Greenways with Cul-de-Sacs make Safer, Healthier Neighborhoods


Existing Neighborhoods in the USA
Notes:

1) www.GreenwayNeighborhood.net is not affiliated with any of the places mentioned below.  While we admire the designs, we did not help create them, and we are not being paid to promote them.

2) While the instructions below refer to Google(TM) Earth, they are also useful for other programs such as Google Maps and Mapquest(R)

Radburn

Here is a map of the northside section of the Radburn

subdivision in Fairlawn, NJ.



Radburn was designed and built in the 1920's and 1930's.  Ironically, wider versions of the cul-de-sac roads of Radburn were built throughout America after WWII.  But the common greenspace and network of pedestrian paths were usually omitted, thus transforming a wonderfully wholistic design into a sadly limited result. 


To see Radburn online, search for "Radburn, NJ" or "Radburn Road, Fair Lawn, NJ" on a map/aerial view server.  The northside section of Radburn is between Radburn Road on the northeast and the Radburn-Fair Lawn train station on the southwest. 

The train station's coordinates are

40 degr, 56' 32" N, 74 degr, 06' 60" W,

Viewing altitude 5000 ft.


Village Homes


Here is a map of Village Homes of Davis CA, showing the common greenspace in green, paths in purple, roads in black, and a small commercial district in orange.  A community center with swimming pool & playground (not shown on this map) is just north of the commercial district

There are a few pedestrian crossings of residential streets on the eastern side of the neighborhood, but most residents can walk to the village center without crossing any streets.


To see an aerial photo of Village Homes, first search for "Village Homes, Davis CA"--some servers such as GoogleMaps have it marked.  Or, you can search for "Arlington Blvd, Davis, CA", then move the map upwards until you see Russell Blvd at the bottom (south) of the image.
Coordinates: 38 degr, 33' 0" N;  121 degr, 46' 50" W.

Viewing altitude ~3600 ft to see everything.
Boundaries of the Village Homes subdivision:
Arlington Blvd on N & E,
On the South, Russell Blvd
On the West, Portage Bay Ave and the North-South greenspace just east of Hudson St

On the Davis Bike Map you can see that Village Homes is well connected by bicycle to the rest of the town, where bicycle connectivity has been a high priority since the 1960's. The blue lines on the bike map are bike lanes, and the beige lines are genuine bike paths, physically separated from motorized traffic.  In the newer neighborhoods to the northeast of Village Homes, the bike map shows several more examples of cul-de-sacs connected to greenway bike paths.  The Davis public schools eliminated their expensive school buses several years ago, because so many children have safe ways to walk/bike/skateboard to school.  To cycle safely between neighborhoods, Davis has many bike tunnels and bridges.  You can learn more about Village Homes in a wonderful book written by the original developers.


Terramor

Terramor at Ladera Ranch, near San Diego CA is a new subdivision recently built.  While the entire Ladera Ranch development has a system of public greenspace and walking trails, Terramor is a particular neighborhood within Ladera Ranch, with many of the homes arranged on greenways interlaced with cul-de-sacs.
 In GoogleEarth, search for "Mocha Ln, Ladera Ranch, CA". The Terramor Village Club is just north of Mocha Ln, at
33 degr 32' 43" N 117 degr 38' 34" W
From an "eye altitude" of 10,000 ft, you can see the Terramor neighborhood to the southwest of the Terramor Village Club, and some of the rest of the Ladera Ranch development to the east and north. As you zoom in to lower altitudes, you can see that cul-de-sacs enable many of the greenways in the Terramor development to be directly adjacent to residences.  The Terramor "Central Paseo" serves as both a pedestrian thoroughfare and a natural trail. The Paseo connects all of the neighborhoods of Terramor and the Village Plaza without crossing any major streets, and also connects to the larger Ladera Ranch trail system.


Reston, VA and Columbia, MD are 2 suburban cities which were planned in the 1960's. 


While the examples above were built at relatively low suburban densities, it is possible to incorporate central, walkable greenspace into urban designs at much higher densities, as illustrated by the garden apartments at Jackson Heights, Queens, NY.


Other examples with some of the design components & benefits of GIC


Houten, Netherlands, is a suburb of Utrecht.  While Houten is not organized around cul-de-sacs at the level of individual streets, it is divided into different "dead-end" or "traffic cell" neighborhoods. Within each neighborhood you can drive a motorized vehicle, but in order to drive to any of the other communities, you must use the outer ring road. Pedestrians and cyclists can access the town center and the other neighborhoods directly, along the greenway network, without using the ring road. This design is similar to GIC at a large scale, where pedestrians and cyclists enjoy a clear path to the town center.   
     In GoogleEarth, search for Houten Netherlands. The coordinates of the town center are
52 degr 01' 58" N;  5 dgr 10'4" E
     From an altitude of 15,000 feet, you can see the butterfly shape of the urban area.  The rail line to Utrecht is a straight line running approximately north-south through the center--enable the "transportation" layer to see the rail line marked in black. Many commuters bicycle or walk to the Houten train station, for a short train ride into Utrecht. Enable the "roads" layer to see the yellow "ring road" that surrounds one community on the north, and a second one on the south. From an altitude of 10,000 feet, you can see the central greenway following the path of a waterway running east-west through the center of the northern 'butterfly wing".

     The community is clustered at multiple scales.   The northern "wing" can be seen as a complete butterfly, with the rail line forming the butterfly's body.  The Houten Town Center and train station are at the center of this butterfly, at the intersection of the north-south rail line and the east-west greenway.  As you zoom in more, you see that many of the side branches of the greenway follow canals.

     Timothy Beatley has published a description of the town and a map of Houten bike paths in his book "Green Urbanism, Learning from European Cities". 

HomeTown Aurora is a subdivision of nearly 1000 families, recently developed by Bigelow Homes.  In GoogleEarth, go to the sales center at 1002 Four Seasons Blvd, Aurora, IL 60504.  Many of the homes share small "Living Court" semi-private front yards with paved walkways.  Larger neighborhood parks are within walking distance, with a variety of water features.  This successful neighborhood exemplifies many of the positive aspects of greenway neighborhoods--for instance, it is better for children than a typical suburb--but it does not have a contiguous greenway network.


The firm Living Architecture of Sun Valley, Idaho has designed various healthy communities with access to natural systems, to "fully nurture the complete human being...body, mind, and spirit".  I am not aware of web-based sitemaps or aerial photos of these communities, yet.

     "Equipoise" in Pennsylvania is designed to support health and community, and is centered around an 8 acre organic farm and community wellness center.  There are 155 acres with 65% open space, and 300 homes clustered around a few common areas.

     "Quail Creek Community Housing" near St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, south of Ketchum, ID, shares many of the attributes of Village Homes such as daylight and passive solar heat for most units, common areas for gardens, play, open space and community center, and easy access to regional bike paths.

     "PineRidge", at 1908 Warm Springs Rd, Ketchum ID is a new development of 32 units on 2 acres, with 22% open space.  All units front on a shared courtyard, and a road wraps around the back for resident parking.  Guests park on the side and walk through the central courtyard to the front door.  Construction costs for this development were 30% lower than prevailing local rates.


Ross Chapin Architects of Whidbey Island WA has designed and developed numerous Pocket Neighborhoods, with cottages centered around a central green, and parking in a common area separate from the green.  Each cottage community is similar to a cluster of homes around a pocket park in a GIC community such as Village Homes.  

Cooper Life at Craig Ranch will be a 51-acre master-planned community dedicated to healthy living, in partnership with Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who literally wrote the book on Aerobics in 1968.  The community will include Green Mews (paths beside streams, away from streets) and a central Commons (a park with turf and water features).  From the CooperLife website:  "Residents will have easy access to outdoor exercise and stretching areas amid nature trails, gardens, parks and winding streams.  Green mews and backyards will open to common green spaces and jogging paths.

     'It's truly an honor to partner with Dr. Cooper to help turn his vision into reality by building a community that will forever change the way people live their lives, while simultaneously creating an entirely new market segment in residential real estate,' said John Lowery, president, Wellstone Communities LLC.  'We're already receiving strong feedback from the public about the Cooper Life concept and look forward to the opportunity to develop additional Cooper Life communities in other parts of the country in the future.' "

     Craig Ranch is a 2,500-acre, master-planned development at 8600 S Custer Rd, McKinney, TX 75070, north of Dallas.

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