Re: Overheard on the scanner

In article <fvdsn9$e85$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Keith F.
Lynch) wrote:

> Paul Dormer <prd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > I can't picture what you are talking about here.  What do you mean
> > by "pedestrian cut-through" in this context?
> 
> In a neighborhood full of dead end streets (or culs de sac, the term
> preferred by people who live in them), the shortest on-road path
> between two points is often *much* longer than a straight line.  The
> purpose of the dead ends is to cut down on car traffic.  This works
> because nobody will drive on a dead end street unless they're heading
> to or from one of the few destinations on that part of that street.
> There's no motorized "through traffic."

I think I worked out last night what you meant, eventually, but at
first I was failing to think grid street plan.  The culs-de-sac I know
don't actually go anywhere, so there'd be nothing to cut through to.

British towns seem to grow up on a radial plan.  For instance,
Guildford, which seems to have founded sometime in the 500 years after
Roman rule ended, has a central high street next to the ford that gave
the town its name.  (Neither the ford, nor the golden sands that
produced the first part of the name, are there today.)  A number of
roads spread out from this, presumably the routes to other nearby
places, as they are called London Road, Epsom Road, Farnham Road, etc.
(There's also a Madrid Road, but I don't think there's a Madrid near
here.)

As the town developed, residential area grew up along these roads.  At
the extreme edge of the town, there might be a cul-de-sac that has just
a farmer's field beyond it.

My street is a bit different.  A by-pass for the main road, the A3, was
built near me in the sixties, I guess; my house dates from then.  It
looks as if St. Johns Road used be longer than it is now, but is cut
short by the A3.  It's not a true cul-de-sac, because you can turn left
at the end of the street into a crescent which takes you back down to
the start of the street.

However, when the by-pass was built, the main road was diverted so
there's a 30 degree bend which takes you onto the A3.  There are no
houses fronting on to this section of the main road.  But there is this
triangle of land between St. Johns Road, the main road and the A3.  My
house is on this triangle.

At the bottom of the road, the houses just front onto St. Johns Road,
but as the triangle becomes wider, they've built culs-de-sac to use
more of the land.  I'm in the last one before the A3.