ARC-3080 TOWN PLANNING

Khan Amadur Rahman

Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture
TYPES OF STREETS AND ROAD
SYSTEMS
 Road systems commonly adopted in a city are as
follows:
 Rectangular or Grid-iron system
 Rectangular combined with diagonal street system
 Concentric and radial street system
 Rectangular combined with radial street system
 Organic street system
 Irregular medieval street system
 Combination of rectangular and irregular street
system
Rectangular or grid-iron system
 This is the most common layout system used since ancient times.
 E.g.: Indus valley civilization
 Advantages:
 Convenient for movement of speedy and free traffic
 Very efficient for layout of services
 Plotting is rectangular hence no wastage of land area.
 Utilization of maximum area for construction hence, advantageous for
private land owner with small plots.
 Disadvantages:
 Causes for more junctions and hence more accidents.
 Inconvenient and expensive in uneven terrain.
 Monotonous layout with vistas devoid of variety and interest.
 No shortcut for easy and speedy movement of pedestrians.
Rectangular or grid-iron system
Rectangular combined with
diagonal street system
 Advantages
 This system provides shortcuts to important places in the
town.
 The meeting point of diagonlas can be used to create parks,
memorials, etc. adding aesthetics to the town layout.
 This layout is most practical for movement of pedestrians as it
has very few obstacles.
 Disadvantages:
 This junctions where rectangular meet diagonal is most
difficult to negotiate, hence difficult to manage form traffic
point of view. e.g.: Washington D.C., US
Rectangular combined with
diagonal street system
Concentric and radial street system
 This system also known as spider web system
comprises of circular and ring roads connected to each
other by a network of radial streets.
 This system comprises part of natural growth of every
town.
 In this system the city grows in the form of concentric
rings around the town centre to preserve the
connectivity and traveling distance to the town centre.
 E.g.: Vienna, Austria
Concentric and radial street system
 Advantages
 The radial streets provide direct access to town centre. They
can earmarked as arterial roads.
 The circular streets provide interface between diagonal roads
and local streets.
 The circular streets also districbute the traffic throughout the
town.
 This system is more economical for town expansion specially
where town centre has important buildings and travel to town
centre is frequent.
 Disadvantages
 The plot size are trapezoidal in shape.
 Lots of land is wasted in this type of layout as most of the
land cannot be used for construction by the plot owners.
Concentric and radial street system
Rectangular combined with radial
system
 This system can be used depending on the topographical
features. It has advantages of bothe rectangular and radial
roads. E.g.: New Delhi, I ndia.
Organic street system
 It is also called topographical or informal street system.
 This is most suitable with uneven terrain.
 Best suited at hills and rivers sides.
 Unplanned and irregular street widths as per the terrain.
 Some interesting features such as hill view points, river
front development, beaches, etc. can be planned to make
the best out of it.
Rectangular combined with radial
system
Organic street system
Irregular medieval street system
 Some medieval cities have grown without proper planning
and layout of streets.
 The streets are narrow with a courtyard or chowk at regular
intervals.
 The chowk was used for public activities such as parks,
playgrounds, bazaars, etc.
 The narrow streets also served the defense of the city in
times of invasion.
 It was a combination of narrow streets and dead end streets
to confuse the invaders.
 E.g.: Old Delhi, Nasik, Varanasi, India.
Combination of rectangular and
Irregular street system
 When the old city needs to be improved by modern
planning interventions, the town planners uses a
combination of the existing irregular street system and
the rectangular street system which is a modern
development.
 E.g.: Edinbugh, UK.
References
 Kadiyali L. R., 2016, Traffic engineering and transport
planning, Khanna Publishers.
 Hiraskar G. K., 2005, Fundamentals of Town Planning,
Dhanpat Rai publications limted.
 Rangawala S. C., Town Planning
Thank You