Your urbanistic ideas

[Marcin Z 0]

There are lots of city conceptions. propably every city on this world had different main urbanists with different vision. Ex: soviets were experimenting with long line cities, Paris has big avenues (Napoleon wanted city in wich easy would be pacification of revolutionists), american cities have streets wich are crossed with 90 degrees to make communication easy. 

Do You have your own solutions? Show it! 

[Duke87 1,070]

My own idea which I have used in drawing out fictional cities before is as follows: have the city crisscrossed by parkways which travel mostly in straight lines, have park space on either side, and only intersect with major streets. Minor streets end to either side on frontage roads and perhaps some intermediate streets get an overpass or underpass, or two pairs of ramps.

Pelham Parkway and Mosholu Parkway in New York (The Bronx, actually) approximately are this kind of idea.

Anyways, have these parkways intersect at rotaries (or "roundabouts" for you British folks), perhaps with flyover ramps so parkway traffic doesn't need to go around the circle to travel straight through.

Fill in the areas between these parkways with local grids of streets.

Perhaps have an occasional full blown highway, but keep them depressed below grade and allow people to use air rights to build buildings over them to minimize the "imaginary barrier" effect.

And that covers the street/highway side of things. Obviously you'd also want a nice subway system to go with that. And those parkways would make nice bus routes.

Let's try and illustrate this:

Note how the orientation of the grid varies. Also notice how some irregularity is acceptable.

Okay, I spent waaaaay too much time making that image....

[Marcin Z 0]

I usually build my cities basing on some soviet solutions and my ideas. Few simetrical zones alongside one long mainway. There are builded in this order:

Living-Commercial-Industrial-Commercial- Living. On way between Living and work zones I places toll-gates.

When small streets in living zone are overcrowded, I makes belt-ways rounding these zones.

[Mebert 5]

The automobile is the enemy of the well organized city. Streets should be constructed for the efficiency of limited automobile traffic, and a massive, all-encompassing mass transit system should render the necessity for such things totally nullified. For instance, a city like Wien, Austria, which has a very effective U-Bahn (subway), S-Bahn (sort of an inner city high speed rail, larger capacity than the U-Bahn, but not quite commuter rail), and Trams, that effectively service every area of the city.

[Ratieya455 1]

I like the use of crosswalks that are level to the sidewalk rather than the street. This causes cars to slow down and look for pedestrians, and gives pedestrians the true right of way. I'm not saying to use this at all crossings, just at those where you want a smooth flow of pedestrian traffic.

And I guess ped/bike orientation in general. Much easier and cheaper to just walk places.

[Danlikebooks 6]

Sidewalks everywhere (especially in the suburbs).  My parents wouldn't let me walk anywhere because there were no sidewalks!  Bike paths too.

[Alexzero77 3]

[stratusmonkey 0]

Originally posted by: Duke87 My own idea which I have used in drawing out fictional cities before is as follows: have the city crisscrossed by parkways which travel mostly in straight lines, have park space on either side, and only intersect with major streets. Minor streets end to either side on frontage roads and perhaps some intermediate streets get an overpass or underpass, or two pairs of ramps.

Pelham Parkway and Mosholu Parkway in New York (The Bronx, actually) approximately are this kind of idea.

Anyways, have these parkways intersect at rotaries (or "roundabouts" for you British folks), perhaps with flyover ramps so parkway traffic doesn't need to go around the circle to travel straight through.

Fill in the areas between these parkways with local grids of streets.

Note how the orientation of the grid varies. Also notice how some irregularity is acceptable.

quote>

Wow.  That's awesome on so many levels.  It would seem, though, that you wouldn't want too much deviation from cardinal directions, so reference to cardinal directions would be more than arbitrary.  Do the major roads follow the terrain, or how are their alignments chosen?

Even makes me want to see The Bronx, and I have a Midwesterner's irrational hatred of NYC.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: stratusmonkey Wow.  That's awesome on so many levels. quote>

I try.

It would seem, though, that you wouldn't want too much deviation from cardinal directions, so reference to cardinal directions would be more than arbitrary.  Do the major roads follow the terrain, or how are their alignments chosen? quote>

Terrain would obviously influence things, and if things got hilly it could cause curves, like the river does to one parkway in the above example. As for what the alignments are, the idea is to use straight lines but avoid using cardinal directions since triangles and polygons work into things better than squares and rectangles. This is the same reason for varying the grid orientation: make it look less heartless and more organic. Besides, anything other than flat terrain would cause some irregularity anyway.

Basically, just draw straight lines at semi-random orientations but try to avoid making shapes that are too big or too small and never have more than three parkways intersect at one point. Because that's asking for trouble, funneling too much traffic through one small area.

Even makes me want to see The Bronx, and I have a Midwesterner's irrational hatred of NYC.quote>

Well, here it is on google maps satellite view.

[doliverio 0]

Note how the orientation of the grid varies. Also notice how some irregularity is acceptable.quote>

I agree with you on the grid irregularity.  As a NYC resident, some of the BEST neighborhoods are in areas that deviate from the grid plan, such as the West Village!  Also I think more parkways and maybe one MAIN highway will help filter the traffic accordingly, and a well planned mass-transit system will keep people out of their cars and keeping the air clean!

[cmdp123789 710]

Well, if I was to choose a model for my cities I would build them like Buenos Aires, I mean, it is very european, it has skyscrapers, lots of people, huge city ( area ) and it is very modern at the same time, it has a little bit of everything. Plus, the city is a combination of intersections of 90

[Mebert 5]

As a NYC resident, some of the BEST neighborhoods are in areas that deviate from the grid plan, such as the West Village!quote>

As a NYC resident, what? I live on the Lower East Side, and I love the grid. Makes plenty of sense, and it's way less confusing than other cities, such as Boston. I used to live in Brooklyn, and the grid worked there. Naturally, we had our odd-angle cross streets, like New Utrecht Avenue, but even they were pretty cardinal, when you think about it.

Besides, the West Village isn't that un-griddy; it's just oriented differently.

[piccboi824 1]

I'm a very transit oriented mayor. all of my major cities employ some form of transit whether it be subway/elevated, monorail, intercity rail, ferries, or a combination of everything. I usually get excited a build my highways or rail at the beginning and build up around them so that my sims will end up having to rely on them. For example, as my main city gets older and becomes more commercial based, I move my industry to neighboring towns and have either one avenue or highway connection and a rail/transit connect to that city so that way, traffic is forced on to those thoroughfares ensuring usage. I hate building a great highway system and have like a handful of Sims use it. For some reason they would rather stay on side streets and roads that high occupancy highways and avenues.

[ariznglori 0]

Being from the BalWash, I prefer the methods of plannning like Washington, D.C. Basically, the big grid for most streets, especially in flatter areas, but with points of interest or importance (such as city hall, churches, landmarks, and public spaces) connected via avenues that break the grid, and travel to the city limits where a beltway can take traffic around to various areas. Of course, where the land conflicts with the grid system, parks are pleasant solutions, such as along shores or in areas that do not seem to easy for transport. Of course, DC has crappy transit, so a grid-breaking subway system with many lines or very efficient lines is always a plus. Orientation of the city around water is always important, and making the waterfront accessible and people-friendly like Baltimore's Inner Harbor helps too. Except I prefer to scatter points of interest throughout the city, not just cluster them, as DC does with the Mall and Baltimore does with the harbor....lol but thats me.