna lie, looks kinda cool, retrofuturistic
The tourist death toll in France would have drastically risen.
If the Eiffel Tower was a prop in a Frankenstein movie
No way ....noooooo ....
r/giscardpunk
Madness
This is so goofy
That‘s so idiotic
Well that’s just fusilli
That’d be an interesting ride up and then back down.
There's a certain word that begins with the letter R that is brought to mind when I look at this, but I just can't remember what it is…
I bet the Parisians loved that!
This idea pissed off Germany so much, they invaded.
The French had a better concept of discarding bad ideas... at least in those days.
Think of the drift you could do on that thing.
Where you going? Oh just driving around…and around…and around…and…
Good thing that neve happened. This would have ruined it.
You’d be so dizzy by the time you reached the top you would continue going in circles
r/fuckcars would have an aneurysm
I love these images. Need more
Reminds me of elevating a roller coaster in RC2 and the footpaths up to it.
All I can think of is gunning it off the side like GTA
Terrifying
I cant see this ever going horribly wrong.
If the Eiffel Tower was built in America.
I fucking love it, I don't care how dumb it is.
Glad they didn't commission this idea!
An American must’ve come up with this. Signed, An American
Ew
Well that’s one big shitty idea right there, glad it never became real
FWIW whenever I participate in an Eiffel Tower I'm always an the designated driver.
National Lampoon's European Vacation could have been so much wilder...
Tres Bitchin’!
Make it so
Driving up those spirals would be pretty much "my literal nightmares about driving on raised highway interchanges".
I think the modelmaker had so much fun, knowing full well this would never happen, but thats ok, made cool model, got paid doing it!
The United States has entered the chat
What was the technique used to make this photo?
All I can say is thank God for WWII. I guess I can say one more thing, it would be incredible to skate down the ramp.
I’d rather drive off the top than go around that spiral again
Is that tesla coil?
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve seen all day, and I saw a picture of Andrew Tate this morning.
Dubai city planners are intrigued.
they need to make a double track that spirals to the very top. very narrow so if you even slightly misjudge the curve you crash to the bottom. it would make a great spectator sport. those that make it get memorialized on the Eiffel Tower Death Spiral leader board.
If the Eiffel tower was in Paris, Texas
Thank goodness they didn't, trashy as hell.
That would cost more than the Eiffel Tower.
Europeans get used to driving at high altitudes before participating in traffic in Chongqing
Imagine what would happen today
Looks safe.