Street hierarchy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:59, 8 October 2023

Revision as of 01:00, 8 October 2023

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==History==

[[File:MedinaTunisStreetNetwork.jpg|thumb|300px|Hierarchical street network in the [[Medina of Tunis]] includes culs-de-sac (green), local streets (yellow), collectors (orange), and arterials (red) linking the gates to the city centre.]]

In the pre-automotive era of cities, traces of the concept of a hierarchy of streets in a network appear in Greek and subsequent Roman town plans. The main feature of their classification is their size. In Roman cities, such as [[Pompeii]], major thoroughfares (e.g. the [[Decumanus Maximus|decumanus]]) had a width of 12.2 m, secondary streets (e.g. the [[cardo]]) 6 m and tertiary streets (e.g. vicinae) measured 4.5 meters. The first allowed for two way cart traffic, the second generally only one, while the third only loaded animals. Narrower streets that could only accommodate pedestrians were also present in both Greek and Roman cities. Thus the restriction on connections between major streets on particular modes (carts and chariots) was the effect of the width of the street itself and not the lack of linkage. This method is akin to the contemporary concept of [[permeability (spatial and transport planning)|filtered permeability]].