Finished in 1979, Interstate 5 was designed to be the world's largest parking lot, and from the get-go was an immediate success, offering spaces for millions of vehicles for cities and services stretching along the West Coast from Canada to Mexico.
One of the lot's biggest criticisms is the fact that it offers spaces that go through national forest land, the remote west side of the Central Valley, and over mountain passes despite lack of services and weather hazards, and as such these parts are very rarely used throughout the year.
Wasted space is such a problem, in fact, that many
people use it as a highway at speeds up to 70 MPH in these places in spite of its intended purpose. Uniquely for a parking lot, it also has problems with
people trying to smuggle
drugs and
people in from both Canada and Mexico. Despite this, in urban areas it continues to be highly successful, and puts ordinary parking lots the world over to shame.
I
left my car on Interstate 5 for two hours and hey, it was still there! There's also always construction, so, you know, the parking is always
better and less bumpy!
Maybe!