I have noticed that in Seattle, unless we need to go more than about 5 miles, it is better to take surface streets at 25 mph than to take the freeway. It is a way to pass through the urban area, or leave the urban area, but useless for trips within the urban area. Houston inside the loop is similar, but not as clear-cut. But out in suburbia, local streets tend to be less useful and the freeway becomes the nexus. Of course, inside the loop one could call parts of Memorial a freeway.
Nicely put. The problem is that these are large and involved systems, so it's hard to just say "let's put the freeway 3 miles away, over here" because it would require reorganizing everything, pulling a string from the tapestry. Not that that has to be a bad thing...
Well put. Also, I like the Strong Towns argument about stroads, but I hare the term, because it seems like Marohn just invented a distinction between two synonyms (street and road) in order to create the portmanteau. There has to be a better way to discribe the very real problem than ‘stroad’.
I like the portmanteau. While the denotations are street and road are similar, their connotations are not. "Country roads" and "city streets" sound right; "country streets" and "city roads" sound wrong. The Romans made a functional distinction between viae within cities compared to viae between cities, but the same word applied to both. Other Roman terms for streets were never used for highways as far as I can tell.
I have noticed that in Seattle, unless we need to go more than about 5 miles, it is better to take surface streets at 25 mph than to take the freeway. It is a way to pass through the urban area, or leave the urban area, but useless for trips within the urban area. Houston inside the loop is similar, but not as clear-cut. But out in suburbia, local streets tend to be less useful and the freeway becomes the nexus. Of course, inside the loop one could call parts of Memorial a freeway.
Nicely put. The problem is that these are large and involved systems, so it's hard to just say "let's put the freeway 3 miles away, over here" because it would require reorganizing everything, pulling a string from the tapestry. Not that that has to be a bad thing...
Well put. Also, I like the Strong Towns argument about stroads, but I hare the term, because it seems like Marohn just invented a distinction between two synonyms (street and road) in order to create the portmanteau. There has to be a better way to discribe the very real problem than ‘stroad’.
I like the portmanteau. While the denotations are street and road are similar, their connotations are not. "Country roads" and "city streets" sound right; "country streets" and "city roads" sound wrong. The Romans made a functional distinction between viae within cities compared to viae between cities, but the same word applied to both. Other Roman terms for streets were never used for highways as far as I can tell.