The grid street plan of the future

Future cities could be made in a square grid globally, where the square units’ streets follow a cul-de-sac pattern. This last road pattern was initially conceived to shelter from streets increasingly full of noises and traffic.

The cul-de-sac scheme uses resources efficiently, saving on concrete, and given the low traffic, the internal roads can afford to be narrower, while the main ones can be wider and support very fast cars, thus reconciling the need for a fast-paced, high-speed grid outside the housing units, with a quieter and safer one inside.

It’s advisable to have a square grid structure over long distances to allow faster transit of means of transport.

The cul-de-sac pattern tends to increase distances, especially for pedestrians and cyclists, which is why it is convenient to use them only for the housing units, which are small in size.

The stores would be along the busiest streets, on the outer edge of the “residential squares”, while parks, bookstores, squares, schools, parking lots and residences would be placed along the quiet inner streets.

I imagine the structures inside the “squares” as green oases of tranquility made up of buildings somewhat similar to these: