To Grid Or Not To Grid, That is the Question

 

To Grid Or Not To Grid - That is the Question

An interesting article by city planner Pete Pointer, FAICP, ALA, ITE on the grid system in city development in the Journal of City Development.

journalofcitydevelopment.com/#!nitty-gridy/c5ag

journalofcitydevelopment.com

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Having grown up in the midwest I am a grid guy. There is nothing wrong with some curvilinear streets and cul de sacs to give our urban landscape a little diversity. But they should connect back into a logical grid and not just meander aimlessly. And good planning demands that cities and counties examine their grids, and prepare a plan that proposes to connect and realign roads to complete a logical grid.

More on Grids Below

2. Grid plan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_plan

   A simple grid plan road map (Windermere, Florida). ... Perhaps the most well-knowngrid system is that spread through the colonies of the Roman Empire.
   

   Ancient grid plans - Roman grid - Asia from the first millennium AD
3. Milton Keynes grid road system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes_grid_road_system

   The Milton Keynes grid road system is a network of national speed limit, fully landscaped routes that form the top layer of the street hierarchy for both for private ...
4. Grid system of roads to cover length and breadth of city - The Hindu

   www.thehindu.com › Cities › Chennai

   Jun 9, 2012 – Residents of localities in all the fifteen zones not adequately covered under the grid system of roads will soon see significant improvements to ...
5. With Council's approval, work on grid system of roads to begin ...

   www.thehindu.com › Cities › Chennai

   Apr 19, 2012 – Initiative will cover 175 km of roads in all eight zones of newly added areas.
6. Human Transit: the power and pleasure of grids

   www.humantransit.org/.../the-power-and-pleasure-of-grids.ht...

   Feb 23, 2010 – In an ideal grid system, everyone is within walking distance of one .... in the case of well-funded, completed networks like paved roads, just ...

7. Images for grid system of roads

      - Report images
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8. Street Grid system in cities around the country - Straight Dope ...

   boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=528896

   35 posts - 29 authors - Aug 20, 2009

   The grid system works all the way down to Homestead where some of .... because there are also a numbered Drives, Roads & Places, which I ...
9. Grid system of road networks.

   www3.sympatico.ca/bobmcmu/grid_system.htm

   A description of how developers negate essential community sidewalks with arguments to make more profit.
10. Suburban areas to get world class integrated roads - Times Of India

    articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com › Collections › World Class

    Apr 19, 2012 – CHENNAI: The extended areas of the Chennai Corporation will soon get world class civic amenities as the local body has approved Rs 182 ...
11. How Grid Systems Promote Urbanism and Winding Streets ...

    streetsblog.net/.../how-grid-systems-promote-urbanism-and-wi...

    Aug 23, 2012 – Connected street systems could be grids or could be the less rationally.... has the greatest mish-mash of a road system that I have ever seen.
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Connecting The Grid

 

The effort above should be made by the Sarasota Manatee MPO with the two County and municipal goverments.  The plans should be incorporated into Land Use and Transportation Plans

The maps show planned connections to improve the grid in eastern Will County south of Chicago. As the area urbanizes the "Kinks" in the grid should be "worked out", with logical connections made.

It is remarkable how little planning effort is made to improve the base road grid of a community.  A little thinking and planning can make the grid much better.  There will always be some misalignment of roads and some roads that do not connect.  A good plan should make sure that logical connections are planned and that they are developed before or when new development occurs.

Part of the reason that we do little of this is that most of us focus on our community only, with minimal thought about connections to other communities.  Or we may come up with a good connection but it fails at the next town.

Transportation planning is often focused on major road development, or on programming of funds for improvements. There is seldom anyone looking at the overall grid of a large area and coming up with logical plans for improvements over time.

The road realignment plan should be integrated with the land use plan.  And realignments at County and State lines should have special interest since their is no single entity paying much attention to these important connections. The map below shows road realignments with the land use plan for eastern Will County with the proposed third airport for Chicago. 

The map below shows the plan for connecting local roads between Illinois and Indiana south of Chicago.

Of course one of the concerns is that it will take many years for this area to develop. Will the local planners consider this when they approve a land use decision?  Often they will not and we are then left with irritating dog legs in our grid. 

Brain Cells Found

Scientists find intact brain cells in skull of man killed in Vesuvius eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.

Leave the brain cells alone. 

It's 2020, OK? 

Who knows what could happen!

 

Blog Vlog Plog Slog

A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). ... Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

I have been in the blogging business for a long time and have over 500 blogs. All of my blogs are on this site: blogscraigh.blogspot.com


Just last week I learned the word VLOG, which is a mash up of Video and Blogs = Vlogs.

As it turns out, I have been a Vlogger for some time and did not know it. Some of my video blogs are:

videohullinger.blogspot.com

videosmoas.blogspot.com

videossarasotasistercities.blogspot.com

109thvideo.blogspot.com


Still, I wanted a video blog that said Vlog. So I created this one:

vlogcraig.blogspot.com

Such a DEAL! Still a little embarassed that I did not know the word Vlog.



But a lot of my blogs are just photos. So I thought perhaps I could invent the term Plog, which would equal Photos + Blogs. So I searched to see if the term was alread in use.

The first two definitions I found were:

Plog is the verb for the noun Plogging which is jogging and picking up litter.

Plog - portable, simple and extensible C++ logging library

So I was in the hunt to invent a new acronym. Then I found this definition.

(1) (PHOTO bLOG) A blog that is primarily used to display photos. Generic blogging services may be used, but plogs that are designed specifically for displaying photos are also created. Like a blog, postings are displayed in chronological order. In contrast, photo sharing websites offer features such as editing, folder organization and photo printing. See photo sharing site, blog service, vlog and blog.

Bummer. I  can't say that I coined the word - It is already out there. I have a large number of Plogs - a few below:

12ru.blogspot.com

waterfrontatmainstreet.blogspot.com

bigphotoswaterfront.blogspot.com

photossarasotasistercities.blogspot.com


The definition for plogger is a little more convuluted:

Someone who picks up litter while jogging.

A blogger who is paid by an organization to blog in a way that benefits that organization. Virtually synonymous with Troll.

A “Plogger” Is a Runner, but More Smug

Plogger is a sophisticated photo gallery application for the web. It is an open source software that is available freely for the users to create, edit and manage online photo galleries. It has several enhanced features that are not complicated yet are very powerful that can easily be adopted by any users.

OK, it appears that the term Plogger is out there but not used much the way I envision. So here is my definition:

PLOG - PHOTO bLOG a Blog that is primarily focused on photos.

And it follows that Planner who Plogs is a PlogPlanner, and a photo blog for planners is a PlannerPlog. OK, I will claim credit for the term PlogPlanner, and I are one.

And then I think we can expand the "7 P's of Planning" to the "8 Ps of Planning". Preliminary Prior Planning Prevents Pitiful Poor Plog Planning.

My wife says enough now, get some sleep. She refers to my efforts as SLOG "SillyBlog"