‘Straight’ streets more popular

JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY

Residents living on grid street patterns exercise more, catch more public transport and use their car less. Image: hayzen/iStockphoto Do you get on with your neighbours? The answer may lie in whether you live in a street built as part of a grid-like pattern or a cul-de-sac, according to a James Cook University town planning graduate. Matt Ingram, who recently won the State Town Planning Award for the best Honours Thesis/Final year minor project for work while undertaking his Honours Thesis, found that living on the straight and narrow was more popular. Mr Ingram, who now works as a Planning Officer at Mackay Regional Council, said his thesis was the completion of his Bachelor of Planning at JCU in Cairns. “There is currently a lot of debate between developers and planners as to the best street pattern for residential subdivisions,” Mr Ingram said. “Planners are presently arguing for a return to grid street patterns as they encourage pedestrian connectivity, public transport use, in most cases are a more sustainable outcome and foster a sense of community among other things,” he said. Developers, however, preferred cul-de-sacs as they were cheaper to build, offered more flexibility and lots in cul-de-sacs tended to sell first, he said. “I attempted to focus on which pattern the people actually living on the different street patterns preferred, if any at all.” Mr Ingram surveyed 154 residents from three different subdivisions around the Cairns area, one with a grid, one with loops - a mix of grid and cul-de-sac - and one with a cul-de-sac street pattern. Residents were asked to fill out a survey in relation to specific aspects of their street pattern. “I found that residents living on grid street patterns were more satisfied with their street pattern and tended to exercise more, catch more public transport and use their car less,” he said. “They also interacted with their neighbours more than those in cul-de-sacs. “Additionally, I found the so-called preference for cul-de-sacs that developers say exists, is more of a perceived preference than anything. “Many people living in cul-de-sacs were living on such a street pattern for the first time as they too, perceived them to be better in terms of safety and noise, for example. “However, since moving to a cul-de-sac they were the least satisfied group of residents with street pattern.” Mr Ingram said many of the people in the grid street patterns mentioned they had specially chosen such a pattern as they did not like the cul-de-sacs after living there before. “Thus, my findings, to some extent, show that developers should consider moving away from the current norm of cul-de-sacs and that their belief that cul-de-sacs are preferred may be shifting as people seem to prefer the grid street pattern over the cul-de-sac.”