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The organic city
By adamg on Tue, 03/01/2005 - 1:54pm
Karl compares Boston's chaotic street layout to Chicago's orderly grid and concludes:
... I like narrow curving roads that provide surprises at every corner. I like "streets" that are so narrow they can't accomodate automobiles. It all just feels so much more organic to me...more intimate.
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Comments
Cow paths=better safety
Ahyah, cow paths are what many Boston streets started out as. People would lead their cows to the common to graze. This means that none of those early paths are stright enough to speed on, and so most accidents are just fender benders. Thank cud for that.
Peace.
Jon Allen
Very true, jonallen.
I, too am aware that the streets here in Boston were originally cowpaths. It's an interesting history, but my hunch is that this may be partly why the streets become SO potholed in the winter.
Potholes
Potholes are, as many Bostonians would say, the result of too little money committed to street maintainance. That is certainly an easy argument to make, but the rapid growth of these features is owing to Boston drivers. "Leadfoot" is an all too common type on Boston's streets, and each time they express their impatience by "leaving rubber", they are actually "trenching tarmac", which is what, in combination with heavy rains, gives us potholes. Plows are also guilty of scarring the pavement so that potholes will develop, but the worst ones form with the spring rains. On the positive side, potholes help keep the traffic from speeding on the few straight streets, occasionally causing considerable damage to a vehicle that hits a pothole with excessive speed (some people have to learn the hard way).
Peace.
Jon Allen