City street grids color-coded by orientation

[kurumi]

http://www.datapointed.net/2014/10/maps-of-street-grids-by-orientation/

Many cities and metro areas have not just one, but several street grids -- for example, Market Street in San Francisco divides a relatively "level" grid (civic center, north beach, etc.) and a diagonal grid (SoMa).

At the above site, a visualization guy has algorithmically color-coded the different grids for several locations (and TIL Boston actually has grids).

[Bruce]

Seattle's map would be mostly red/true north-oriented with the two additional grids in Downtown/First Hill and Belltown, despite absorbing nearby cities (West Seattle, Ballard) like SF.

[english si]

Why on earth would someone do London? There's lots of small bits of grid, but the exercise it totally meaningless...

[cl94]

Even New York can get a bit crazy once you're out of Manhattan. Even more so if you include some of the suburbs, as they did. Levittown looks like something a child finger-painted.

[realjd]

Why on earth would someone do London? There's lots of small bits of grid, but the exercise it totally meaningless...

Looks computer generated. London was most likely a good test of their algorithm.

[Kacie Jane]

Seattle's map would be mostly red/true north-oriented with the two additional grids in Downtown/First Hill and Belltown, despite absorbing nearby cities (West Seattle, Ballard) like SF.

Ballard has a small grid south of Market that's parallel/perpendicular to the ship canal.  (Most neighborhoods have a street or two that parallel the canal, but Ballard's the only place I can think of that really develops into a grid. Maybe whatever you call the south side between the Eastlake and Montlake bridges?)

But for the most part, absolutely.

[2Co5_14]

Why on earth would someone do London? There's lots of small bits of grid, but the exercise it totally meaningless...

I actually find it very interesting - how "colorful" a city is reflects how confusing the street pattern is.  For instance, contrast the strict grid of Midtown Manhattan with the aimless cowpaths of Downtown Boston!  Having spent a decent amount of time in both places, the colors actually quantify the "feel" of the city that is otherwise hard to measure.

[Brandon]

Why on earth would someone do London? There's lots of small bits of grid, but the exercise it totally meaningless...

I actually find it very interesting - how "colorful" a city is reflects how confusing the street pattern is.  For instance, contrast the strict grid of Midtown Manhattan with the aimless cowpaths of Downtown Boston!  Having spent a decent amount of time in both places, the colors actually quantify the "feel" of the city that is otherwise hard to measure.

Then look at how monochromatic Chicago is when compared to either.

[kurumi]

Different visualization but very similar topic (didn't seem to merit yet another street grid thread): http://vizual-statistix.tumblr.com/post/80468941142/unlike-like-emperor-kuzco-i-was-actually-born

Relative distribution of street directions in a city. For Manhattan, most streets are east-west (many more streets than avenues), so the distribution looks one-dimensional. For Charlotte, NC, no single direction predominates. Other cities are HON, DEN, JAX, HOU, SF, BOS, PHI, CHI, NY, DC

Another 12 cities are here: http://24.media.tumblr.com/45123206e4242d183b33d7afe11f8d57/tumblr_n2z7iwafNN1s3dn7vo1_1280.png (CIN, SEA, PDX, DET, PIT, ROC, IND, SLC, LA, NFK, ATL, STL)