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The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

chrisnorstrom.com

11–20 of 138 posts

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#12

I'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).

I've never lived in a cul-de-sac (which btw is french for a dead-end street), but spent my childhood playing outside all the same. Narrow, one-way streets, with plenty of speed bumps. I walked to school.

Currently I reside downtown, overlooking rails (the trains go quite slowly and make a noise far more agreeable than that of cars). There's a market under the rails, fruit vegtables and other foodstuffs at daytime, small quantities of drugs at night. I can buy on credit at both markets if I forget my wallet.

I will never understand the attraction of suburbs. The distances. The architecture. The boredom.

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#13
post #7

I 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.

You are of course correct to point this out but maybe, just maybe, it is still a good proxy for gauging reaction to a positively-portrayed campaign along similar lines.

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#14
I live without a car. The "put in connector sidewalks" solution is one that has occurred to me. My thought is that it would let people keep the same situation they seem to prefer in terms of car traffic but would connect neighbors like he is talking about, where teenagers could go see each other without needing a driver's license and car to have a social life.

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#15
post #11

He fails to understand the main reason that home developers want to build neighborhoods with lots of cul-de-sacs: Homes on cul-de-sacs sell for more money. The more of these you can squeeze into a given neighborhood, the more money you'll make off the development.

I very much doubt it is the main reason.

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#16
post #5
post #2

I 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.

people can't walk on grass these days?

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#17
post #5
post #2

I 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.

Hmm, not sure what I was thinking. I guess I agree. It'd almost double the number of homes that are in walking distance to your home if done.

Re: The Great Cul-De-Sac Problem And How To Alleviate It.

#18
post #16
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

people can't walk on grass these days?

Is less about that and more about trespassing on a random person's property in order to get around.
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