Have you considered maybe it’s easier to navigate and plan a grid pattern? I wouldn’t mind uninspired street names like 1st, 2nd, 3rd St, crossways with N, O, P, Q Ave so you at least know which direction is which. Give me that chess board layout so I don’t need to pull up a map to navigate your city please. Car C1 takes Bar G5
Over here in 2026 we have satnav in our cars and on our bikes. We also have a system of road types that actually makes sense and that keeps traffic out of housed areas as much as possible.
Yes! I can get up so much speed on those straight roads! Blow through a few stop signs and I can easily drive all the way through a house!
Easy navigation isn’t relevant in a neighborhood of nothing but houses and play space, roads with curves are incredibly important to slow the flow of traffic
There’s a flipside too though. Straight lines aren’t great for suburbs for the speed reason, but once you reach enough density and the roads get narrow enough, grids make planning easier, and navigating easier for pedestrians. Roundabouts are a nice way to slow traffic through straight roads
Straight roads have little to do with driver speed. It’s how you design the roads. Wide lanes with buildings set back from the road? Higher speeds. That’s why some initiatives put curbs that jut out into the road (not into the lanes of travel) with trees and plants and such, and remove road striping. Combine pedestrians and road traffic on a road that looks more like a parking lot and you get drivers driving slowly. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it works.
There are residential neighborhoods in cities though, where straight roads with roundabouts and other traffic calming makes more sense than a curving a road, for the purposes of lowering driving speeds. Neither is better or worse inherently, we should just tailor solutions to the environment they’re needed in.
Have you considered maybe it’s easier to navigate and plan a grid pattern? I wouldn’t mind uninspired street names like 1st, 2nd, 3rd St, crossways with N, O, P, Q Ave so you at least know which direction is which. Give me that chess board layout so I don’t need to pull up a map to navigate your city please. Car C1 takes Bar G5
and then 14th SE doesnt connect with 14th NE
thanks portland
My city has a street that changes name 4 times as you go down it.
Better than Atlanta that names every road Peachtree :)
Are you in Austin? Because Austin has that.
Which part of Koenig/2222/Northland/Allandale/Bullick Hollow/290 do you live on?
Between Burnet and Lamar
Lexington, KY? They have several that do that.
Sure but you’ll never encounter the magic of a crooked alley snaking its way through a maze of medieval building.
Istanbul blew my naive American mind when I visited
Not medieval, but, Boston has some good alleys, nooks, and crannies.
Over here in 2026 we have satnav in our cars and on our bikes. We also have a system of road types that actually makes sense and that keeps traffic out of housed areas as much as possible.
With every corner looking the same?
Only from above. When you’re on foot, grid systems feel plenty variable and lively
Kenosha, WI
Yes! I can get up so much speed on those straight roads! Blow through a few stop signs and I can easily drive all the way through a house!
Easy navigation isn’t relevant in a neighborhood of nothing but houses and play space, roads with curves are incredibly important to slow the flow of traffic
There’s a flipside too though. Straight lines aren’t great for suburbs for the speed reason, but once you reach enough density and the roads get narrow enough, grids make planning easier, and navigating easier for pedestrians. Roundabouts are a nice way to slow traffic through straight roads
Straight roads have little to do with driver speed. It’s how you design the roads. Wide lanes with buildings set back from the road? Higher speeds. That’s why some initiatives put curbs that jut out into the road (not into the lanes of travel) with trees and plants and such, and remove road striping. Combine pedestrians and road traffic on a road that looks more like a parking lot and you get drivers driving slowly. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it works.
Ok? So put straight roads in your cities and high density areas. Neighborhoods of just houses aren’t what you’re describing
There are residential neighborhoods in cities though, where straight roads with roundabouts and other traffic calming makes more sense than a curving a road, for the purposes of lowering driving speeds. Neither is better or worse inherently, we should just tailor solutions to the environment they’re needed in.
You don’t need curves to slow traffic, there a ton of ways to slow traffic