1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And if you've ever driven through the 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: sprawl of an American suburb, you know that the streets 4 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:16,760 Speaker 1: twist and turn, even in the absence of hills. Rarely 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: are they set up like a grid. Take one wrong 6 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 1: turn and you could end up a looping around a 7 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: cul de sac forever it can feel like. But how 8 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: did these winding streets become so ubiquitous with the suburbs. 9 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:32,200 Speaker 1: The answer lies in the days following the Industrial Revolution 10 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 1: of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though the period led 11 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 1: to all of the modern technologies and food ways we 12 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,480 Speaker 1: currently enjoy, at the time, it's seriously worsened living conditions 13 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:46,159 Speaker 1: for many city dwellers. We spoke with Paul Knight, and 14 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,599 Speaker 1: architectural and urban designer here in Atlanta and the executive 15 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,240 Speaker 1: director of the Douglas C. Allen Institute for the Study 16 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: of Cities. He said, at any time before the early 17 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: twentieth century, you really did not want to live in 18 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: the cities, especially after the Industrial Revolution in places like 19 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: London and New York. They were filthy, they were truly dangerous. 20 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 1: Along came British urban planner Ebenezer Howard. He published the 21 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: book Tomorrow, A Peaceful Path to Social Reform, which was 22 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:17,959 Speaker 1: reissued in nineteen o two as Garden Cities of Tomorrow. 23 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: Night said of the book, one of the ideas that 24 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: came out of Ebenezer's work was this idea of living 25 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: in the country and then working in the city, so 26 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: that you could get the best of both worlds. Sound familiar. 27 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: Thus what we know today as the suburbs were born 28 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: around the turn of the twentieth century, but their early 29 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: success depended on street cars, which allowed many people to 30 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: travel to their jobs in the cities, and Henry Ford 31 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: automating the assembly line and introducing the Model T car 32 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: really helped the suburbs boom. But the biggest move to 33 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: suburbia came after World War Two ended in ninety five. 34 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: Millions of American g i's returned for war with housing benefits, 35 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:58,920 Speaker 1: and the suburbs became the place to be for US families. 36 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: So what does all this have to do with the 37 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: curving streets we know today? While many big cities during 38 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 1: the Industrial Revolution had terrible living conditions for the working class, 39 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: they did have something desirable. The grid network. A look 40 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: at New York City planners laid out the streets in 41 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: a right angle rectangular formation, as opposed to the spoken 42 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: wheel layouts of cities like Paris, and that's no accident. 43 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: A grid network is efficient and it promotes walkability. The 44 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: typical suburban street network spurned this layout in favor of 45 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: wide roads with sweeping curves. One reason why was to 46 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: make the suburbs appear closer to nature and to Ebenezer 47 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: Howard's idea of living in the country. Knight said, the 48 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: reason that people are wanting to leave the city is 49 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:45,959 Speaker 1: that idea of a return to nature and to provide 50 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: a yard for their children, and to get out of 51 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: the unsafe environment of the city. It's just this bucolic idea. 52 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,239 Speaker 1: If you want to promote this idea of nature and 53 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: natural topography, then you can't have this rigid gridiron on 54 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:58,919 Speaker 1: your landscape. You've got to curve the streets in order 55 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 1: to allow people to exp varience the curvilinear nature of nature. 56 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 1: Another reason for winding streets stems from that giver of 57 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: suburban life, the car. The grid network is built around 58 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: the idea of people walking from place to place, but 59 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 1: the suburbs rely on cars, and curved streets allow cars 60 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:19,079 Speaker 1: to travel faster than the grid network, which has constant 61 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: stops at intersections, But curving streets have a cost. They 62 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,079 Speaker 1: are less walkable, precisely because they make four longer rows 63 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: with fewer intersections. The road network also has fewer streets 64 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:33,239 Speaker 1: than a grid pattern, which means less street frontage and 65 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: therefore less space for retail offices and other mixed use developments. 66 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: Having less walkable streets with less development forces people to 67 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: drive more often. That leads to another cost of curved streets, 68 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: more car accidents. Urban driving can feel chaotic because of 69 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: the increase in walkers and bikers, but it also creates 70 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: slower speeds and therefore fewer fatal accidents. Data from the 71 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 1: U S Census Bureau backs this up. About night in 72 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 1: percent of the US population lived in rural areas, but 73 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 1: rural fatalities accounted for fort ent of all traffic fatalities. 74 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:11,640 Speaker 1: The US continues to become more suburbanized, so it's unlikely 75 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: that these winding streets will go away anytime soon. Knight says. 76 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: In fill building, the development of spare land and otherwise 77 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:22,240 Speaker 1: largely settled areas provides opportunities to change the face of 78 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: these neighborhoods. The challenge to achieving the grid network in 79 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: the suburbs is both political and legal. Though right now 80 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: most suburbs require developers to clear hurdles in order to 81 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,040 Speaker 1: make a pedestrian friendly grid pattern, while those who create 82 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,800 Speaker 1: car centric called sac subdivisions are on easy street. Knight 83 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: said the law is not in walkabilities favor. Today's episode 84 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: was written by Adina Solomon and produced by Tyler Clang 85 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: for iHeart Media and How Stuff Works. For more on 86 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: this and lots of other winding topics, visit our home planet, 87 00:04:55,760 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com.