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Interesting street grids

Started by kurumi, May 11, 2010, 01:51:40 AM

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kurumi

Ocean View, Hawaii, 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: 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: has a shape you might expect from the name.
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TheStranger

#1
California Valley, CA: a street grid built practically in the middle of nowhere just south of Route 58, part of a speculative land development 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).
Chris Sampang

Chris

^^ Oh that reminds me of Horizon City, Texas (near El Paso)

Horizon City

Brandon

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

Alps

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.

yanksfan6129

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.

realjd

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.

CL

One can't forget to mention Salt Lake City... Incredibly easy city to navigate thanks to the Latter-day Saints who settled the place.
Infrastructure. The city.

agentsteel53

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.
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corco

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.

WillWeaverRVA

Carova Beach, NC 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.
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mapman

Quote from: kurumi on May 11, 2010, 01:51:40 AM
Palm Coast, FL: 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.

froggie

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).

realjd

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.

rawmustard

#14
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.

tdindy88

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.

CL

#16
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.
Infrastructure. The city.

Bickendan

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?

TheStranger

#18
Chris Sampang

TheStranger

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.
Chris Sampang

UptownRoadGeek

Just take a look at a map of New Orleans.

Brandon

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.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

ATLRedSoxFan

Atlanta and Boston street grdis are practically non-existant. Chcagoland as a whole has a pretty impressive street grid.

huskeroadgeek

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.

jdb1234

Birmingham is fairly straightforward.  Avenues run East and West and Streets run North and South.



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