Worst interconnectivity ever!

[Tide]

Check this map from someone on twitter. I was going to post this in the FAC but it is more important to talk about on a larger scale. I hope the fire trucks never get a call from house A to someone around house B back to back.

"Sprawl absurdity: 2 houses share backyard, takes 2.5 hours to walk b/w them"



What other areas do you know of that have rediculous lack of interconnectivity on this type of scale?

Here's the google map link if you want to pan around.

In just a few minutes since I saw this I have found a few in areas I know of on the scale of 2.5-4.2 miles of travel to go backyard to backyard but nothing to the magnitude of this 7.1 mile 2.5 hour this example.

[Suburb Repairman]

Wow... I've seen that type of thing pop-up on 1-2 acre "ranchette" developments on the far outskirts of cities lacking meaningful zoning/subdivision controls, but never in a pure suburban setting like the one shown. It looks like that is about an 8 mile trip. I've often worried that this kind of thing can easily happen in an otherwise well-meaning project, particularly conservation developments.

I suspect this particular instance was the result of this being at least two separate developments, with the controlling jurisdiction not requiring a stub-out of any kind to connect to possible future development. Of course, I've got something similar in my fair city that results in about a 4.5 mile trip and it was the result of pure stupidity on the part of leaders at that time thinking that requiring a bridge over a small creek was unnecessary. I'm actually glad it is here because it gives me a concrete on-the-ground example of the consequences of bad connectivity & design--my city council hates what this has done and now asks questions related to that topic on every single project that comes in.

[Dan]

The Orlando example is the worst (or rather, best) example I've seen. Phoenix also seems to have plenty of examples of long drive times between backyard neighbors, resulting from large planned communities that are disconnected from each other.

http://goo.gl/maps/J35RL

17.1 mi, 34 minutes driving. 2 hours 17 minutes walking, using a gated emergency access road, with a warning"

"Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths."

[luckless pedestrian]

I can't figure out how to export the map showing it but I worked in a town that had massive neighborhood "connected" by the town forest -

nestled adjacent to the town forest was a large parcel the town wisely purchased in the late 60's to plan for future residiential growth and for a possible school - wow, huh, great planning, right?

wrong - when I was working on the school layout I had the ground connected by vehicles (the horrors) to connect the neighbrohoods trhough the school - you would think I was located a nuclear power plant - and these are all families with children - wtf -

"my realtor told me that was all protected land!"
"there will be drug deals going on there!!!"

so I couldn't have scripted this better -

but on one of the massive cul-de-sac linked neighborhoods with only one way in and out to the main road, I kid you not, but there was a fire halfway in (no one home, so nobody got hurt), the fire trucks blocked the whole area so no cars could get through and 3 surgeons were stuck behind the trucks and could not get to their own respective emergencies at the hospital because there was only one way out

and, to top it off - the house burning? was a Planning Board member's

no kidding, honest!

so I got the school in with connected neighborhoods -

[beach_bum]

I know where that is!

Orlando is notorious for gated communities and private roads, plus there are wetlands everywhere. Not that that is an excuse for this!

The golf course/country club community is probably gated and private so they don't want those other almost half million dollar homes connecting to theirs

[hilldweller]

What other areas do you know of that have rediculous lack of interconnectivity on this type of scale?

Northern Virginia.

[Random Traffic Guy]

The Orlando example is the worst (or rather, best) example I've seen. Phoenix also seems to have plenty of examples of long drive times between backyard neighbors, resulting from large planned communities that are disconnected from each other.

http://goo.gl/maps/J35RL

17.1 mi, 34 minutes driving. 2 hours 17 minutes walking, using a gated emergency access road, with a warning"

"Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths."

Neato... Looks like there was space left for a connection on Ravina Lane to 9th Ave, but never got connected.
This spot: http://goo.gl/maps/3rmp6

I do like those large irregular backyard fences in the northern development.

[DetroitPlanner]

Neato... Looks like there was space left for a connection on Ravina Lane to 9th Ave, but never got connected.
This spot: http://goo.gl/maps/3rmp6

I do like those large irregular backyard fences in the northern development.

Looks like there is a gate on the N side for emergency vehicles... yeah... you need to do something about all of that pesky cut through traffic wanting to get to the arterial/freeway!?!?

[Tide]

In a short view around places I'm familiar with this is the worst I can find.

6.5 miles 2 hour 7 minute walk





I continually find 2.5-3.0 mile backyards almost everywhere, even in places like Boston or Inner ring suburbs. Even in a subdivision I lived in years ago it was a mile and a half to get to the "other" subdivision that backed up to ours, same builder too... makes no sense.

[Tide]

DC Streetsblog article on the first example I showed.