http://fireflyeco.com/
rss
email
  • About

Killer Cul-de-sacs

no comments
Posted on Jun 23 2010 by Daniel

1km in 2 neighborhoods

It seems reasonable to seek a little solace in the suburbs – buy a home on a cul-de-sac, and you get reduced traffic and a more neighborly feel.  The kids can shoot hoops in the street without risk of being run down, and you can keep your eye on how high the Jones’s grass is growing.

But be prepared for a visit from our old friend, the law of unintended consequences…

The same traffic patterns that make a cul-de-sac quiet (read: difficult to drive), also make it difficult to walk. Typically plopped down on old farm land or a large, cheap tract on the edge of town, the modern “neighborhood” development is a winding and serpentine sprawl.  In most cases, it’s fully separated from restaurants, grocery stores, music venues, and the other commercial outlets that we patronize.

That’s why a 2007 study of Atlanta transportation found that residents drive an average of 35 miles a day, and that distance is just 6% lower on the weekends.  It should come as no surprise that people in more “walkable” neighborhoods drive 30% less on weekdays and almost 40% less on weekends.  Instead, they opt for walking, biking, or taking transit.  That adds up to a savings of $640 per year for a two person household living in a walkable neighborhood.

Of course, the benefits don’t stop there.  Walkable neighborhoods have lower levels of NOx, VOCs, and ozone per capita, and they generate lower CO2 emissions.  As for the health effects of all that ambulatory action, residents in the walkable areas are 7% less likely to be obese as more of them get the recommended levels of physical activity.  In fact, the study concluded that

Every additional hour spent in a car each day translated into a 6 percent greater chance of being obese. In metro Atlanta, 31 percent of SMARTRAQ travel survey participants on average spend more than an hour and a half a day sedentary in a car.

In the maps at the top of the post, you can see where a 1 km walk will take you in two neighborhoods in the Seattle area.  The truth is, the cul-de-sac layout makes it harder to get from Point A to Point B, so you’re less likely to try.

What do you think? Do the pros outweigh the cons, or should we return to the predictable grid of our grandparents’ neighborhood?

via Consumerist

Share this post:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

No related posts.


  Tags: cul-de-sac, health, transportation, walking Category: Design, Residential, Transportation

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.




Blogroll

  • Home Performance NC
    A truck! A shop! And insulation too!
    September 9, 2010

  • FlowingData
    Social life of Foursquare users mapped
    September 9, 2010

  • mapawatt
    Efficient Energy: Efergy energy monitor
    September 9, 2010

  • Green Building Advisor Blogs
    Gearing Up for California’s New Green Building Code
    September 9, 2010

  • Gemba Panta Rei
    Why Salmon Would Fail at Hoshin Kanri
    September 8, 2010

  • information aesthetics
    Understanding Shakespeare: The Visual Form of Text and Language
    September 8, 2010

  • Chart Porn
    Your Pants are Lying to You
    September 8, 2010

  • JMP® Blog
    What Factors Affect Office Temperature? A Design in JMP
    September 7, 2010

  • Energy Circle
    ReCircle: How to Be a Man, Cookie Monster on Conservation, Saving our Economy, Building Envelopes, and more!
    September 3, 2010

  • Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy
    Pakistan, Niger, Russian, US Floods, Droughts: Climate Change Preview
    August 24, 2010

Categories

  • Carbon
  • Commercial
  • Design
  • EcoMetrics
  • Energy
  • Financial
  • Food and Agriculture
  • InfoVis
  • Lean
  • Nature
  • Policy
  • Pollution
  • Presentation
  • Residential
  • Solid Waste
  • Transportation
  • Water

Tags

agriculture appliances bacteria biomimicry buildings cap and trade carbon footprint cash for clunkers climate change computers data efficiency electricity food grid home comfort humidity humor HVAC infographics LCA Lean legislation maps marketing offsets oil organic pesticide powerpoint renewables research SciLights smart grid social justice software solar statistics TED5000 TEDTalks transportation UNC visualization waste Water

  • About
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License