Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
A cul-de-sac ends among pads for new home construction left dormant in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images.
The cul-de-sac has been a staple of urban development — and families' real estate wish lists — for the last 50 years. Now some cities are banning them from new developments.
Why it matters: Street-network sprawl determines a city's energy footprint.
- Researchers have found that city and suburban streets have become less connected in ways that favor car travel over more climate-friendly options.
- Grid-like streets are better for walking, cycling and public transportation, while cul-de-sacs, three-way-intersections and gated communities with "one-way-out" routes encourage vehicle use.
What's happening: City planners are encouraging denser street grids in new communities and redevelopments, or they could place a tax on three-way-intersections, or a "cul-de-tax," to change street design habits, researchers Christopher Barrington-Leigh and Adam Millard-Ball write in a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- In Denmark, bicycle and pedestrian paths are being integrated into communities to connect otherwise disconnected streets.
- National planning guidance in the United Kingdom called for connected streets over dead-end designs.
- After a 2001 earthquake in Bhuj, India, planners tried to interconnect all cul-de-sacs to avoid dead-end streets being blocked by fallen rubble.
Go deeper: