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Old narrow-street, maybe an alley in the back, grid-layout suburbs with the odd block corner zoned commercial and all-neighborhood-streets routes to all kinds o
by yamtaddle 4y ago
Old narrow-street, maybe an alley in the back, grid-layout suburbs with the odd block corner zoned commercial and all-neighborhood-streets routes to all kinds of businesses and parks and libraries and such are a whole different beast from the twisty-road car-dependent mazes of post-70s suburbia. And they're so much damn nicer. Too bad no-one builds them anymore.
- twiddling 4y agoproblem isn't zoning but design regulations. A lot of street design is dictated by being able to fire engine equipment in and turned around. Hence no new alleys are being built.
- yamtaddle 4y agoI don't even mean that narrow. Just not, like, 4ish cars wide. More like 3 or 2.5 (if one-way).
- ultrarunner 4y agoThe "residential" road that I live on is (and most in the area are) 45 ft wide, with 2.5' sidewalks. The Hummer H1 is an incredible 7.2 feet wide, meaning you could fit six full-size hummers side-by-side down this road. Add in the mandatory front 30ft setback and you have a sight line that is around 110 feet wide. People are expected to go up to 30 mph here. They don't.
- alistairSH 4y agoWe could build fire equipment to fit narrower streets.
- zip1234 4y agoThere already are fire trucks for that: https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Meet-Kiri-the-tiny-Japanese-fire-truck-bringing-16137119.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Meet-Kiri-the-tiny...
- alistairSH 4y agoYeah, just not used in the US. All we have is giant custom things that cost a fortune.
- crooked-v 4y agoMost cities have zoning that doesn't allow that kind of thing.
- c0nsumer 4y agoWe moved from the latter to the former about a year ago, and it's SO MUCH BETTER. The low traffic residential grid roads make great walking and cycling (for quite long distances) and the closer proximity to neighbors seems to result in friendlier people. I'm amazed at what a different feeling it is compared to our old McMansion/Condo stuff where people kept to their boxes and didn't seem to know how to politely interact.