Fused Grid
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The Fused Grid represents the synthesis of two traditional North American approaches to residential neighborhood planning: the traditional, nineteenth-century grid plan, and the curvilinear pattern of looped streets and culs-de-sac of modern suburbia. The goal of the fused grid is to provide a balance between vehicular and pedestrian movement[1], and to create safe[2], sociable streets and easy connectivity to community facilities. These attributes are achieved while retaining the land use and infrastructure advantages of conventional suburban plans, compared to the traditional grid advocated by New Urbanism.
The fused grid consists of a large-scale grid of collector streets, carrying moderate to high-speed car traffic. The blocks are usually about 40 acres in size (1/4 mile x 1/4 mile). Within each block, the layout of residential streets in the form of crescents and cul-de-sacs eliminates through traffic. In addition, a continuous, open-space pedestrian path system provides direct access to parks, public transit, retail and community facilities. Residents can cross a block on foot in approximately five minutes. The most intensive land uses such as schools, community facilities, high-density residential uses, and retail are located in the center of the plan, reached by twinned arterial roads. The plan provides efficient vehicular traffic, without sacrificing safety and convenience for pedestrians. It is promoted in Canada by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
A similar debate has also been taking place in Europe and particularly the UK, where the term filtered permeability [3] was coined to describe urban layouts which maximise ease of movement for pedestrians and cyclists, but seek to restrain it for motor vehicles. See: Permeability (spatial and transport planning).
[edit] References
- ^ Street network connectivity and local travel behaviour : assessing the relationship of travel outcomes to disparate pedestrian and vehicular street network connectivity, 2008. Christopher C. Hawkins.
- ^ Macro-level collision prediction models for evaluating neighbourhood traffic safety 2006, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering volume 33. Lovegrove, Gordon R; Sayed, Tarek
- ^ MELIA, S., 2007. Eco Town Mobility. Town and Country Planning, November. and MELIA, S. 2008. Neigbourhoods Should be Made Permeable for Walking and Cycling But Not Cars. Local Transport Today, Jan 23rd 2008
