Discussion

The Joy of Numbered Streets (or Call it 39th Avenue!)

ripplefringe: I love their use of the word legible. A good street naming system makes the city “legible”.I’m in a suburb of Charleston, SC and it’s so weird how I have no idea how far things are….1 mile? 3 miles? I miss riding my bike on that Portland grid and following the numbers all the way to zero and hitting the Willamette.

thebrid: I find some joy in historical street naming. It's nice that you can take a 1746 map of London and pretty much still be able to get around.[1] Would certainly make life easier for time travellers.While there are advantages to grid layouts, I find they also bring a certain amount of monotony. The irregular historic street layouts of European (and some US) cities give so much more variety & make the city much more interesting.[1] https://maps.nls.uk/view/245956114#zoom=6.5&lat=3256&lon=625...

bombcar: > Would certainly make life easier for time travellers.Doesn't one of CS Lewis's books have Merlin transported to modern London and he heads off down the Roman roads?Grid layouts do have efficiency, but humans aren't built to be efficient - at least not all the time.The problem is suburbs and modern "inefficient" roads are designed to be inefficient - not designed by and for life.