Wide park-like medians in Georgia cities (Columbus, Savannah: college, light rail, automobile)

[Akhenaton06]

OK, so what is it with these wide, park-like medians in Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, and Macon? Pretty interesting that the 2nd tier cities share this unique feature.

[GRS86]

Fitzgerald is another city in GA that prominently features them!

[WanderingImport]

Are you referring to the large medians in the roads? If so, it has to do with the age of the road itself. At least for Savannah's sake, the road was there before the car was invented. Dublin's main thoroughfare is like this too.

Other than that explanation, I guess it's a southern thing?

[Akhenaton06]

I think most cities in the South were there before the car was invented. Even a relatively young city like Birmingham, founded after the Civil War, preceded the invention of the automobile by about 14 years. Still, most Southern cities don't have this feature.

It doesn't seem to be a general Southern thing, but appears to be a specific Georgia thing, at least from my observations (and I've visited several Southern cities). And I mean "wide" to the point where they actually contain parks and things like that.

Some pictorial representation:

Columbus


Augusta


Macon


Savannah


I think they are rather unique features but was wondering why it seems that they are found specifically in several Georgia cities.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by WanderingImport

Are you referring to the large medians in the roads? If so, it has to do with the age of the road itself. At least for Savannah's sake, the road was there before the car was invented. Dublin's main thoroughfare is like this too.

Other than that explanation, I guess it's a southern thing?

Or European. Median promenades are a common sight in cities such as Barcelona, Athens or Prague. They tend to run their light rail lines along them as well.
One of my personal favorites in GA is Union Street in Brunswick.

[convextech]

Those are not medians. I forget what they call them, but they're not parks either.

[G-town706]

I don't know. But the one in Macon and Columbus look very similar to each other. Same with Augusta and Savannah. Its like Augusta tried to copy Savannah. Which is possible because they are both the oldest cities in georgia.

[Smashed]

In New Orleans they are called the "neutral ground." They were there earlier, but now most of the city's trolley system uses them.



Medians and neutral grounds became popular during the Victorian Era following the renovation of Paris. By widening the streets it opened up the city and helped prevent the spread of fires. It also had the added effect of adding much needed green space to dirty, cramped cities.

[aloumanati]

I am from Savannah, Ga. We are known pretty well for our parks and our squares (I think that is what someone is referencing above saying the medians are called something else). The squares are just nodes of park that held monuments before cars were invented, when building roads in Savannah they build a grid system which created the space for squares, parks and large ornate medians.
The median thing is everywhere in Savannah, its downtown, in Savannah proper and even on the highways. Most of the medians are larger to preserve nature (those trees have big roots) and route the roads or traffic around the trees.
Additionally, in terms of city-planning, Savannah and other very ornate southern cities did borrow some city planning tips from South America where there parks and roads are often look like ours. The even did research into parks in Barcelona and how their arrangement of space created community before creating Forsyth Park.

So to answer your question:
Some of these cities are the oldest cities in Georgia and the greater south. They were well-developed before cars existed and when cars came about, they worked around nature for the roads. We used similar city planning techniques to South Americans where parks and squares were set as gathering points. Additionally, us in the true south just love our trees and our history, so we made room for our monuments and made sure people could appreciate our nature.

*I am from Savannah so that's mostly what I'm talking about here. Additionally, I took city planning courses in college and this came up.

[Columbuskidd92]

Hmm,they all over downtown Columbus. I love broadway's.