282 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



required area without disturbing the road scheme, but the use to which 

 the lots are to be put and the local customs as to the frontage and shape 

 of the lots will fix limits in regard to their proportions which it will 

 probably not be economical to disregard. 

 The Street The Streets should be so located that they connect with the existing 



Rl^t^' f^th s^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ surrounding territory and make the land subdivision a 

 City Plan functional part of the whole city traffic plan. Our more progressive 



cities now "accept" the routes of the main thoroughfares and the 

 more important secondary streets in advance of development, as the 

 city-planning commission has decided they should be in their broader 

 relations, and no privately planned streets are accepted unless they are 

 in accordance with the "city map." Where no city map exists, if it is 

 evident that in the future some important artery of traffic would have 

 its best location through the property to be developed, then it should be 

 very seriously considered whether the owners of the property, acting 

 by themselves or in cooperation with neighboring land-owners, and if 

 possible officially through the city, might not at once establish such a 

 street, plan it in line and gradient appropriately for its through traffic, 

 and arrange the size and shape of the lots upon it and the plan of the 

 minor streets connecting with it, with the same considerations in view. 

 If no such main artery of traffic is to be predicted, and a quiet residential 

 neighborhood is being planned, it is often desirable so to arrange the 

 roads that, while the property is accessible, through traffic is dis- 

 couraged, and the roadways, bearing only their local traffic, will be less 

 noisy and may be made less broad than otherwise would be the case.* 

 Where some of the surrounding property is of a better class of develop- 

 ment than other parts, it may be a great advantage to arrange the 

 roads so that the new development is related to the best of the neighbor- 

 ing land and so to some extent partakes of its value. 

 Alleys In some residential subdivisions alleys for service traffic are intro- 



duced, giving access to the backs of the lots. So long as the desir- 

 ability of the two different uses for the two sets of roads continues, this 

 may be a satisfactory arrangement, but such permanence is very prob- 

 lematical, and the narrower service roads are not likely to be satis- 



* See Chapters X and XI in C. M. Robinson's City Planning, with Special Refer- 

 ence to the Planning of Streets and Lots, 191 6. (See References.) 



