46 Unusual Facts About World’s Popular Cities

When a city named Carmel in Indiana replaced all their signaled intersections with roundabouts, construction costs dropped $125,000, gas savings reached 24,000 gallons/year per roundabout, injury accidents dropped 80%, and total accidents dropped 40%.

2. The city of Sao Paolo passed a "Clean City Law" a decade ago banning outdoor advertisements. Over 300,000 ostentatious business signs, billboards, posters, bus and taxi ads were taken down. Removing ads revealed civic issues, including hidden slums previously masked by advertisements.

3. In 2009, the city of Seoul painted 4,929 parking spaces pink so that women would not have to walk as far to their destination and to make the city more conducive to wearing high heels.

4. The city of Melbourne was almost called "Batmania" after one of its founding fathers named John Batman.

5. The city of Hamburg, Germany banned K-Cups after deeming them "environmentally harmful."

The city of Huescar forgot they were at war with Denmark until a local historian found the declaration 172 years later. No shots were fired during the war.

7. The entire city of Liverpool, United Kingdom has boycotted the tabloid newspaper 'The Sun.'

8. Kansas City blatantly ignored The Prohibition. You could buy booze a few blocks down from the police station. They got away with it scot-free for all 13 years (1920 to 1933).

9. A few days after the Oklahoma City Bombings, a severed left leg was found in the rubble. DNA evidence showed that it was from a victim named Lakesha Levy. When they went to return her leg, it was found that she was already buried with one. It is unknown who the buried leg belongs to.

10. A Dutch city of Utrecht celebrated George Orwell’s 110th birthday by putting party hats on surveillance cameras.

A city of Fort Walton Beach in Florida passed a law “designed to keep vagrants and others from sleeping in the park.” Under the code, visitors to parks cannot “sleep or protractedly lounge” on seats, benches or other areas.

12. Many major cities in Europe offer ‘Sanisettes’: private, self-contained, self-cleaning, public bathrooms. After the user has exited, a wash cycle begins and the entire floor and toilet fixture are automatically sprayed, scrubbed and disinfected.

13. Cities in Greece (Thessaloniki metro) struggle to build subway systems because they keep digging up ancient ruins.

14. In Lima, Peru there is a billboard that creates drinkable water out of thin air.

15. The city with the highest crime rate in the United States is East St. Louis, Illinois. Its murder rate is 101 per 100,000 residents, which is more than double that of the city with the number 2 murder rate, Gary, Indiana, and also higher than the country of Honduras, whose murder rate is the highest in the world.

Toronto has an underground arcology, a network of underground tunnels where it possible to live without needing to venture outside.

17. The city of Medellin, Colombia reduced motorcycle assassinations by 39% when it banned male passengers from riding on the back of motorbikes.

18. Phoenix, Arizona has a similar latitude to the Ancient city of Carthage, which was a Phoenician city-state. People from Phoenix today are known as Phoenicians.

19. In San Antonio, Texas, lynchings used to be held in front of the San Fernando Cathedral until the priest cut the trees in which the hangings took place.

20. Calgary, Canada has the longest urban cycling/walking path network in the world, at over 1000 km.

Birmingham in the United Kingdom has a gay village named Birmingham Gay Village, which is full of LGBT friendly businesses, including sex shops and an adult cinema.

22. In Kawasaki, Japan, there is a 3-story tall amusement park that was modeled after the Kowloon Walled City.

23. Houston spent $2.8 billion expanding the Katy Freeway to 23 lanes only to slow traffic down by 30%.

24. There exists a mysterious Octopus House in Bandung, Bali that no one knows the origin of, but that locals have conjectured that it is the church of Satan.

25. In Delhi, if a tree falls sick, an ambulance is dispatched to treat them.