Ocean View, Hawaii (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Ocean+View,+Hawaii&ie=UTF8&cd=7&geocode=FcP2IgEd-Da39g&split=0&sll=34.261003,-77.780259&sspn=0.018445,0.032015&hq=&hnear=Ocean+View,+Hawaii&ll=19.117922,-155.746822&spn=0.091153,0.181789&z=13), on the Big Island: on the mauka side of HI 11, there is a roughly 14 by 10-block street grid, rotated 45 degrees, at the south end of the island. On either side along HI 11: mostly open space, for miles and miles.
Palm Coast, FL (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=palm+coast,+fl&sll=19.092618,-155.616531&sspn=0.345849,0.727158&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Palm+Coast,+Flagler,+Florida&ll=29.56196,-81.236043&spn=0.019896,0.045447&z=15): Dozens of residential streets, all beginning with B. In other parts of town, the same happens with C, P, R, and W. I guess it's good that the street name tells you what part of town it's in... but once you get there, they all seem similar.
Rotonda, FL (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=rotonda,+fl&sll=28.400668,-81.570568&sspn=0.01006,0.022724&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Rotonda,+Charlotte,+Florida&ll=26.898037,-82.279873&spn=0.081597,0.181789&z=13): has a shape you might expect from the name.
California Valley, CA (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=California+Valley,+CA&sll=35.321008,-119.956284&sspn=0.149587,0.220757&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=California+Valley&ll=35.303358,-119.928989&spn=0.07481,0.110378&z=13): a street grid built practically in the middle of nowhere just south of Route 58, part of a speculative land development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Valley,_California) that never really went anywhere.
Most streets are named for other California communities (i.e. Belmont Trail, Carpinteria Trail, Cloverdale Trail, Beverly Hills Trail, and the awkward-sounding Daly City Road).
^^ Oh that reminds me of Horizon City, Texas (near El Paso)
Horizon City (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Horizon+City,+TX&sll=35.303358,-119.928989&sspn=0.103809,0.222988&g=California+Valley&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Horizon+City,+El+Paso,+Texas&ll=31.735029,-106.111794&spn=0.108183,0.222988&t=h&z=13)
Detroit:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=42.334882,-83.038445&spn=0.046127,0.143852&z=14
It's a radial grid for the downtown area with the main spokes heading outward.
Check out aerial images of NJ's Pinelands. Scattered throughout the area for dozens of miles on either side of NJ 70 are ghost trails, laid out in grids, completely unpaved (sand only), and frequently traversed by 4x4s and ATVs.
In the vain of street grids built in the middle of nowhere based on land speculation, here is California City, CA...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=California+Valley,+CA&sll=35.321008,-119.956284&sspn=0.149587,0.220757&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=California+Valley&ll=35.303358,-119.928989&spn=0.07481,0.110378&z=13
The developer once hoped that this city what rival Los Angeles in size. The population is currently 12,659. So there's that.
Washington, DC has one of the most impressive street grids IMO.
Miami's is also unique. The zero point is downtown at the corner of Miami Ave. and Flagler St., right near the water. As such, the SE quadrant is extremely tiny - almost nonexistant. The NE quadrant is a tall sliver extending from downtown to the Broward County line. NW is the most populated, and the SW quadrant contains almost all of the rural areas left in Miami-Dade county. Streets are numbered (with some having names as well - they are usually signed by both name and number) with Avenues running N/S and Streets running E/W.
Just to confuse things, the county-wide grid does not extend into a few of the incorporated cities like Miami Beach and Hialeah. Hialeah, which has its own grid numbering, has roads that change numbers for a few blocks, then change back because it's right in the middle of the NE quadrant.
One can't forget to mention Salt Lake City... Incredibly easy city to navigate thanks to the Latter-day Saints who settled the place.
Quote from: realjd on May 11, 2010, 10:22:12 PM
Washington, DC has one of the most impressive street grids IMO.
I think Washington's is pretty impractical for vehicles. Well, it was laid out in the 1790s, so can't fault them too heavily, but the compound intersections of three or even four roads coming together, sometimes not quite intersecting in a single point, gets awfully confusing. "Okay, light is green, go ... wait, what, another red light twenty feet away???" I remember having trouble where US-29 turns from 7th St. onto Rhode Island Ave with S St. also part of the same intersection complex.
QuoteOne can't forget to mention Salt Lake City... Incredibly easy city to navigate thanks to the Latter-day Saints who settled the place.
Also easy to fool outsiders- I was meeting some people in Salt Lake a few months ago and was told to meet at 9th and 9th, which apparently is the name of a neighborhood in addition to being an intersection. In my infinite wisdom I went to the intersection of S 900 W and W 900 S when I was supposed to be at S 900 E and E 900 S.
The grid is confusing until you get the hang of it, but once you do it's really intuitive. The Mormons really know how to lay out a city.
Carova Beach, NC (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Carova+Beach,+NC&sll=36.526812,-75.855188&sspn=0.041314,0.090895&ie=UTF8&hq=Carova+Beach,&hnear=North+Carolina&ll=36.532467,-75.86875&spn=0.041311,0.090895&t=h&z=14) has a really impressive street grid given that all its streets are unpaved sand roads, and the community can only be accessed by 4-wheel drive vehicles.
I also particularly like how it contains segments of Sandpiper Rd and Sandfiddler Rd from the Sandbridge Beach region of Virginia Beach.
Quote from: kurumi on May 11, 2010, 01:51:40 AM
Palm Coast, FL (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=palm+coast,+fl&sll=19.092618,-155.616531&sspn=0.345849,0.727158&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Palm+Coast,+Flagler,+Florida&ll=29.56196,-81.236043&spn=0.019896,0.045447&z=15): Dozens of residential streets, all beginning with B. In other parts of town, the same happens with C, P, R, and W. I guess it's good that the street name tells you what part of town it's in... but once you get there, they all seem similar.
Cotati, CA and Rohnert Park, CA also do the same, with the street names starting with the letters A, B, C (twice), D, E, F, G, H, J, L, M, R, and S.
QuoteI think Washington's is pretty impractical for vehicles.
True, the multi-leg intersections can get confusing...the traffic circles remedy that somewhat. But what really kills DC's grid isn't the 1790s layout...it's a combination of lack-of-application outside the monumental core (except for a few core streets), elimination of the grid for the freeways and railroads, and closure of streets for "security concerns" (closing E Street and PA Ave has made east-west travel near the White House particularily painful).
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 11, 2010, 10:54:31 PM
I think Washington's is pretty impractical for vehicles. Well, it was laid out in the 1790s, so can't fault them too heavily, but the compound intersections of three or even four roads coming together, sometimes not quite intersecting in a single point, gets awfully confusing. "Okay, light is green, go ... wait, what, another red light twenty feet away???" I remember having trouble where US-29 turns from 7th St. onto Rhode Island Ave with S St. also part of the same intersection complex.
I agree, it's a mess for cars. When I'm visiting DC, I either park at a suburban metro station and take the train in, or if I'm flying, fly into Reagan and not bother with a car at all. I thought the worst part of driving there was the one-way roads that change direction based on the time of day, and IIRC they didn't use the standard lane open/closed electronic signs. The impracticality of it though doesn't make it less interesting though!
Speaking of road grids, most counties in northern and central Indiana have huge grid-based road layouts. They're (almost) all numbered identically. Typically the county is split into quarters by a N/S and an E/W road (often named things like Meridian or Division). Roads are numbered based on the number of miles from where these roads meet, which isn't always in a town. Each mile is an increase of 100, so a N/S road 3 1/2 miles east of the middle would be called "350 E". Addresses follow the same grid, with 1000 addresses per mile. So a house on 350 E near the intersection with 225 S would have an address like "2252 S 350 E". Numbered highways through these counties often don't follow the grid, and are often one of the few roads to have a name. Roads in towns may have a name and an number.
I know most of the midwest was platted similarly when the US government gave away all the lane, but I don't know if other states number their roads similarly. I think Ohio used a system mixing letters, numbers, and decimal places, but I don't remember too well.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 11, 2010, 10:54:31 PM
I think Washington's is pretty impractical for vehicles. Well, it was laid out in the 1790s, so can't fault them too heavily, but the compound intersections of three or even four roads coming together, sometimes not quite intersecting in a single point, gets awfully confusing. "Okay, light is green, go ... wait, what, another red light twenty feet away???" I remember having trouble where US-29 turns from 7th St. onto Rhode Island Ave with S St. also part of the same intersection complex.
When I drove into DC on April 18 (granted a Sunday but good since neighborhood parking restrictions where I parked weren't in force), it seemed as though lights were fairly coordinated, although where US-29 turned from 7th, I just continued on through downtown. I was able to navigate Columbus Circle without trouble before eventually finding a great space. After I did my extended stroll, I actually found it was better that I came into town since it was more convenient for me to drive my cousin back to her apartment in Roslyn than to have her lug her bags on the Metro. She was able to guide me to her building with no trouble at all.
FWIW, my cousin has since moved into the District to be closer to her job and was planning to sell her car to see just how well she could do without, so I certainly don't doubt the logic of not driving around there unless absolutely necessary.
The majority of counties in Indiana have a unique grid for their county roads, similar only to the street grids in Utah except for that they are countywide. There are two main streets, often called Center, or Division, or Meridian Streets (hence Meridian Street in Indianapolis) that form the orgin, usually in the county seat, or the geographic center of the county, and then the roads are numbered by 100s in each direction. So the first road north of the dividing line going east and west would be 100 North, followed by 200 North and so forth, similar patterns are repeated in each direction. From personal experience these roads are helpful if you are driving toward the county seat and need to know the mileage, if you pass 700 North you know you are 7 miles away. Of course, these grids only work in the flat counties of the state in the central and northern parts.
Quote from: corco on May 11, 2010, 10:55:13 PM
QuoteOne can't forget to mention Salt Lake City... Incredibly easy city to navigate thanks to the Latter-day Saints who settled the place.
Also easy to fool outsiders- I was meeting some people in Salt Lake a few months ago and was told to meet at 9th and 9th, which apparently is the name of a neighborhood in addition to being an intersection. In my infinite wisdom I went to the intersection of S 900 W and W 900 S when I was supposed to be at S 900 E and E 900 S.
The grid is confusing until you get the hang of it, but once you do it's really intuitive. The Mormons really know how to lay out a city.
Yeah, as you mentioned 9th and 9th is a little "neighborhood." As you now know, the intersection of 900 West and 900 South is quite a different place from 900 East and 900 South :) Anywho, the only caveat I have with this system is outside of Salt Lake County, the grid resets in every municipality. So, don't be surprised if you're in Provo's grid driving west on 3000 N and the next thing you know, you're on Orem's 5500 S. Salt Lake County was smart and did a county-wide grid a long time ago.
Quote from: yanksfan6129 on May 11, 2010, 09:51:47 PM
In the vain of street grids built in the middle of nowhere based on land speculation, here is California City, CA...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=California+Valley,+CA&sll=35.321008,-119.956284&sspn=0.149587,0.220757&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=California+Valley&ll=35.303358,-119.928989&spn=0.07481,0.110378&z=13
The developer once hoped that this city what rival Los Angeles in size. The population is currently 12,659. So there's that.
Did you mean California Valley, which was mentioned near the top of the thread, or California City, north of Edwards Air Force Base?
Bickendan: Here's Google Maps's view of the impressive-looking California City grid:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=California+City,+CA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.052328,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=California+City,+Kern,+California&ll=35.147986,-117.829056&spn=0.299251,0.441513&z=11
Looks like the network of streets extends a full 15 miles along 20 Mule Team Parkway!
EDIT: And a couple of good links on the desolation of California City:
http://robot-heart.tumblr.com/post/367119870/nat-mendelsohn-had-a-dream-a-city-that-was-going
http://googlesightseeing.com/2008/02/18/california-city/
In the same vein as California City and California Valley, here's Salton City - a community near the Salton Sea along Route 86 (old US 99) with dreams of becoming a booming resort, only to falter when the tourism industry collapsed due to the water salinity levels rising:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Salton+City&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.052328,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Salton+City,+Imperial,+California&z=12
Street grid is about 4.5 by 4.5 miles long.
Just take a look at a map of New Orleans.
Quote from: Annunciation70130 on May 14, 2010, 12:40:10 PM
Just take a look at a map of New Orleans.
Heh. That "grid" is purely parallel and perpendicular to the river. Gets pretty interesting at the bend near Algiers.
Atlanta and Boston street grdis are practically non-existant. Chcagoland as a whole has a pretty impressive street grid.
Nashville has one of the more confusing. There is little semblance of any order to it and streets seem to run about every direction possible in different areas. Streets sometimes change names for no apparent reason at different points, or the mainline street changes name while the previous name turns off and becomes a minor street. I do realize there are probably two big reasons for this though-topography(especially in the southern part of town where there are many hills) and the fact that large parts of the city have only been within the city limits since the combining of the Nashville and Davidson County governments.
Birmingham is fairly straightforward. Avenues run East and West and Streets run North and South.
Quote from: ATLRedSoxFan on May 14, 2010, 02:30:21 PM
Atlanta and Boston street grdis are practically non-existant. Chcagoland as a whole has a pretty impressive street grid.
Chicagoland's grid is best toward the south and southwest. Toward the north and northwest, the grid breaks down completely in places. To the south, it keeps on going from State and Madison to the Will-Kankakee County line with the same address system. The furthest south road in the system is County Line Rd along said county line at 37500 South and the grid goes west to the Will-Kendall/Grundy County line, also a County Line Rd (aka Will Rd in some places) at 26400 West. At the point where the two intersect, one is about 56.6 miles southwest of the intersection of State and Madison in Chicago's Loop where the grid begins.
Despite its small geographic size, San Francisco manages to have multiple street grids!
- the downtown/Pacific Heights/Haight-Ashbury street grid, north of Market Street and starting approximately at Stanyan Street to the west
- the South of Market/Potrero Hill/Mission/Castro/Noe Valley street grid, with numbered streets from 1 to 30 and north-south streets sometimes named after other states (Rhode Island, Arkansas, Vermont, Kansas)
- the Richmond/Sunset grid, with numbered avenues from 2 to 48 (1 skipped for "Arguello Boulevard", 13 skipped in favor of "Funston" and "La Playa" supplanting 49th) and some alphabetical streets (Anza-Cabrillo in the Richmond, Irving-Yorba in the Sunset)
- the Excelsior grid, where streets are named for outside locales (i.e. Geneva Avenue, Persia Avenue)
- two Hunters Point grids, one with alphabetical streets (Donohue to Upton) and alphabetical avenues (Cargo to Yosemite), and another with alphabetical streets in the shipyard area itself from A to J and then R
Some grid crossover does exist:
3rd Street extends way past its spot at the start of the south-of-Market grid, intersecting other numbered streets in the Potrero Hill area, and then intersecting part of the Hunters Point grid
Geary Boulevard and California Street continue from the downtown grid into the Richmond grid
7th Street and 5th Street have short extensions from the South of Market grid into the downtown grid
Van Ness Avenue starts in the Potrero Hill area at Cesar Chavez (Army) Street and continues north into the downtown street grid
Castro Street continues a few blocks north of Market Street into the downtown grid, before ending at Divisadero and Waller
Grid systems in Europe are not very common because most cities grew organically over the centuries. Most grids were either planned after destruction (such as a big fire, bombing, etc.) or by megalomanic rulers long ago.
Athens, Greece
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi39.tinypic.com%2F2191f6s.jpg&hash=02f4476a2ca9bfe60069befce992d25e7ede7641)
Barcelona, Spain
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi43.tinypic.com%2Fswp79l.jpg&hash=25601cbcdedff6f7a1404a66351bd063aca8da9d)
Bremen, Germany
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi41.tinypic.com%2Fmjxvlj.jpg&hash=d7d65b576c5f6032fd289ebb8eeeff7633b8d7d6)
Budapest, Hungary
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi39.tinypic.com%2F2e6atl4.jpg&hash=1192a2df210a1e21673c48aae19feea9a8c18810)
Mannheim, Germany
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi43.tinypic.com%2F24y69tf.jpg&hash=29b80f0a8552e71b777649468d0418611222a5ce)
Turin, Italy
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi43.tinypic.com%2F2vv87bl.jpg&hash=d84f7f71448b9ed16726e99ee766d892ee25301d)
Barcelona's grid is being built one bit at a time. Redevelopments have to use the grid pattern, not the existing pattern. You can see it 'breaks down' in places - that's simply as they haven't got to that bit yet.
As Chris has said, we don't tend to build grids here in Europe, however:
Glasgow's City Centre (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=55.862188,-4.255314&spn=0.019532,0.038581&t=h&z=15) has a grid pattern of a sort.
Victorian terraces and pre-WW2 development tended to be built on grids - Southampton (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.921,-1.410198&spn=0.043881,0.077162&t=h&z=14) is a fine example of where many small areas with their own grids exist as different parts got built by different people.
The Victorian parts of Luton (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.888253,-0.433788&spn=0.042962,0.109863&t=h&z=14) is clearly based on grid systems (like all Victorian terraces)
Letchworth Garden City (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.977003,-0.219812&spn=0.042877,0.109863&t=h&z=14) is a pre-WW2 new town, and has this loose grid pattern.
Finally, the best example of a large scale grid system in the UK, Milton Keynes (http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.0331&lon=-0.7576&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF) is built around a grid system of main roads. The grid roads follow the lie of the land, so aren't straight (with the exception of V4 Watling Street - built by the Romans). Horizontal (e-w ish) 'ways' have H numbers and have names ending in 'Way'. Vertical roads (n-s ish) have names ending in street and have V numbers. All the roundabouts inside the new town are named, and at them grid-roads' numbers are signed. Of course, outside the town centre, many the estates between the grid roads are classic 80s and later housing estates - a mesh of roads that look like spaghetti has been dropped.
In the Phoenix area, many north-south streets are numbered, but you have to watch your streets and avenues! Using Central Avenue as a "base street," if you go east, you hit 1st Street, 2nd Street, 3rd Street and so forth. Going west, you hit 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue and so on. Like I said, you have to be careful! It's one thing to look for a business that's on 1st Street but it's on 1st Avenue, but if you're trying to find something on 75th Avenue and it's on 75th Street, you're about fifteen miles away from where you should be!
^That makes cardinal pre/suffixes very nice. To use Portland as an example, numbered all streets avenues run north-south, and increase away from the Willamette, meaning there are two of each number. Of course, the difference between SW/NW 49th Ave and SE/NE 49th Ave are very obvious. A handful of avenues in SW/NW/NE/SE are named (SE/NE 39th Ave is now Chavez Blvd, SE/NE Grand Ave is the same as 4th). All avenues in the N 'quadrant' are named. All streets run east-west and are all named.
REALLY?? No one has mentioned Palm Jumeirah in Dubai? This isn't really a grid, but it has to do with streets and layouts, I wanna go to Dubai and go to Burj Khalifa.
**PICTURE**
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh4.ggpht.com%2F_WYYeXvkUoUE%2FS_Mlq8d9mKI%2FAAAAAAAAFRI%2FBC0tJSnNjtU%2Fs800%2FFullscreen%2520capture%25205182010%252064120%2520PM.jpg&hash=3d30c328cbe278a8b76c06949827d530fa52ddf2)
BigMatt
mmm... conspicuous consumption.
???
Quote from: BigMatt on May 18, 2010, 09:21:15 PM
???
conspicuous consumption is the spending of money in showy manners, just to show the world your ability to spend money, and therefore your excess of it.
apparently, if you lined up all the penises in Dubai, she still couldn't find it without an electron microscope.
Quoteconspicuous consumption is the spending of money in showy manners, just to show the world your ability to spend money, and therefore your excess of it.
Wait.. are you saying that this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dubai&sll=44.911225,-116.114994&sspn=0.053005,0.169086&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Dubai+-+United+Arab+Emirates&ll=25.224199,55.185013&spn=0.067087,0.169086&z=13) is unnecessary?
Quote from: corco on May 18, 2010, 09:40:55 PM
Wait.. are you saying that this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dubai&sll=44.911225,-116.114994&sspn=0.053005,0.169086&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Dubai+-+United+Arab+Emirates&ll=25.224199,55.185013&spn=0.067087,0.169086&z=13) is unnecessary?
dunno, ask Rorschach.