The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
chrisnorstrom.com
The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
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Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#2I see what he's saying, but don't necessarily agree. I grew up in India and I'm not sure how the culture here is in the US, but most of my friends came from houses that were a maximum of 2 blocks away. Not how much of a difference you'd make by connecting houses that are as far apart as 2.5 miles.
The link is great though, It seems obvious on hindsight, but I didn't realize cities were explicitly planned this way.
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#3I've lived on a dead-end street (but not a cul-de-sac), and I've lived on a regular traffic street. I definitely preferred the dead-end with the lack of traffic and noise, and ability for kids to play in the street without fear of a car going 50 down it. And people did socialize with neighbors on the dead-end street (although maybe not as much as the regular street).
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#4[deleted]
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#5I see what he's saying, but don't necessarily agree. I grew up in India and I'm not sure how the culture here is in the US, but most of my friends came from houses that were a maximum of 2 blocks away. Not how much of a difference you'd make by connecting houses that are as far apart as 2.5 miles. The link is great though, It seems obvious on hindsight, but I didn't realize cities were explicitly planned this way.
The point is not to connect you with houses 2.5 miles away--it's to connect you with houses 50 meters away that are completely inaccessible thanks to the street layout.
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#6I've lived in both cul-de-sac hell (even pizza delivery drove there for years, it was a nightmare), and I've lived in straight grid systems, and I know where my loyalties lie.
If electric cars and alternate fuels can't deliver, then public transportation is our only way out of fossil fuel dependence. And I don't envy the city planners who will have to figure out how to make a bus and train system work with a layout that looks like a small child closed his eyes and took a crayon to a piece of paper.
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#7I like the sentiment of this article, but I don't like the wording of his survey.
> Maps show that your neighborhood only has 1 entrance (through Radio Dr) creating a bottleneck and completely seperating [sic] you from your neighbors to the West, East, and South and adding extra miles to your commute.
This is a really biased question, and will throw his survey results into question.
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#8My prior community did this... 50 to 60 years ago. I happened to meet one of the long-retired city council members who was part of that planning, and they chose the street layout -- a modified grid -- deliberately to prevent traffic / cars racing down the sidestreets. A few strategically placed walkways let people move between sections in pretty much a a straight line. It keeps kids off of the main thoroughfares, and it makes walking downtown (these days, more often a commuter heading to the train station, but also trips to the library, theatre, and restaurants) a very pleasant experience. It's also a community where kids can still walk to school (though it's wealthy enough that many nonetheless get rides -- lazy little buggers ;-).
(It's also nice to not be incessantly driving over the uncomfortable alternative that is speed bumps. An annoyance in the nearby city, these days.)
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#9It does seem a bit insane, but the solution is not always so simple. Many of these neighborhoods are built on hilly terrain, and there are many laws and regulations about building roads, particularly building at a particular incline and building on stable and erosion-resistant areas. Most of these cul-de-sac layouts are aimed to maximize views and minimize construction costs, hence you have a sort of minimum-spanning tree configuration. Also, many of the streets are forced to follow isolines in the terrain.
Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.
#10The density in cul-de-sac neighborhoods is still too low to make it possible for residents to get to any of the basic services they need (school, grocery, etc) without driving. Adding a few roads to shave a mile or two off a commute or trip the store isn't going to make much of a difference.
Our (american) cities desperately need urban growth boundaries to force density.