The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained • Hacker News Board

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#31

Post by cool_dude85 » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 11:01 AM UTC

I wish more cities would compile and publish this information.

I grew up in Miami that has a sort of less-structured grid system where avenues are the primary north-south roads and streets are the primary east-west roads. There's a through road every half mile, or numbering-wise every 8 streets or 5 avenues. So if you know this fact, you'll know that SW 47th ave is extremely likely to be a through road until it reaches the coast, and SW 42nd Ave is maybe a bit less likely but still probably a through road. Same with SW 88th st (main through road) and SW 96th st (probably a through road). In between these main grid streets you're on your own.

Incredibly, most people I speak to who live there do not realize this! As far as I can tell, it's not explained anywhere on the county or city website, at least that I can easily google. It makes getting around the city's surface streets much, much easier, but it's just not common knowledge.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#32

Post by nemo44x » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 11:07 AM UTC

blahedo wrote: post #20

Did all this arise because multiple smaller towns with their own survey grids got absorbed into the city at some point, or did the different alignments happen within an already-extant Minneapolis?

I heard that in Milwaukee the bridges that run over the river that divides their downtown area are crooked because when developed each side was fiercely independent and disliked the other. So their streets didn’t align. Was a pretty heated thing I guess. [1]

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/news/milwaukees-bridge-war-story-behi...

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#33

Post by hypercube33 » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 11:34 AM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #16

One of the things I find really amusing about "Minneapolis" streets is how they seem to go on forever. I now live roughly 40 miles away from Minneapolis, but I often come across nearby streets with the same name as the corresponding Minneapolis street if you extended it 40 miles south. And the numbers are suitably extended. So Chowen Avenue might end at the 6200 address in Mpls, but you'll find a Chowen Avenue in Bur…

Compare it to something like Eau Claire where you try to go easy on any given road ...you won't and it'll curve south or north almost guaranteed. I think Madison is a heavily planned city (Though I could be confused for Milwaukee as it's been a while since I read about either) where it's laid out as close to a north south grid as possible.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#34

Post by HighChaparral » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 11:51 AM UTC

unwind wrote: post #23

ggm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely Melbourne's problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoddle_Grid

TIL about the chain [1] as a unit of distance, equal to 66 feet and divided into 100 links of course. Wow. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_(unit)

The chain makes more sense as being one tenth of a furlong (as still used in horse racing in the US, Great Britain and Ireland!), which is of course one eighth of a mile.

Also, an acre is one furlong long by one chain wide.

Not coincidentally, a cricket pitch is one chain long.

My education was almost all in the metric system but a decent knowledge of the imperial system still makes the world a bit easier to understand.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#35

Post by mark-r » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 12:13 PM UTC

AStonesThrow wrote: post #22

Baseline Road in Maricopa County, AZ can be picked up at the Salome Highway in Tonopah: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bTe4WUQydug22Kqw6 That's nearly 50 miles west of Central Avenue in Phoenix, and it stretches another 33 miles east of Central, out to Apache Junction: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VrjSYy7QEuX9yNee6 The Phoenix-area grid is super-square; I figured it out by way of city bus routes, which are usually numbered accor…

I've flown in/out of Phoenix a couple of times at night, and it's glorious. All the streetlights on a regular grid make a beautiful sight.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#36

Post by rufus_foreman » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 12:27 PM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #30

IIAOPSW wrote: post #9

Ironically, the author could have found a far more intricate mesh of stitched together street grids if they never left New York. Here are all the numbered streets of New York City, colored by the number of the street. https://i.redd.it/p48mipyctk5d1.png The New York street grid can really suck you in because its just organized enough to not be randomness, but not organized enough to instantly fit it to a simple patte…

The New York street grid patterns were covered tersely but sufficiently about 60 years ago by legendary cartographer Saul Steinberg: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/kft9cz/a_view_of_t...

Wow, it used to be way easier to park on the street in NYC.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#37

Post by njb311 » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 12:27 PM UTC

actionfromafar wrote: post #29

com wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of my family were stock farmers in Australia and talked about 10, 5, 3 and 2 chain roads a bit too when talking about driving routes between places in rural and forested regions. You’d know the (maybe abandoned or ruined versus still existing small settlement) destination - by the description of the width of the roads getting there. I’m not sure how much of this was connected to what seemed to be a multi-generat…

So a 2 chain road is 40 meters wide...?!

Yes, because the roads were used for driving herds of cattle or sheep.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#38

Post by jccalhoun » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 12:44 PM UTC

Southeast and Northeast streets reminds me of back in the 90s when I lived in a house on East street. I was on the south end of the street so telling delivery drivers I was on South East street was always tricky.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#39

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 1:30 PM UTC

hypercube33 wrote: post #33

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #16

One of the things I find really amusing about "Minneapolis" streets is how they seem to go on forever. I now live roughly 40 miles away from Minneapolis, but I often come across nearby streets with the same name as the corresponding Minneapolis street if you extended it 40 miles south. And the numbers are suitably extended. So Chowen Avenue might end at the 6200 address in Mpls, but you'll find a Chowen Avenue in Bur…

Compare it to something like Eau Claire where you try to go easy on any given road ...you won't and it'll curve south or north almost guaranteed. I think Madison is a heavily planned city (Though I could be confused for Milwaukee as it's been a while since I read about either) where it's laid out as close to a north south grid as possible.

Probably Milwaukee.

Downtown Madison is sandwiched between 2 lakes, and most of the city orients North East for the roads that run between them.

Re: The Minneapolis Street Grid: Explained

#40

Post by brk » Thu, Sep 12, 2024, 1:39 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #16

One of the things I find really amusing about "Minneapolis" streets is how they seem to go on forever. I now live roughly 40 miles away from Minneapolis, but I often come across nearby streets with the same name as the corresponding Minneapolis street if you extended it 40 miles south. And the numbers are suitably extended. So Chowen Avenue might end at the 6200 address in Mpls, but you'll find a Chowen Avenue in Bur…

Metro Detroit, particularly the northern side, is like this as well. Grid streets extend for dozens on miles with the same names and numbering schemes.