The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XXXVII: Cul-De-Sacs Are Bad For You
A prestigious business journal looks at the consequences of the cul-de-sac, though urbanists have for years made the point that cutting off through traffic and discarding traditional street grids violates planning and common sense 101.
Not to mention adding fuel burn and more air pollution.
Cul-de-sacs run up costs for municipalities and thus taxpayers, too, which is why the Virginia legislature is going to limit cul-de-sacs from now on.
5 comments:
The consequences illustrated in the maps are quite telling. Good info. Always wondered about these impediments to practicality. Thanks.
Through streets and walkable communities are both staples of the New Urbanism movement. Good ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Through streets are a nuisance to my Milwaukee home. Apartment tenants with ghetto blasters like to drive by at 45mph. Milwaukee's never-ending supply of apartments. The cul de sac doesnt have those issues and are more desirable to the majority.
Anonymous,
It sounds like the real "nuisance" and "issue" you have is with the kinds of people who live in apartments, not with through streets. They drive because of how roads are designed and because they have no choice (I suspect your neighborhood doesn't have much public transit). It has little to do with the fact that these streets are through streets.
I live in a neighborhood that is split by several cul-de-sacs and it is in fact nice and quiet with almost no traffic. I would like to see though the linking of the split neighborhoods of this development with a pedestrian/
bike path. Those types of ideas need to be encorporated into the original plan of the neighborhood, and not left as an afterthought when little common areas exist, and property owners fear giving up any access to others for such a purpose.
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