Street Layout

[ixnayonthetimmay 16]

david1314

You're right, mostly. However, I would be careful to discount the weight of the people not commuting into downtown. I would qualify what I said before about a lot of people by saying that actually the majority of people don't commute into downtown. This is the case of where I live (which happens to be Phoenix of all places...) Probably because of it's thinly-spaced nature and rigid grid design, more people in the Phoenix metro area work in places that aren't the central city area than in the central core. Other major employment centers are in such "suburbs" as Tempe and Scottsdale located 10-15 miles from downtown. I think it is because of this that people can actually "reverse-commute," as I described before.

The radial system would be ideal for places as sprawled out as Phoenix, but due to the natural obstructions of mountains, rivers and floodplains, plus the overall lop-sided pattern of growth, I don't think it could have been successfully implemented.

confused04

I think the only real way a grid system could be the most efficient of any system would be if development were compartmentalized such that any one axis of the grid didn't have to handle significantly more traffic than another axis. A point I already made is that no system we have now is without its shortcomings, and so it would be foolish to throw one out completely in favor of another. Others disagree. But there are also exclusive benefits for each system. For example, the grid makes it easier to navigate if you don't know where you are, and the non-grid provides for less distance travelled, providing you actually know where you're going. I think the real question is how do we manage the best of both worlds?

It's just a shame we all can't have Star Trek-style transporters installed in our homes and businesses..that would do away with all of these traffic problems and recover some much-needed land for building on!

[NYM1980 3]

All i gotta say is, those of you that like these twisting, confusing roads from developments, try driving something larger than a car.  I drive a school bus for a living, and it is so easy to get lost in these developments.  Here in CNY we have a development called Radisson, its so large there was talk of making it into its own town.  The roads twist and turn so you end up not knowing where you are or what direction your going, you stop at an intersection and the road on your left has a completely different name from the road on the right.

So I gotta say, personally, I HATE the way they are making these roads now, the grid system may be considered old, but is far less confusing for people, and just makes more sense to me.

[ScurkCity 0]

I think a good comparison would be Atlanta to Salt Lake City.  SLC's grid is based off of the Mormon "city plan of Zion" in its older areas.   In other words, wide roads and big city blocks.  Atlanta is a typical meandering Southern hill city with roads that generally lead to the city center, but through many twists and turns. 

I think Salt Lake's flaws are that its N-S & E-W effeciency are sacrificed by the lack of diagonal efficiency.  Plus when any road is equally as useful as the other, it really takes away from some of the "private" feel of certain residential streets.  Some roads are not for high amounts of through traffic.  Some of SLC's giant blocks have been filled in with cul-de-sacs and alternating rectangular grids, like this:

HVHVHVHV

VHVHVHVH

HVHVHVHV

VHVHVHVH

HVHVHVHV

VHVHVHVH

Where "H" is a block with 2 horizontal rectangles on "top" of each other, and "V" is two vertical rectangles, side-by-side. 

Atlanta's roads seem to have a bit more personality and seem more organic, even if they are a bit meandering and inefficient.  Plus they all lead to the central area, with "beltways" at certain radii from the center.  Many of these expressway interchanges on the "Belt" have spawned high rise corporate developments, including the tallest "suburban" towers in the U.S.. 

I think the roads are what set American cities apart, and how they are seemingly grouped by region and landscape.  Atlanta is typical of hilly Southern cities like Birmingham, Nashville, and Charlotte, while SLC is the extreme western block city. 

Freeways are a good equalizer in traffic efficiency, as most follow the "spur and bypass" model in American cities.