OK, my new hobby (namely, discovering Cape Town's steepest street) is fast running out of steam. I don't know if I have any more streets to explore. I've put paid to a few myths anyway: the myth-makers have had Bellevue Street, Gallows Hill, Head Road, and Longmarket Street down as the steepest in the city. The first two of these are easily ruled out (a mere 10½° and 11½° steep). Head Road has a section that is 17° steep, while Longmarket Street has a "sustained slope" of 17° (thus matching the steepest of San Francisco). The only other "sustained slopes" that come close to Longmarket Street are Fontaine Bleu Street (16½°) and Upper Deane Road (16°). However, Top Road has a section that is 17½° steep, and Clifford Road has a section that is 19° steep. OBSERVATION: Yet what is a "sustained slope"? Even the official world record holder, Baldwin Street, Dunedin, is 19° steep only "at its maximum". The photo shows my three-wheeler parked in Longmarket Street (click on it for VGA).
2 comments:
Just curious: Were these inclines assessed by the angle of depression of the exhilarator pedal.
Or by the whiteness of the driver's knuckles. Someone asked me, do you have to MURDER your poor vehicle so? Interestingly, it has one pedal, six levers, and a throttle.
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