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    [OC] Cities' Street Grid Score
    Data

    [OC] Cities’ Street Grid Score


    Source: GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EU JRC, CC BY 4.0), OpenStreetMap via OSMnx (ODbL), World Bank Open Data API (CC BY 4.0).

    Tools: Bruin (pipeline), BigQuery (warehouse), OSMnx + NetworkX (street analysis), Altair + Pydeck + Matplotlib (visualization).

    Posted by uncertainschrodinger

    View 34 Comments

    34 Comments

    1. uncertainschrodinger on

      Source: **GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A** (EU JRC, CC BY 4.0), **OpenStreetMap** via OSMnx (ODbL), **World Bank Open Data API** (CC BY 4.0).

      Tools: **Bruin** (pipeline), **BigQuery** (warehouse), **OSMnx** + **NetworkX** (street analysis), **Altair** + **Pydeck** + **Matplotlib** (visualization).

    2. Dampmaskin on

      I’m sure Londoners will disagree, but in this instance I actually think London came out coolest looking

    4. DecoherentDoc on

      In Seattle, two guys argued about what the orientation of the streets should be. Downtown is N-S, but a little north of downtown, you hit the Denny Triangle and the streets orient along the shore (IIRC). If you have a minute and the data, that might be an interesting one to try.

    5. Bubblehead_81 on

      Now I want to see Boston. As a new Yorker, I’m certain it will look like a beach ball because no two Boston streets run parallel because the city was planned by my drunk Irish greatgrandfather.

    7. Marlsfarp on

      “New York City” appears to be only Manhattan here. Other parts of the city have grids with different alignments.

    8. Vevangui on

      Having grid-like zones in cities (such as Barcelona’s Ensanche or NYC’s Manhattan) is not inherently bad.

    9. PaperRopes on

      Barcelona is interesting because you can see the Eixample and the main cross and then the smaller cross is Diagonal, a massive road that breaks the grid patter at 45 degrees to the rest of the city!

    11. Equivalent-Variation on

      What is going on with Washington, DC’s slightly off the cardinal direction street orientations? The cardinal directions make sense with DC’s grid and the smaller spikes are the avenues, but the large second angle close to the cardinal directions seems like a data issue.

    12. TeraFlint on

      I’m questioning the scale of the order values a bit. How can Paris be a flat 0.0, if there are still 4 orthogonal directions that have visibly more streets than the other directions? Shouldn’t 0.0 be reserved for a hypothetical place where every road direction appears equally?

    13. The-original-spuggy on

      Would love if this were an interactive map. Want to test a few cities out

    15. viktorbir on

      Please, if you want your city to have an orthogonal grid, made it at 45º, like Barcelona’s. It’s the way every house will have a similar amount of sun.

    16. GoodTato on

      Surprised London is so gridular here, sure doesn’t feel it. Guess it’s a big ass place and there’s gotta be enough griddy bits to even out

    17. lordnacho666 on

      What if a street bends? Like a ring road? Does that make a bunch of little sections of each orientation?

    18. syn_miso on

      How did you account for the fact that while New York is strongly gridded, it’s not a unified system and there are multiple grids that go in different directions?

    21. timmeh87 on

      the grid score seems kinda fucky, chigago is .37 out of 1? it seems indistinguishable from a 1

    22. sxyvirgo on

      Chicago was originally built on a grid in the 1830’s and then rebuilt on the same grid after the Great Fire.

    24. Phanyxx on

      Chicago is like when I open Cities Skylines and fill in the entire street grid first

    25. RealWICheese on

      Chicago’s grid is perfectly north south east west oriented. This data is incorrect.

    30. solemn-farmer on

      Would be kind of you to credit Geoff Boeing who both developed the methodology and packages you are using to replicate his work…

    31. Ythio on

      When I was living in NYC my favorite part of the city was the financial district, because it’s the one that was the easiest to navigate for my Parisian ass.

      In the straight avenues I was always confused which avenue I was in. In the random streets between Wall Street and the tip of Manhattan it felt easier. Random streets are more unique and easier to remember for me.

    33. cargo_cultist on

      Istanbul would be even closer to Paris if it wasn’t for the 3 major bridges between two continents and the collectors directed towards those + coastal roads along west-east direction.

    34. darthy_parker on

      Chicago should show at least some radial streets toward the west like Milwaukee, Lincoln, Ogden/Rte 66, Grand, Archer. And the two radial Interstates, I-55 and I-90.