Alterations in scale: Patterns of change in main street networks across time and space

Sergio Porta, Ombretta Romice, J Alexander Maxwell, Peter Russell and Darren Baird
Additional contact information
Sergio Porta: University of Strathclyde, UK
Ombretta Romice: University of Strathclyde, UK
J Alexander Maxwell: University of Strathclyde, UK
Peter Russell: University of Strathclyde, UK
Darren Baird: University of Strathclyde, UK

Urban Studies, 2014, vol. 51, issue 16, 3383-3400

Abstract: This paper presents a morphological study of 100 main street networks from urban areas around the world. An expansion in the scale of main street networks was revealed using a unique heuristic visual method for identifying and measuring the lengths of main street segments from each of the study areas. Case studies were selected and grouped according to corresponding urban design paradigms, ranging from antiquity to present day. This research shows that the average lengths of main street segments from networks of historic (i.e. ancient, medieval, renaissance, baroque and industrial) and informal case studies are much smaller relative to those from networks of more contemporary case studies (i.e. Garden City, Radiant City and New Urbanism). This study provides empirical evidence in support of prior, observational claims suggesting a consistent pattern in the smaller scale of main street networks from traditional urban areas, termed the ‘400-metre rule’. Additionally, it makes the case for further empirical research into similarly recursive spatial patterns within other elements of urban form (i.e. plots, blocks, etc.) that, if discovered, could aid in future urban design efforts to help provide the framework for more ‘human-scale’ urban environments.

Keywords: 400-metre rule; main street network; main streets; urban morphology; urban theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098013519833 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:51:y:2014:i:16:p:3383-3400

DOI: 10.1177/0042098013519833

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().