City Street Directions

"facw" (facw) 07/11/2018 at 15:14 • Filed to: Urban Planninglopnik, Infographics

10

11

So this was kind of cool:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Each of the cities above is represented by a polar histogram (aka rose diagram) depicting how its streets orient. Each bar’s direction represents the compass bearings of the streets (in that histogram bin) and its length represents the relative frequency of streets with those bearings. 

See the article for a more detailed look at why some of these look the way they do. One thing that’s not clear to me is if streets are weighted by their length. For example, do the big diagonal avenues  count the same as a one block alley, or do they get a higher weight.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:23

0

Very cool!

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:25

0

Charlotte has me confused, does this mean it has many more streets one way going north but not south?

Tekamul > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 07/11/2018 at 15:28

1

one way counts in 1 direction, I think, so yeah

facw > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 07/11/2018 at 15:28

2

Not sure. Someone noted that in the comments on the original post, but there hasn’t been a response from the author. I suppose it could be a lot of one-way streets, but I don’t really see that on the map.

Urambo Tauro > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:34

3

P lain grid s are so boring, but man do they make navigation so much easier.

Ash78, voting early and often > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:35

3

Road grids are almost always a function of the nearest body of water ( or i n the case of my metro, Birmingham, the direction of the ridges that originally dictated the industrial layout of the mining operations and surrounding roads ).

But bodies of water are the most common, as most early development begins in parallel with the docks and shore.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:37

4

It’s the difference between cities engineered vs. ones that grew from tiny hamlets.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:48

4

Yeah, you can tell the difference pretty easily between new and old cities and cities on islands/peninsulas vs along rivers as well as topography.

Discerning > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 07/11/2018 at 15:50

1

Charlotte does have a lot of one way streets. It could be that the majority are north bound.

tromoly > facw 07/11/2018 at 15:59

1

Can confirm, Paris’ street network is a mess.

Thomas Donohue > Ash78, voting early and often 07/11/2018 at 16:08

4

I saw a good documentary on NYC a few years ago that talked about the grid system . Lower Manhattan was a mess of angled streets based on the docks, Brooklyn Bridge, existing canals, etc. In 1811 they mandated the grid (basically at 14th street) going north. T here are a few exceptions ( like no-fu cks-given Broadway) , but otherwise it’s pretty square all the way up past 155th St.