Burning Question: Cul De Sacked?
News has been floating around our fair state lately about putting an end to a suburban staple: the cul de sac. Lawmakers in Virginia are planning to take measures to penalize developers who continue to create neighborhoods filled with dead end streets (read about it here and here). As they see it, cul de sacs are inefficient – they limit connectivity, disrupt traffic flow, increase congestion and hinder emergency vehicles who may benefit from more grid-like through streets. But it’s obviously catching flack from developers and suburban lovers alike who adore the added safety and privacy of these closed off communities.
What do you think? Would you like to see the cul de sac preserved for future generations or are you happy to see it go the way of the do-do?
Image courtesy of Google Maps (it’s actually my childhood subdivision).
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As a fellow Virginian, I had no idea they’d think of such an absurd idea. That’s just great… I bet there is much less need for emergency vehicles when there aren’t cars flying down through-streets where little kids are out playing. The cul-de-sac fosters neighborhood community relationships and is much safer.
Right after college, I lived in a community in North Jersey that was considered “alternative”. The fronts of all the houses faced away from the street, to an inner park that was criss-crossed by walking/biking trails. (Imagine one large outer road that went around the outside of the community with straight, dead-end streets reaching “in” with either 5 or 7 houses on each street – 2 or 3 up each side and one at the end.) One side of the community was all apartment buildings.
The neighborhood school was built on one edge of this park, so that the children never had to cross a street to get to school.
One drawback was that no one had large, private yards. Little patios or decks out back, but no real yard.
It was a wonderful place to live. Such a great sense of community. I think I knew almost everyone (at least by sight) that lived there. Now that was a great place to raise a family. The kids would all play in the inner park and you never had to worry that a car was going to come zooming through, or that a ball would roll out into the street. Don’t even get my started on Halloween!
There was a grocery store about a block outside the neighborhood, and I could ride my bike across the park with my young daughter and only have to cross one street to get to it. Same with the train station.
I am sort of baffled by all the people shrieking about their children being able to play IN the street. I find it odd because I’ve always taught mine to stay out of it.
Cul-de-sacs lead to privacy and isolation, which are not always good. In terms of public infrastructure, it costs more to build cul-de-sacs, since you end up with a smaller number of congestion points. In terms of public safety, it’s not as accessible for fire and rescue vehicles. Police also have issues with effectively monitor cul-de-sac communities, since crime is contained inside.
I grew up in a cul-de-sac, and since it took so long to get to an actual road, everyone always sped down the main artery of our neighborhood–how safe do you think that “neighborhood street” was? We also had one neighbor who always knew everyone’s business. She only had one road to monitor due to the lack of accessibility. Fortunately, she was a very friendly giving person who you would choose to be your neighbor.
I will take living inside an urban grid any day.
We live in a Cul de Sac and it is wonderful! Our kiddo is still little but he still shoots out in the road from time to time and it is so nice to know that he won’t be in any danger when this happens. The older kids play basketball and all sorts of games out there. Plus, there are never any worries of strangers because with 5 sets of parents watching the Cul de Sac you know a kid isn’t going to get away.
I’m tired of the local emergency services using my small town street as a drag strip. While I admire sustainability, the argument isn’t strong enough for me. Cul-de-sacs create neighborhood relationships and make it possible for neighbours to look out for one another. Communities like these are found all over the world. Good luck virgina!
This banter is fascinating, but somewhat irrelevant since most people have only an emotional view of the cul-de-sac. From a practical perspective, here is the skinny: the neighborhoods that people grew up in prior to the post WWII housing boom didnt have cul-de-sacs and everyone was just fine. Now my personnal note is that parents taught their children to not play in roads which seems perfectly logical, but again, thats just me apparently. When all streets are connected, traffic is evenly dispersed and not weighted to one collector street that people would live on. I agree that streets should be pedestrian friendly and not auto-oriented and the best way to do that is make everything connected. It keeps everyone on equal footing. Studies have shown that neighborhoods with a variety of uses, in close proximity, with totally connected streets have overall lower traffic because there are more options for people to get from place to place. We essentially created our own monster with cul-de-sacs though because once you put one in it adds traffic to every other street, prompting people to want to live places with less traffic, driving demand for the only option that would achieve that; the cul-de-sac. So we create more, which necessitates more, and so on. It’s a vicious cycle of ignorance. On the subject of sustainability, that idea is all about balance, and a cul-de-sac is not balance. And sustainability is also about the long-term. We will see in the future substantial changes in how people perceive driving and neighborhood design which will run counter to the need for cul-de-sacs. In the end, they aren’t safer because your children are losing valuable lessons about real safety. They don’t foster real community, that was lost with the unbalanced dispersion of traffic and related property values. What you have is a mini gated community where you set your own rules. So please don’t think of it as too much government. Sometimes they need to step in and correct the market and our own ignorance.
I’d love to hear a good argument for a cul-de-sac that benefits the entire community. Every reason I’ve heard so far is that “my kids love to play in it and it creates a sense of community for me and my 5 neighbors.” These are selfish arguments that seem to be made by individuals who care nothing more about their own preferences, and not how best to use a community’s resources or benefit of the entire community…I’d like to hear an argument that makes a case for how cul-de-sacs benefit more than just you and your 5 neighbors.
The arguments against cul-de-sacs I think are good ones with broad benefits – whether you are an urbanist or a suburbanist, they are proven to cost more for everyone in the community…so it’s hard to sympathize with the people who complain that “taxes are high enough anyway” and “the government should think of other ways to fix the economy” and then refuse to let go of their wasteful land use preferences.
It’s a myth that the the state of Virginia (VDOT) is coming up with regulations that will not allow new cul-de-sacs to be built. First, the new regulations, which go into effect July 1, only apply to to counties where VDOT maintains all the roads (all but Arlington and Henrico). Second, developers will still be able to build cul-de-sacs, just not as many of them, because a minimum number of street connections with adjacent subdivisions (and many exceptions apply) will be required. It will no longer be possible to build a subdivision that will always have only one way in and out. The main reason for this is to reduce future demand on arterial roads by allowing local traffic to remain on local roads, thereby saving taxpayers money that would otherwise have to be spent widening arterials. See this link for information on what VDOT is doing, and why. This is straight from the horse’s mouth. http://www.vdot.virginia.gov/projects/resources/SSAR_GuidanceDoc_4.3.09.pdf
I don’t have kids, and I don’t live in VA. But I’m not a fan of culs-de-sac and approve of fewer being built. I guess I understand the ‘feeling’ of community when living in a cul-de-sac, but really if you look at the photo in the post MANY of those people are cut off from their back-yard neighbors. A quick trip that would be just a 1/4 mile walk or drive that actually separates the houses in a gridded neighborhood becomes a 2 mile ordeal as you go out your cul-de-sac and around the neighborhood to their cul-de-sac. I grew up in a very rural area and was cut off from friends that would have been a 10 minute walk away if we’d lived on a grid, but since there were no roads or sidewalks that directly connected us, it was more like a 10 minute drive (one way) that I had to bug my mom about.
Now I live in a more urban (gridded) area, on a thru-street between two very busy highways but since there are several other thru-streets in our neighborhood traffic is rarely a problem. We have a great little grassy-tree filled median on our street, where neighbors walk their dogs and kids can play; it’s got benches to sit on and street lights at night, it’s like our own tiny park. People in the neighborhood still have block parties, they set up partitions at the end of the street and you just go around the block. Kids can even play basketball and ride bikes in the alleys with relative safety. It’s a convenient three blocks to the nearest grocery, library, coffee shop, bookstore and about a dozen little thrift shops. We even sat on our lawn with our neighbors and watch the 4th of July firework show that were outside the church about a 6 blocks down the street. I wouldn’t go back to being cut off from my neighbors and the rest of the community for anything.
The town I work for has one main road that’s plowed by the state, and over the last decade about a dozen of these lollipops have cropped up off the main road. Each of these lollipops are maintained by the town. It is very inefficient and costly to have to plow each of these with no connectivity between them. Don’t even get me started on the habitat fragmentation this type of land development causes – there are other development alternatives that minimize habitat fragmentation while creating the same sense of small communities and safe neighborhoods (see Randall Arndt’s work). Narrow roads, medians with plantings, and if necessary, speed bumps – all work to calm traffic and slow it down. I understand some of the concerns presented on the pro-lollipop side, but there are alternatives out there that would meet those concerns and be a bit of a better balance for the anti-lollipop side as well. I am late to the party on this post as I only just started following a few months ago – I linked to it from the 02/26/10 post. Definitely a topic that could be debated for hours… :)
I live in a neighborhood that was built in the 40′s on a grid. there are a lot of parks where kids can play (instead of in a street; most kids wouldn’t have to go more than 1/2 mile to find a park). We are also within 1/4-1/2 mile of restaurants and shopping centers (easily walkable if you are so inclined). I see kids walking to school by themselves every day. The main streets with shopping centers have lights; the others have stop signs. If a child did run out into the street, they would probably be fine. if traffic is bad on one street (or they’re doing construction, or a light is out, etc) it’s easy to get around it, because everything is built on a grid.
My husband grew up in a suburb of the city where we live. To get to his parent’s house, you have to take like five right hand turns from a main road (which is difficult to turn left from, because of the heavy traffic and people speeding). Each subdivision in their suburb has a brick wall around it. we’ve been together for like two years, and we visit them probably once per week, but I still can’t figure out how the hell to find their house. because there are too many cul-de-sacs. to get to a grocery store, they have to drive out of the subdivision and down a major road with no side-walks. So even though his parent’s grocery store is distance-wise closer to their house, there’s no way that they could walk there to get something.
you don’t have to have a cul-de-sac to have a safe neighborhood. you just have to have a well-planned city. which includes roads that go to destinations.
Hey ‘Michelle Z’ could u tell me where was this great community in North Jersey? Me and my DH have been dreaming for a home in a community just like that! Its funny that when we go house searching I do not care about the kitchen counter or big closets, all I care for is a park right next to the house. We haven’t had any luck so far, please tell us more about that place…
I don’t understand why this is such a heated issue. If you like cul-de-sacs, then go live in one. If you don’t like them, go live on a main street. American is about choices. Just look at the grocery store. We like options. If those are taken away, then only half the people are happy and the other half is not. Builders are catering to what people want right now, because that’s how they make money. There are also builders out there that cater towards people who like grid-like neighborhoods. I grew up in a cul-de-sac and almost every afternoon we would ride our bikes around it because there was so much more room than the driveway and my mom was busy cooking dinner so she didn’t have time to drive us to a park. We had loads of friends in the neighborhood that we could walk to. I see the appeal of each side and have experienced both types of neighborhoods by visiting friends who live in the city. The last thing our country needs is more legislation. Why should the government tell us what type of neighborhood to live in? Families have the right to weigh out their priorities and decide for themselves what is right for their family.
Allison, I agree 100%!!! :)
I love culs de sac. I love not having to worry about traffic as I pull out of our driveway. Ours is different though, it’s not an ending to a road, it’s on the side of the main road. I never knew what I was missing until we moved here. I don’t know if I’d ever want to move to a house that wasn’t on one.
This is in response to Allison about “my mom was busy cooking dinner so she didn’t have time to drive us to a park.”
Dependence on cars is part of the problem with cul-de-sacs. I have lived in several different types of communities, and I dislike the cul-de-sac the most because if you don’t drive (too young, don’t own your own car, or whatever), you’re trapped at home. That is a problem incurred with isolating cul-de-sac design.
Between the ages of 9 and 14, my family lived in Grand Forks, ND. The city was pretty much a grid, and we lived in a old part of it. I could bike (by myself starting at 12) to the library, the local TCBY, the mall, and my friends’ houses. I could walk to my elementary and middle schools (2 blocks, each, in different directions). I would have taken a bus to high school, but we moved to Cincinnati.
In Cincinnati, we started out in a townhome community that was built on a large circle. We could walk to a local grocery store, and there was a park, but because of the suburban sprawl, biking anywhere but within the confines of the community was very unsafe. We moved into a house on a cul-de-sac, and now I couldn’t even walk to a store. I was 14, used to being able to go to the library, mall, etc., and now I was stuck at home.
I was used to the freedom of my bike, so it was a fairly unpleasant adjustment to again be completely dependent on my parents just to go get a new book or pick out a new dress.
Our cul-de-sac did NOT inspire closer neighbor relationships. Almost every family was and is a two-parent working family with kids who were involved in a variety of after-school activities. My mom tried to throw a block party within the first year or so of us living there, and the effort fizzled out because we couldn’t find a date that wasn’t packed with some sort of school, sport, or church event for our neighbors.
After college, I moved into a grid-like multi-purpose neighborhood. I could walk to a library, two grocery stores, multiple restaurants, a movie theater, my church, and a couple of parks. I lived in a residential area of St. Paul, MN. I met and married my husband, and we got by with a single car because we lived in a similar area to my first apartment – 4 coffee shops, a movie theater, several churches, about a dozen restaurants, a library/community center, three parks, 4 grocery stores, all within 2 miles of our home. My husband took the bus to work, while I had to drive (ironically) to my job in one of the suburbs.
We lived on a busy intersection, but it never felt unsafe. My son was born there, and I would have loved to have lived there for his whole childhood. There was a neighborhood block party that we found one night while out walking in our grid – they had blocked off one the less-used streets, and we could hear the music from a couple of blocks away. There were a ton of people there because it wasn’t limited to a dozen families. We felt like people really cared about the whole community, not just their immediate neighbors.
I don’t think cul-de-sacs should be outlawed, but I do believe that zoning laws should be enacted to encourage the denser, multi-purpose neighborhoods that make walkable communities a possibility should get priority. We need to incorporate daily exercise into our American lifestyle, and the way to do that is through walkable communities – which cul-de-sac communities generally are not.
Here is a link to a great 3 minute video on the subject.
http://kenarcher.typepad.com/machines_for_living/2009/05/video-sprawl-the-single-greatest-threat-to-mankind.html
Nice aerial imagery! I look at maps like that all day. I have heard about the cul-de-sac debate for a while now, espcially since I work at the County. Personally, I favor them & would hate to see them go.
I grew up in a neighborhood with 3 cul de sacs and only on way to get in and out of it. I wouldn’t change that neighborhood for the would. I babysat and still do for several families in that neighborhood. The cul de sacs are a great place for the kids to play. We hold basketball and kickball games in the circle. It is easy for the kiddos to keep an eye on cars coming and going, and it makes it easy for them to see and holler “CAR!” I enjoy nights of sitting on the front porch watching my favorite neighbor kids run around putting on little shows at different houses during the summer. If they would get rid of cul de sacs future generations wouldn’t get to have and enjoy the memories that I charish dearly.