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It's because the market (that is, home buyers) don't want to live on streets that can be used as cut-throughs to get to other places. As traffic density increa
by techsupporter 15y ago
It's because the market (that is, home buyers) don't want to live on streets that can be used as cut-throughs to get to other places. As traffic density increases, drivers will try to find shorter or less-congested routes to get where they want to go. The street on which I live (in an area built approximately 30 years ago) is an example of this: it is a wide two-lane street that connects two major roadways. There are other, non-residential streets that connect these same roadways but those routes are clogged most of the time. Therefore, people use my street with all of its attendant problems such as speeding, extremely loud exhaust and/or sound systems, not watching for people walking or biking, etc. So, non-connecting streets became the popular thing to do, along with curving streets to force drivers to slow down.
- tptacek 15y agoThis design, by the way, isn't just some evil plot by the Robert Moses's and Henry Fords of the world; it's an idiom endorsed by Christopher Alexander in _A Pattern Language_.
- qjz 15y agoI live on the "stalk" of such a development and therefore my street is the busiest. Nonetheless, it is extremely pleasant, as only residents or service people use it. It isn't a shortcut to anywhere. The biggest shortcoming is that no consideration was made for pedestrians. Even though we live close enough that my kids could walk to school, there aren't any trails or sidewalks that offer the opportunity. By road, we're a few miles away, so my kids take the bus. It's kind of sad.
- rdtsc 15y agoThat is exactly what they solved in my community. There are cul-de-sacs but they have also built bike-able and walkable paths between the back yards so you can still cut through if you wanted on foot or bike but cars can't pass through.
- r00fus 15y agoThey do this frequently in french suburbs (at least the ones I've visited near Tours)
- arebop 15y agoI didn't remember that, so I looked it up. Maybe you are thinking of a different passage, but here's what I found: "... cul-de-sacs are very bad from a social standpoint --- they force interaction and they feel claustrophobic, because there is only one entrance" [p262]. I found other places where cul-de-sacs are acknowledged, but none where they are endorsed.
- tptacek 15y agoSorry, I should have been clearer; I wasn't referring to cul de sacs, so much as street grids intentionally designed to frustrate through- traffic.