What Is the Ideal Size for a City Block? - Cheddar Explains

City blocks are the details of urban planning. They are all about walkability and come in many shapes and sizes--but which size is best? Cheddar explains...

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[kolofsson]

As a European, I can say our cities do not have too many blocks, they are way more chaotic. American cities look like they were built in Sim City.

[dcguy]

Wait a minute...this isn't City Beautiful

[SpencerN.C.]

Good video. I'd love to see a follow-up about how city grids can be made more pedestrian-centric with things cross-streets that are car-free areas, sidewalk sizes, and larger buffer zones

[fanbyl]

I guess your main audience is from USA but I find really weird you don't include the metric system (basically the rest of the world) in the explanation of a video like this one. You don't even have to say it, with just some notes or brackets in the video itself is enough.

[sevegarza]

I am from Portland and I can attest to always having to cross streets. Although most streets are only 2 lanes and you can cross them without having to wait for a signal so long as there are no cars. Also the smaller blocks means that more land is dedicated to streets and not business, which means there are actually LESS things within a 5 min walk from you. Yes there are more street facing properties, but because the foot traffic is less per street, each street can't support rows of stores. Less streets means more foot traffic per street, more shops in the street, which means a nicer walk.

Still love Portland a bunch, but I would agree that whatever the ideal block size is, its larger than Portland's.

[cheddar]

If this video gets 100 million views we'll start using the metric system. (Okay, okay - we hear you guys. We're on it.)

[rinam]

why not using the small blocksize of portland but every 2nd street is only for pedestrians

[lucianodeon]

In Buenos Aires the blocks are 100m x 100m (normally), and it´s pretty walkable

[juanda]

Can you PLEASE use the metric system?
Is it really that hard to be normal?

[danfletcher]

Love what you said about Atlanta, Georgia. Anyone who has ever said they would rather drive, when talking about Atlanta, has never driven in Atlanta, Georgia.

[MrDPMan]

That's why I love living in the city. I can basically walk and take new routes to check out new places, since it seems like there's always stuff going on.

[firesurfer]

In Nyc, the standard block is assumed to be 1/20th of a mile. 264 feet. An avenue is 1/10th mile. 528 feet.
20 blocks to the mile. 10 avenues to the mile. Walking is 1 block per minute. 20 mins is 1 mile. Lots of exceptions, but in midtown, it's a handy estimate.

[MarshallSteeves]

I live in Downtown Portland with a Walk Score of 99 and easily walk about 5 - 8 miles per day. It's such a lovely city to walk through!

[joachimmacdonald]

Walkability is efficiency - there is no middle ground between the two: the better a city is for walking, the more efficient it becomes.

[grenudoloco]

Thank you for including Oregon no one ever talks about it.

[milesdowning]

Portland’s walkability includes the smells of solid and liquid human waste. It’s a dream place.

[NimrodClover]

"BLOCKS" are a civil sub-division developed as a practical land parceling common to the USA, especially in the center of the USA where vast areas were divided up along the common 36 square mile township grid. Depending on the City it was very common to see them divide a mile into practical equal lengths to create the center line for streets, i.e. the Blocks.
Not all cities used the same equal divisions. Common divisions included:
8 blocks to mile
10 blocks to mile
12 blocks to mile
16 blocks to mile and
20 blocks to a mile.

In Chicago they used a rectangular division of 16 blocks per mile in the East-West direction and 8 blocks in the North-South direction.

In Indianapolis they typically followed a 10 blocks to a mile layout for the majority of streets.

All of this goes back to the fact that a linear mile is 5280 feet which is evenly divisible by all these factors:
8 = 660 ft
10 = 528 ft
12 = 440 ft
16 = 330 ft
20 = 264 ft

You will often hear the factor of 20 blocks to a mile, but this is most common in the Eastern USA.

New York uses a 5x20 oblong blocks per mile, with one 5 blocks per mile in the East-West direction.
Portland, Oregon has a square grid in a tight 200 ft x 200 ft which is around 26 blocks per mile.

So, the answer to how many blocks in a mile depends on the City, the direction of travel, or if they have blocks at all.

[callie]

Came from Samonella you guys are awesome

[wqmwxzj]

Nice, taking notes for *Cities: Skylines*

[aaronnewell-tutu]

Great video. Now lets show this to city planners in the South Eastern U.S.