• becausechemistry@piefed.social
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    2 hours ago

    Indianapolis built the central mile square of streets aligned with magnetic north, but then the rest of downtown aligned with true north. It’s almost aligned, which causes problems at that border.

    • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      I’ve lived here for years and never realized that’s why everything in the center looked slightly off center. Thanks!

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Our house is on a slanty road and I’ve never lived on one before, my mind rejects it. The CORNERS of the house point in cardinal directions. It’s because we are near a river, some of the streets in my neighborhood follow its course, which right here runs southwest.

    I just have to stop and think every time. Because I have only stayed on N-S or E-W roads my mind thinks our walls ought to be along those lines. I have to point at the corner and say NORTH out loud more often than you’d think.

  • MrEnitity@sopuli.xyz
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    3 hours ago

    This was the intern using grid north instead of magnetic north, maybe?

    One neighborhood in my town has streets at just the perfect angle for the winter sun to line up in the afternoon.

    Maybe everything depends on whatever rule of thumb some 18th century surveyor heard was in style.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Where is this?

    Edit: Found it! Jacksonville Beach, FL

    30.280765 N 81.393002 W

    • In my experience, many cities old enough in the US. Almost every biggish city where I live has the center of town laying differently than the newer, surrounding areas. There was a time when they oriented things different than how they plan it out now so now the older downtown areas look cock-eyed on a map/satellite image.

      • AngryDeuce@lemmy.world
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        22 minutes ago

        Grids were more efficient for pedestrians and uncovered transport, but the caveat is that motorized transport, especially on large grids, will often be driving faster than is desired among the pedestrian traffic.

        Which is why the ethos has changed off of grids to the windy, curvy roads that naturally encourage slower speeds…no straightaways to really build up speeds like you can with a grid.

        Most town centers, which have likely existed before the car did in large numbers, are still laid out in a grid…but youll notice as you get farther out, when the neighborhoods started getting built in the post wwii era and the rise of the burbs, are not generally grids.

        This is an easier way to eyeball how old a particular neighborhood is…with some caveats and exceptions of course.

        A grid is still most efficient, but were trading efficiency for safety which is reasonable…weren’t too many idiots doing 60mph on 35mph city streets like we have today.

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 hours ago

      Reverse image search has mixed results… A few say Florida, but the top one says Wyoming. I’d guess the one that says Jacksonville, Florida is most likely.

  • Saapas@piefed.zip
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    2 hours ago

    Would make sense to avoid people driving through the area. Grid patterns in general are kinda bad when it comes to traffic

  • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    Unrelated but, Theres a section of Prince George Canada that all of a sudden does a big U. The story i was told is that back in the day there were two competing railway companies, and one of them bought enough influence that when the city was making roads to the other company, they instead made the roads bend back.