[tradephoric]

I created this map of downtown Detroit's road network on google earth. I was thinking of creating similar maps of other downtown areas if there's any interest out there. I really don't know how interesting these maps are but i created this one to see the percentage of 1-way roadways within the city.

Any constructive criticism or input would be appreciated!

Light blue: Pedestrian only roads
Purple: 1-way roads
Green: 2-lane roads
Yellow: 4-lane roads
Blue: 6+ lane roads
Red: 4+ lane boulevards

 

[Dahlis]

How large is this inner city, i though Detroit was much larger.

 

[Yuri S Andrade]

I liked the idea! Actually, we should have more threads about Downtowns in general here.

My city, Londrina (510,000 inhabitants and 1,090,000 in its polycentric metro area). Founded in 1929, in the middle of the Atlantic Rainforest, by the British from Paraná Plantation. That's why the unusual layout for a Brazilian city:

Light blue: Pedestrian only roads
Purple: 1-way roads
Yellow: 4-lane roads
Red: 4+lane boulevards

 

[tradephoric]

Detroit itself is very large but the downtown area is condensed around the area of freeways at I-75, I-375, and the Lodge.

I had an ambitious plan to expand this map out to include an entire 25 mile radius around the city of Detroit and create similar maps for other major metros. Just creating this much of the map has taken a considerable amount of time but i do plan on finishing at least Detroit (and have started a similar map of Atlanta).

 

[tradephoric]

By the way that's a very interesting layout of Londrina!

Are there traffic signals at the major cross streets and if so are you able to achieve pretty good progression driving down all those one-way streets?

 

[Yuri S Andrade]

^^
Yes, there are in almost every corner inside the "quadrilateral" with very few exceptions (then you'll have the preference).

Londrina's Downtown has 33,000 inhabitants and is very dense (11,000 inh./km²). On the west section of it, which is more residential, the density is over 20,000 inh./km². Also, we have tens of thousands of people working Downtown, so the day-time population will be way over 100,000 inhabitants.

And on top of it, Londrina's car fleet is quite big: 217,241 units (2011). So you can imagine the traffic gets ugly.

Here some shots from Street View to help you to make sense of the area. The selection was originally for another thread, so I focused the wooden-houses, but all of them are inside the quadrilateral:

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...1xObb4f1stREh-Q_Q&cbp=12,203.75,,0,-0.14&z=16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...rAPPwEEnZUvPRsAdA&cbp=12,251.75,,0,-0.83&z=16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...=Ckj6Zi5I_wspnTRKaIz6tg&cbp=12,27.29,,0,-2.56

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...wZw06S6KEXWp4J4KeEwP5g&cbp=12,237.73,,0,-9.49

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...77uS76hT-dLtId6xg&cbp=12,319.91,,0,-1.45&z=16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...eLIzgz3sor2Ol6Wvfw&cbp=12,303.49,,0,3.12&z=16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...rohPNtBCp7JH5fbneyQ&cbp=12,342.8,,0,0.97&z=16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...fECxfUPXB_95crCPDHg&cbp=12,32.76,,0,0.14&z=16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...=l7uUxXrKC1RmD9YKXgexwA&cbp=12,46.45,,0,-9.49

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...6OgDuCfcsQq6uPUwCqci2A&cbp=12,267.43,,0,-9.56

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...VWuiUJTVU93LEiy_r01Z9A&cbp=12,148.21,,0,-4.71

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...RHerRgVk_xXj2t2BSNhKBw&cbp=12,151.12,,0,-3.67

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...d=FPoYimiBBq5H44vlFTvbWw&cbp=12,139.54,,0,2.7

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...=NOcnducWF8GxRyxOEOGS2w&cbp=12,179.79,,0,4.16

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...d=7jRcvx9RVO0JB-rWBD2kMg&cbp=12,87.91,,0,1.66

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...=YeLHlQvUAPDsVizeN1m3NQ&cbp=12,226.92,,0,-7.9

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...oBnoVjZAcZeEM-XAztrGWA&cbp=12,321.68,,0,-3.19

http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=p...d=fDVoaOz4ZzABNyHyM1N7rg&cbp=12,95.38,,0,2.22

 

[Northsider]

Chicago

without basemap

Here's the entire region, including South Milwaukee

 

[Baleares]

Chicago rules :O

 

[tradephoric]

Finished some maps..

Atlanta (2.5 mile radius downtown):

Atlanta (25-mile radius Metro)

Detroit (2.5-mile radius downtown)

Detroit (25-mile radius Metro)

 

[poshbakerloo]

With Detroit, they need to just get rid of that silly freeway loop that runs past the river and it will be much better. It doesn't go anywhere! Just cuts the place up.

 

[fieldsofdreams]

^^ Did you mean Interstate 375? I find myself to be in a love-hate situation for that short loop of freeway myself: for one, it basically acts as a connector to the International Tunnel that connects Detroit with Windsor in Canada. On the other hand, it just literally "loops" around Interstate 75, in which on the northeast end of it becomes an avenue... And I don't find it attractive at all since it just creates a little "fortress" that protects the GM Building and its environs.

 

[poshbakerloo]

^^ Did you mean Interstate 375? I find myself to be in a love-hate situation for that short loop of freeway myself: for one, it basically acts as a connector to the International Tunnel that connects Detroit with Windsor in Canada. On the other hand, it just literally "loops" around Interstate 75, in which on the northeast end of it becomes an avenue... And I don't find it attractive at all since it just creates a little "fortress" that protects the GM Building and its environs.

Detroit it one of those 'car capitals'. It will only really work if there are large freeways running everywhere. It can't be changed unless billions are spent on rebuilding pretty much the whole city, so there isn't much point in trying to change it. But, when you get little loops like that, they just cause parts if the city to be cut off and it doesn't really provide much of a benefit.

The tunnel could easily end on a boulevard as its not that huge. If they got rid of the loop and replaced it with some surface road, it could lead the general redevelopment in the area, which Detroit needs.

 

[tradephoric]

I'm a bit confused as I-375 ends at Jefferson Ave and becomes a boulevard next to the waterfront and the GM building (albeit a wide 8-lane boulevard) . I never felt like Detroit had an abundance of freeways for a city of its size, especially when you compare it to cities like Minneapolis, Kansas City, or Saint Louis.

What Detroit does have is a lot of wide and straight boulevards that is a viable alternative to taking the freeway. Coming from the NW suburbs, you can get to downtown Detroit just as quickly taking the wide boulevards as you can hopping on I-75.

 

[tradephoric]

These maps were kind of envisioned after reading through spotila's great Urban Area Map Showcase thread. Here's an example of his map of Atlanta.

A map of a city is nothing new but color coding the roads and limiting them to a 25-mile radius makes everything more of an apples to apples comparison.
The basic idea is how difficult is it to get into downtown from 25 miles out.