Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Sprawl

Two Maps Show How We Designed Walking Out of the Suburbs

Picture 13

Having a finely grained street grid is incredibly important to walkable communities, as the above graphic from the Sightline Institute demonstrates. These side-by-side maps show how windy, disconnected, suburban streets make it difficult-to-impossible to get around on foot.

This is why Happy City author Charles Montgomery noted in Slate that "cul de sacs are bad for your health." It's also why advocates for healthy cities were horrified and amused when Cato Institute "scholar" Randall O'Toole recently suggested turning gridded streets in rust belt cities into cul de sacs "so that criminals have fewer escape routes.” Spending lots of money to ruin the street grid is an absolutely terrible idea, especially in cities struggling to provide basic services to their residents.

As Transport Initiatives, a U.K.-based transportation consultancy, points out, the one-mile walk coverage could be extended even more in the first example by adding some diagonal routes, like the street grids in Chicago and Washington, DC.

Hat Tip to Walk Score on the graphic.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Talking Headways Podcast: Bike Guides to Build Your City

Bill Schultheiss on AASHTO and NACTO bike lane design guides, the importance of history, political will and the stress of being an expert witness in court.

May 29, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines Live to Fight Another Day

Congestion pricing won a major court victory that suggests it's here to stay, and could eventually open the door for other cities to follow New York's lead.

May 29, 2025

Duffy Tells Congress He’s Not Delaying DOT Projects — As He Delays DOT Projects

Thousands of federal transportation grants remain in limbo as the Trump administration cuts staff and cracks down on DEI, bike lanes and environmental rules.

May 29, 2025

Chicago is a world-class city. Our transit system should reflect that. 

Creating a unified transit system across Northeast Illinois will allow us to serve riders' needs now and tomorrow.

May 28, 2025

‘Whether They See It Or Not’: How the ‘Arrested Mobility’ of Black Americans Harms Everyone

"Policy could be the decision to invest in a community, or to disinvest [in that community]. In Black, brown, low-income communities, the policy has been disinvestment."

May 28, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Look for a Bailout

Congress's latest Band-Aid for the Federal Highway Trust Fund won't keep it solvent, but it will hurt transit.

May 28, 2025
See all posts