Regarded as the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street is located in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. This is a street that begins with a moderate slope and further-reaching a maximum gradient of 19 degrees.
For every 2.86m traveled horizontally, this street gets steep by 1 meter. Concrete was used to lay its surface instead of using the regular asphalt because on alarm day; the tar would have melted down the slope.
The residential suburb of North East Valley is the place where this street is located, which extends from the valley of Lindley creek and up the side of the signal hill towards Opoho. It generates a bit more slope than 1:5, and the street rises about 70 meters.
The lower reaches of the Baldwin street are slightly steep, and the surface of the road is asphalt. Furthermore, the concrete is used in the upper reaches as these are far steeper.
The out of the way steepness of the street was a result of poor planning. Planners in London who were responsible for its construction had zero ideas about what they were doing. As they did not have any clue about the topography of the city, and they laid the street on a grid pattern without considering the terrain.
Eventually, several streets landed on immensely steep hills. They did not give it another thought or tried to redesign or at least incorporate the switchbacks to tame the slope and carried on making a strange steep grade.
This resulted in Baldwin street becoming the steepest street in the world. The roads that are running parallel to the Baldwin are also quite steep. Such as Arnold Street (1:3.6), Dalmeny Street (1:3.7), and Calder Avenue (1:5.4).
Nowadays, the people living on Baldwin street take great pride in its reputation. They even host various competitions, such as running from down the road to the top and back down again. Furthermore, setting down spherical chocolate-coated from top to bottom and even rolling thousands of tennis balls down the Baldwin street.
