How many times, unsure of where you're heading, have you driven into a street that sooner or later becomes a dead end? Annoying, isn't it? Chances are that street is a cul-de-sac, a fiendish device much loved by developers and the sales-minded real estate community. Cul-de-sac lots sell quickly and at a premium, thanks to low traffic and perceived safety benefits. But aside from the frustrations of time-and-fuel-wasting detours there is a growing reaction by critics who insist they're a poor use of land. Count me among that group because I favour the vertical mobility concept of building up, not out, which saves land and reduces traffic.
Traffic experts complain that cul-de-sacs funnel cars onto clogged arterial routes and impede access to neighborhoods by emergency vehicles. Furthermore they insist that the so-called safety advantages are a myth. Research shows fewer fatalities occur on connected roads, in part because residents become careless in their parking habits and kids tend to take a lack of traffic for granted. Next time you make that wrong turn don't be surprised to see two or three children riding their bikes or playing games on the roadway as if it was an empty field.
Happily there is at least one state with the determination to severely limit cul-de-sacs from future developments. In Virginia new rules put in place by the Commonwealth Transportation Board require the secondary roads found in subdivisions to be through streets that provide connectivity to primary roads and adjacent neighborhoods. The rules help relieve a strained infrastructure budget by making streets more efficient and cheaper to maintain. They also take pressure off arterial roads that otherwise need to be widened. Subdivisions that ignore the requirements are not eligible to receive maintenance funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation.
In an article on the new regulations the Washington Post wrote that "early 20th-century development was generally in a grid format, which spread traffic out. It also made for walkable, transit-oriented communities." That, my friends, is exactly what we need today: Walkable, transit-oriented communities.
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