That said, this is a case of being right for the wrong reason. Istanbul is an amazing city to walk through. It's like the worlds largest living maze, and you're never quite sure where you'll pop out.
For example, the first time I was there, we turned a corner down an alley to try and get to one of the main roads. The alley started out wide enough for us to walk three-abreast, but quickly narrowed. At some point I looked up and noticed that there was now a roof over our heads. Eventually the alley narrowed to where we had to turn sideways to squeeze past people coming in the opposite direction, and there were shop counters on either side. A few feet more, and we stepped out onto the main street we had been looking for. I turned around, but where I expected to see the alley was, instead, what looked like a regular store-front, identical to all those next to it on either side...
But you don't have to believe me. Yandex has great walking maps of Istanbul! Here's the location I was just describing: http://harita.yandex.com.tr/-/CVeLjW60
I still love this city with all its beauty and uniqueness. What I like most is that there are endless amount places to go, see a and discover. But when it comes city-structure, it's the roads that I miss most about US and Kazakhstan where there is a concept of a "sidewalk" and "road" (an actual, real road) - I think you know what I mean by this :)
If you haven't been to Istanbul, you really must go!
Edit: Oh, and I imagine if they did this analysis with one of the really old parts of town, it would be even more extreme...the problem would be finding an accurate map!
See, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmanns_renovation_of_Paris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Pa...
With the advent of mapping projects (GoogleMaps, Openstreetmap, etc), environmental sensor networks (my startup's area), and cheaper LiDAR arrays (for point cloud mappings of buildings and terrain...now in CMOS form) - we'll be able to quantify the homogeny of surbanization, architectural 'themes', road uniformity, development rates, etc over time.
There are lots of similarly clever projects cited on BLDGBlog [1] if you're into this kind of thing.
You'll be interested in this paper http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/projects/whatMakesParis/
It would be like the suburbs in the US. Houses are all on cul-de-sacs that wind around and eventually join larger streets which eventually join arterial streets. Pretty much like the map of Istanbul they chose.
This lack of connectivity between them is the primary criticism. The map of Istanbul suggests that you might wander into a dead-end alley or cul-de-sac, but one does not enter what amounts to a neighborhood full of dead-ends, the only exit from which is the way you came in. It certainly doesn't suggest that any notable fraction of city is subdivided that way.
I find US burbs incredibly boring in their sameness, although they do have other advantages.
I've also stayed several days in SF, but did not quite like it as much as Boston.
In contrast, I've stayed 6 months in DC, which I ... hum ... did not particularly like.
OTOH, I do not miss winter in Boston. When they paved over the cowpaths, they didn't leave room for snow removal.
http://www.armellecaron.fr/art/index.php?page=plans_de_berli...
But it still doesn't mention what sorting key was used to arrange the pieces? Similarity in shape, obviously, but by what measure?
Since it's an art project, it might even have been done semi-manually, by eye?
They're so boring. -__-
Country roads in America are anything but boring, though. Some of them are bordering on downright dangerous with the twists, turns, and hills. I've never heard anyone argue that city streets were too efficient.
There have been a few unintended consequences of those decisions. First, the highways literally divided cities like walls, cutting neighborhood access off from one community to another. I live close enough to my downtown to walk, but to do so, I'd have to cross a highway.
Second, there's some consensus among researchers that the long, straight stretches of highway contribute to driver fatigue in a way that a more active driving experience (from the occasional turns) does not.
While the autobahn curves with the landscape, it's not as dangerous as a country road. And by not dissecting the cities, it makes life in the city more efficient and connected.
Walking streets in north american cities is soul-killing compared to cities in other continents.
http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2012/8/20/roads-streets-s...
Quoting a bit from that article:
> To review, a road is an efficient connection between two places. It is high speed and safe, which implies that it has limited access (intersections are inherently unsafe at high speeds) and highway geometries. It is essentially a replacement for the railroad which was, as its name suggests, a road on rails.
> In contrast, streets create a platform for capturing value. A properly designed street will maximize the value of the adjacent development pattern in ratio to the infrastructure investment within the public realm. To do this, auto traffic will be slow and will (equally) share space with other modes of transport, including pedestrians, bikers and transit alternatives.
One other interesting exercise would be to map the cities over time. A satellite view image from the 1960's and one from 2012. Could throw up interesting anthropomorphical results.
The above article is part of Big Think's Strange Maps, a fantastic blog which has many, many more interesting articles!
He spent all his allotted time making the figures, apparently, and took no time to thinking of anything interesting to say about it or describe these "odd things" he teases in the title.
Question about article submissions - in the past when I've submitted a duplicate article it takes me to that HN posting instead. What are the edge cases where identical articles get posted separately on HN?
?sc=tw&cc=share&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=f34b7
I've seen this issue pop up a few times before on HN.
