Italian Gas Station

Italian Gas Station
Originally uploaded by dubaidan

This post is filched from the Urban Oasis blog. Flickr image by Dubaidan.

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As I have raved about before, Italian cities have a wealth of great urban design elements. One I particularly like involves the integration of gas stations. As seen here, frequently there are two pumps stuck on the edge of the road and cars just pull off to the side to fill up. With this arrangement, the noxious land use effects of the automobile are mitigated a bit by eliminating the major dead zones for pedestrians that gas stations become. It must be a challenge to get the tanks under the road and sidewalk (rather than one’s own property), but compactness and the traffic-calming effect would be worth it.
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In the U.S. we have so many cars that this likely wouldn't work. But what an idea.