rabbiofberlin:
Actually the machlokas between the Bais Ephraim and the Mishkenos Yaakov (which was about two hundred years ago) was regarding this fact, most city streets were over 16 amos wide so they had to rely on shishim ribo. There were cities prior to the 20th century that contained shishim ribo such as London and Paris (if you want a list I can look it up).