[HN Gopher] The 15-minute city can work in the US
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       The 15-minute city can work in the US
        
       Author : Luc
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2024-02-07 20:27 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
        
       | codersfocus wrote:
       | Are there any "circular" cities in the US?
       | 
       | The grid based system of pretty much every US city is not
       | conducive to walkability. It actively hinders it with incessant
       | stop signals and cross walks.
       | 
       | The meandering roads of many small and mid sized European cities
       | means there are no lights needed - cars travel through the city
       | slowly enough that they rely on their senses.
        
         | mksybr wrote:
         | Rotona West, FL
         | 
         | https://maps.app.goo.gl/vbkzbV7vviUK5sm46
        
           | codersfocus wrote:
           | That's awful. JFC.
        
         | FooBarBizBazz wrote:
         | Grids are pretty good. Maybe they're not always what's
         | absolutely best, but I don't have a better general suggestion.
         | They're a good default starting point.
         | 
         | The main solution to your concerns is to just build narrower
         | streets, IMO. That slows down car traffic.
         | 
         | A good thing about grids, besides the navigability, is that
         | traffic naturally distributes itself across them. There isn't a
         | single arterial road that gets jammed. If Second Street is
         | slow, maybe the cabbie will take Third.
         | 
         | A strict grid does incur a "Manhattan distance" penalty. That
         | can be improved by including a few diagonals. Although its
         | streets are a little wide for my taste, Washington DC is a
         | pretty good example of this. It has a grid, superimposed with a
         | network of circles, between which are direct straight-line
         | connections. That gets you pretty close to Euclidean distances.
         | That's not very high on my list of priorities though, TBH.
         | 
         | Separated grades might be worth exploring in some situations.
         | Chicago sort of did this. There is a lower level of streets
         | where deliveries happen, and an upper level of streets with
         | storefronts, where pedestrians spend more time. You could
         | imagine a fully pedestrianized upper level. I don't think you
         | want to overdo the lower level car infrastructure though,
         | because at some point it just turns into parking garages.
         | 
         | One suggestion I do have is to add more "safe places" for
         | pedestrians. Islands are a step in the right direction. But two
         | narrower parallel one way streets in opposite directions with a
         | block in-between (or a park, if closer together) is better
         | still.
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-07 23:02 UTC)