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Optimising for tourists is pretty lame, they don't have to live there. In my opinion, I think a balance between the approaches works well. I'm in Philadelphia.
by Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
Optimising for tourists is pretty lame, they don't have to live there. In my opinion, I think a balance between the approaches works well. I'm in Philadelphia. I really appreciate that anyone can tell me some event is at "14th and Locust" and I know how to get there without directions. At the same time, roads like Ben Franklin Parkway are wide and open enough, with multiple courtyards along its length, that it opens up a larger part of the city for people to get their bearings in and get a larger part of the city in their visual field. Broad and Market street do the same thing, to a lesser extent.
- noelwelsh 8y agoThe reason I said "for tourists" is because a local will learn the layout eventually regardless of what it is. I don't think my experiences in, say, Birmingham where I lived for a decade are comparable to my experiences in Philly, which I have visited once for a few days.
- brlewis 8y agoI've been local to Boston for decades and haven't truly learned the layout. I can get to any given place, but without consulting the map I'll often choose a suboptimal route. It's hard to stop my brain from forcing the layout into a grid, which it very much is not.
- listenallyall 8y agoYou live in Center City. The rest of Philadelphia has a very organic layout. Can you get to Frankford & Castor without directions? Germantown & Chelten? Anywhere in NE Philly?
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y agoYou have a point. However, I am new enough to Philly and have explored those areas little enough that I'm not sure I can be a good judge of them.