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Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 4:32 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
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City street width variations

It recently occurred to me that street widths vary a lot more in some cities than in others. For instance, it seems like street widths in London tend not to vary that much between major arteries and side streets, while in Paris and Berlin there is quite a large gap between major thoroughfares and small residential streets. NYC street widths also vary by quite a lot, particularly in the areas of the city that were not gridded according to the Commissioners Plan.

Above Houston Street, Manhattan's grid is very strict:

Standard e/w cross streets: 60 feet
Major e/w cross streets: 100 feet
Standard n/s avenue: 100 feet
Park Avenue: 140 feet

At Houston and below, the street widths are very irregular. Most are narrower than above Houston (50 feet or less), but a few major corridors are much wider than streets above Houston:

Houston Street (e/w): 125 feet
Delancey (e/w): 150 feet
Bowery (n/s): 115 feet
Allen Street (n/s): 138 feet

Brooklyn's grid varies even more than Manhattan's. DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, and downtown Brooklyn have narrow streets with widths less than 60 feet in most places, like neighboring lower Manhattan. Williamsburg and Bushwick streets are mostly all 60 feet, with a few exceptions. The rest of north and central Brooklyn has streets and avenues of 70 feet in width. And roughly around Empire Boulevard and on south, Brooklyn's grid mimics Manhattan's grid. On the upper end, Brooklyn's widest streets get much wider than Manhattan's:

Adams Street (n/s): 160 feet
Atlantic Avenue (e/w): 120 feet
Eastern Parkway (e/w): 210 feet
Linden Boulevard (e/w): 170 feet
Kings Highway (n/s): 140 feet
Ocean Parkway (n/s): 210 feet

Excluding freeways, how much do street widths vary where you live?
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Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 4:41 PM
proghousehead proghousehead is offline
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Are all n/s above Houston actually 100? Lex seems narrower than say 6th. Excluding Park of course.

Also how is this measured? Street width or building to
Building? Cause some of Manhattans streets about Houston seem narrower than 60 measured curb to curb.
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  #3  
Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 5:47 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by proghousehead View Post
Are all n/s above Houston actually 100? Lex seems narrower than say 6th. Excluding Park of course.

Also how is this measured? Street width or building to
Building? Cause some of Manhattans streets about Houston seem narrower than 60 measured curb to curb.
This includes sidewalks. Curb to curb on a standard street would typically be 40 feet in Manhattan.
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Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 6:05 PM
Crawford Crawford is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed View Post
At Houston and below, the street widths are very irregular. Most are narrower than above Houston (50 feet or less), but a few major corridors are much wider than streets above Houston:
The wider streets in Manhattan south of 14th Street were actually widened in the 1930's under very early Roosevelt-era slum clearance plans. Before the 1930's, essentially all of Manhattan south of 14th consisted of fairly narrow pre-auto streets.

Houston was a narrow street, Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenues didn't even exist from the Village southbound, and were created in tandem with subway expansions. Allen and Delancey were pure slum clearance, trying to de-densify the then-teeming Jewish-Italian slums of the LES.

The linear parks downtown, like Sara Roosevelt Park, served the same purpose. Removing the worst slum blocks and trying to lower extreme densities. Of course in retrospect, Lower Manhattan would be even better today if none of this happened (excepting the subway expansions).
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Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 6:08 PM
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Steely Dan Steely Dan is online now
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building wall to building wall makes the most sense to me for measuring street width, as it negates the inconsistencies of how various cities legally define the private/public realm in regards to things like sidewalks, front setbacks, tree lawns, etc.

you can't really argue with "building wall to building wall" as being the total actual width of a given right of way, regardless of how the land in between is legally and functionally divied up.

in that vein, all widths given below are "building wall to building wall".



there are 5 main kinds of streets in chicago's street hierarchy (alleys not included):

1. boulevards: 250 - 300 feet

2. major commericial arterial (4 lane): 100 to 150 feet

3. downtown streets: 75 to 110 feet

4. residential side streets: 70 to 100 feet

5. minor arterial (2 lane): 65 to 90 feet
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Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 6:09 PM
iheartthed iheartthed is offline
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Originally Posted by Crawford View Post
The wider streets in Manhattan south of 14th Street were actually widened in the 1930's under very early Roosevelt-era slum clearance plans. Before the 1930's, essentially all of Manhattan south of 14th consisted of fairly narrow pre-auto streets.

Houston was a narrow street, Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenues didn't even exist from the Village southbound, and were created in tandem with subway expansions. Allen and Delancey were pure slum clearance, trying to de-densify the then-teeming Jewish-Italian slums of the LES.

The linear parks downtown, like Sara Roosevelt Park, served the same purpose. Removing the worst slum blocks and trying to lower extreme densities. Of course in retrospect, Lower Manhattan would be even better today if none of this happened (excepting the subway expansions).
Yeah, I'm aware of that history.
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Old Posted Jul 15, 2021, 6:36 PM
Camelback Camelback is offline
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Aside from the freeways, city streets vary from tight two lane residential streets without street parking and sidewalks (not too many of these, mainly reserved to the oldest suburban inner-city big lots areas) to 6 to 8 lane thoroughfares with bus pull-outs and turning lanes.

Glendale Ave - residential area - thoroughfare:
https://goo.gl/maps/EHsthR6KyxNy9KfXA

Exeter Blvd - residential area - narrow and tight, no sidewalks
https://goo.gl/maps/UchvsU2PfenVHByM7

N. 11th Ave - residential area - wider streets with sidewalks
https://goo.gl/maps/1YzghNyKXvDsz9qm8

Here's a 3x3 arterial intersecting with another 3x3 arterial, with double left turn lanes and dedicated right turn lanes
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ph...4d-112.0740373

Last edited by Camelback; Jul 15, 2021 at 6:53 PM.
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