4 ms·

I grew up in the UK where most towns and cities have roads going in all directions. I've always found the grid layout of US cities difficult to navigate, which

I grew up in the UK where most towns and cities have roads going in all directions. I've always found the grid layout of US cities difficult to navigate, which is strange because it's objectively a much simpler system. The sameness of each block and straightness of the roads makes it really hard for me to position myself with sight alone, whereas in the UK there seems to be more uniqueness to each road that makes it easier for me to find my way around. Interestingly, my US friends who've visited the UK have had the exact opposite experience!

jaclaz 8y ago
>I grew up in the UK where most towns and cities have roads going in all directions. ...and - as an observation from an alien - have much more interesting names and shapes : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html How to plan a town: http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html#Plan http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html#Plan
fredley 8y ago
US grid cities are really easy to navigate by car, but at the expense of pedestrians. Old cities like London are easy to navigate on foot, but hard to navigate by car.
- robbick 8y ago
  Agreed - IMHO favoring the pedestrian is the correct decision
  - panic 8y ago
    Especially now that we all use navigation apps in our cars.
    - fredley 8y ago
      To be fair, even with navigation apps central London is a nightmare...
      - ghaff 8y ago
        Like a lot of automated things, navigation apps are pretty much designed for the 95% case. Especially somewhere like a city, they fall down on the lack of instructions like "You want to be getting over into the right hand lane soon. You'll be making a turn up at $LANDMARK in a couple of minutes." Or, in London, which of the 5 streets coming off the circle do you want to be taking exactly?
        laumars 8y ago
        I don't agree with your examples. I've used a few different sat navs over the years and I've found they generally do 2 of the 3 things you suggested: > You want to be getting over into the right hand lane soon Granted it's not 100% accurate 100% of the time but you do often get advanced warning to change lanes - particularly on faster roads. On my VW I have two screens on the satnav (one behind the steering wheel and one on the central entertainment system console). The entertainment system displays a map view and the other display is a turn-by-turn display. The beauty of the turn-by-turn display is it also gives a countdown (in the form of a gauge bar) until you hit a junction so if the map is a bit cluttered or there are a few junctions (or even if the junction isn't clearly visible for whatever reason), you not only get advanced warning about when you're approaching it but you can clearly see which junction it is and precisely when you'll hit it. Sometimes I'll have that sat nav on even for routes I'm familiar with just so I get a reminder to change lanes on the busier roads and longer journeys where you might lose concentration about the route you're taking. > You'll be making a turn up at $LANDMARK in a couple of minutes Yeah, I've not experienced that. It would be a cool feature though. > Or, in London, which of the 5 streets coming off the circle do you want to be taking exactly? The sat nav in my VW explicitly gives a junction number. Eg "leave the 2nd exit". It does this both on roundabouts and on straight roads which have a cluster of exits near each other. It also has a display showing which of the multiple exits to take. I can't emphasis enough just how good the dual-display system is. It means at any point in time you know exactly where you are and where you need to be.
  - clarkmoody 8y ago
    > decision The thing about London and other old cities is that no one decided. The layout grew up over centuries in an organic manner, well before automobiles. More modern cities that experienced the majority of their growth in the age of automobiles also grew during the age of centralized urban planning.
ghaff 8y ago
If you know a city somewhat, organic layouts can tend to channel you toward major squares/circles and other landmarks. London is a good example. On the other hand, it can be fairly easy to get totally turned around. Not that big a deal in an era where everyone has a GPS in their pocket but still. That said, I'm not sure why someone would find the mostly grid layout of large sections of New York, for example, hard to navigate as a pedestrian. Yes, there are a lot of street crossings but a lot of that is a function of density and you can use the grid to go either up/down or cross-town depending on the lights and traffic. I find it's pretty convenient to more or less know where something is and how far away it is just based on an address/pair of cross-streets.

jaclaz 8y ago

>I grew up in the UK where most towns and cities have roads going in all directions. ...and - as an observation from an alien - have much more interesting names and shapes : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html How to plan a town: http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html#Plan http://f2.org/humour/howalien.html#Plan

fredley 8y ago

US grid cities are really easy to navigate by car, but at the expense of pedestrians. Old cities like London are easy to navigate on foot, but hard to navigate by car.

robbick 8y ago
Agreed - IMHO favoring the pedestrian is the correct decision
- panic 8y ago
  Especially now that we all use navigation apps in our cars.
  - fredley 8y ago
    To be fair, even with navigation apps central London is a nightmare...
    - ghaff 8y ago
      Like a lot of automated things, navigation apps are pretty much designed for the 95% case. Especially somewhere like a city, they fall down on the lack of instructions like "You want to be getting over into the right hand lane soon. You'll be making a turn up at $LANDMARK in a couple of minutes." Or, in London, which of the 5 streets coming off the circle do you want to be taking exactly?
      - laumars 8y ago
        I don't agree with your examples. I've used a few different sat navs over the years and I've found they generally do 2 of the 3 things you suggested: > You want to be getting over into the right hand lane soon Granted it's not 100% accurate 100% of the time but you do often get advanced warning to change lanes - particularly on faster roads. On my VW I have two screens on the satnav (one behind the steering wheel and one on the central entertainment system console). The entertainment system displays a map view and the other display is a turn-by-turn display. The beauty of the turn-by-turn display is it also gives a countdown (in the form of a gauge bar) until you hit a junction so if the map is a bit cluttered or there are a few junctions (or even if the junction isn't clearly visible for whatever reason), you not only get advanced warning about when you're approaching it but you can clearly see which junction it is and precisely when you'll hit it. Sometimes I'll have that sat nav on even for routes I'm familiar with just so I get a reminder to change lanes on the busier roads and longer journeys where you might lose concentration about the route you're taking. > You'll be making a turn up at $LANDMARK in a couple of minutes Yeah, I've not experienced that. It would be a cool feature though. > Or, in London, which of the 5 streets coming off the circle do you want to be taking exactly? The sat nav in my VW explicitly gives a junction number. Eg "leave the 2nd exit". It does this both on roundabouts and on straight roads which have a cluster of exits near each other. It also has a display showing which of the multiple exits to take. I can't emphasis enough just how good the dual-display system is. It means at any point in time you know exactly where you are and where you need to be.
- clarkmoody 8y ago
  > decision The thing about London and other old cities is that no one decided. The layout grew up over centuries in an organic manner, well before automobiles. More modern cities that experienced the majority of their growth in the age of automobiles also grew during the age of centralized urban planning.

ghaff 8y ago

If you know a city somewhat, organic layouts can tend to channel you toward major squares/circles and other landmarks. London is a good example. On the other hand, it can be fairly easy to get totally turned around. Not that big a deal in an era where everyone has a GPS in their pocket but still. That said, I'm not sure why someone would find the mostly grid layout of large sections of New York, for example, hard to navigate as a pedestrian. Yes, there are a lot of street crossings but a lot of that is a function of density and you can use the grid to go either up/down or cross-town depending on the lights and traffic. I find it's pretty convenient to more or less know where something is and how far away it is just based on an address/pair of cross-streets.