The Surprising Problems With The City Grid - Cheddar Explains

The rectangular grid is an ancient city plan and has been used by civilizations for thousands of years. It underpins many of our cities to this day, and has been hailed for its efficiency. But there is a surprising dark side to the city grid. So, what is the darkness that underlies our city grids, and how might the grid be bad for us today?
Further reading:
The Dark Side of the Grid: Power and Urban Design by Jill L. Grant
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
City on a Grid: How New York Became New York by Gerard Koeppel
books.google.com/books?id=CpL...
Ohio History Central
ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Land...
99 Percent Invisible
99percentinvisible.org/episod...
The Salt Lake Tribune
www.sltrib.com/opinion/commen...
Aeon Magazine
aeon.co/essays/why-boring-str...
The Guardian
www.theguardian.com/cities/20...
www.theguardian.com/cities/20...
Congress for the New Urbanism
www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2017...
Hexagonal Planning in Theory and practice by Eran Ben-Joseph and David Gordon
web.mit.edu/ebj/www/Hexagonal.pdf
City Plan by Charles R. Lamb
urbanplanning.library.cornell....
The Law and Economics of Street Layouts: How a Grid Pattern Benefits a Downtown by Robert C. Ellickson
digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/c...
The Origin and Spread of the Grid-Pattern Town by Dan Stanislawski
www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2110...
History of Public Health in New York City, 1625-1866: Volume 1 by John Duffy
www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/...
Mythologies of the Grid in the Empire City, 1811-2011 by Reuben S. Rose-Redwood
www.jstor.org/stable/41303641...
Did Racists Create the Suburban Nation? by David L. Chappell
www.jstor.org/stable/30031671...
Gridded Worlds: An Urban Anthology, American Cities: The Grid Plan and the Protestant Ethic, by Richard Sennett books.google.com/books?id=gXZ...
Hippodamus and the Planned City By Alfred Burns
www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4435...
Plan and Constitution: Aristotle's Hippodamus: Towards an 'Ostensive' Definition of Spatial Planning by Luigi Mazza
www.jstor.org/stable/27715094... to Cheddar on KZbin: chdr.tv/subscribe
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[@jakobfink9909]

”From the US to the US, from the US to the US, and from the US all the way to Spain”

[@vincenzorutigliano5435]

Jeogrephy

[@gangsterbroccoli]

Vincenzo Rutigliano lol

[@Thrill_Hou]

Could’ve thrown in the world famous Milton Keynes in there

[@juancruzcarugnoenrico1709]

@Johnson Taylor or maybe, just maybe, there exist other places apart from the US and Barcelona. But hey, at least you know that Barcelona is in Europe

[@camatzuma]

Johnson Taylor I don’t think anyone agrees with you

[@theantemon6720]

Jesus christ though this video was going to discuss actual practical problems of the grid system, not some philosophical mumbo jumbo, Roman oppression bs.

[@EB-bl6cc]

haha yeah, this video gives "reach" a new meaning. It's too bad because some cheddar videos aren't so bad

[@sebastianelytron8450]

Did you watch the whole video?? First half was crap, second half was awesome.

[@anniehimself]

Triggered

[@greenboy1916]

Sebastian Elytron It doesn’t matter how good the second half was if you start off with a beginning that loses the interest of the good part of your audience. When I sit down to watch some thing that I think it’s going to be one thing and it turns out to be another I typically don’t stick around for very long. It’s like showing up to something that was billed as a comedy and finding out it’s a horror story that only gets funny in the second act. Well, I’m not going to watch that.

[@uzybeens6748]

How dare you use his name like that /s

[@alyssal.567]

“The grid system is evil because the Roman Empire conquered a lot of people”

[@684avatar]

Basically what this video is telling people 😆

[@chloejohnson6861]

And because "grid" is short for gridiron, a torture device. That definitely makes them evil.

[@maxg4304]

@@chloejohnson6861 Interesting that they brought that up only once American cities became the focus...

[@joncuz718]

I always though "grid" is faster way of asking for a McGriddle.

[@thatwasprettyneat]

exactly.

[@MrJoking4fun]

I feel like this video is some sort of high school kid who tried to hail Mary a paper they had to write based on reading material they barely skimmed over.

[@paulwebb2078]

Same impression I got, feels very fluffy, like the author doesn't have any real understanding about what they're writing.

[@Swoost]

doesn't help that the narrator sounds like a high school girl

[@vishnu4234]

Felt like what's your point.

[@jorgepfluckerolaechea5567]

Im not used to see a conspiracy theory in this channel. Maybe they want to follow the path of History Channel. Nice

[@kenster8270]

​@@Swoost She does speak like an airhead, but least she's not a vocal fryer. In any casy, I had to stop watching after 2 minutes.

[@c4ble472]

Grid: *is literally a bunch of squares and rectangles* Cheddar: “this is a form of repression and tyranny”

[@abramslion1]

Yes the poor indigenous peoples. Terrorised by those evil squares. They were trying to scalp them. 😭

[@gildedbear5355]

Why do Cheddar videos so often sound like a high-school/college report?

[@TheMrProboscis]

Because they need to appeal to the masses. Keep it simple for the average person

[@irgendwer3610]

number 15: burger king foot lettuce

[@noedd]

@@irgendwer3610 ao I was abt to say that

[@ardentvibe6917]

It’s not about making it intellectually accessible. It’s just lazy unprofessionalism. They lack imagination in choosing their subject matter, have misguided ideals and lack a creative spirit. Check out Vox. Cheddar is just falling down the drain.

[@dominicarceo9637]

@@ardentvibe6917 Vox is more controversial.

[@trev-gulls]

Who let the intern make a video?

[@thefareplayer2254]

Trevor Gullstad my exact question!

[@bluegoka]

It’s the boss’s daughter.

[@TheBenenene10]

Tl;dw: some bad people used the grid because it's efficient, some people don't like the grid, there are other city plans other than a grid. Cheddar you need to be better.

[@ludwigrohrig]

@@KateYagi - He's spot-on to be honest. This video could've been condensed into 2-4 Minutes rather than this fluffy and poorly-written mess. Just read some of the comments, there are tons of people disappointed with this and other recent videos. Especially depicting a grid as a "tool of tyranny" seems a bit forced and silly...

[@alfredoalcantar8691]

Ben U the grid is good less stressful

[@jonsmustache7704]

This is not the quality of writing and delivery I have come to expect from Cheddar.

[@christianmoore7109]

Jons Mustache “Geometric repression” is where I kind of lost interest.

[@Nunavuter1]

The arguments are weaker than usual, while the claims made are less rooted in fact than subjective impression. I agree. This is not Cheddar at its best.

[@confusedwhale]

It's like a high schooler's essay.

[@deadseadiver3214]

@@confusedwhale It would embarrass a high schooler.

[@717euf]

It just seems like they are interpreting things where there is nothing. A Grid is the simplest way to organize. The Romans had well organized and more importantly Sanitized!!!! Cities. Other Cultures have also Colonized. At least the Romans offered genuine development. If people are used to living dirty, Bathhouses may seem like a tyrannical imposition, but it is simply providing Hygiene. (Btw. after the Romans, Europe was dirty af.). The Grid is just a system of organizing and when you are colonizing you most likely are the one introducing the order. Doesn't mean the Order is tyrannical.

[@thorakvideos2495]

It is very unfortunate that 80% of this video was "pointless" (as to not say bs). I remember subscribing to Cheddar for their good quality takes on a wide variety of subjects and I won't unsubscribe yet, but the videos seem more rushed and just don't hold up to anterior videos. Also, I am rather fond of calling out racism and forms of discrimination where can be found, but half of this video was calling the square city grid racist... This is just plain stupid... The romans used the city grid because it's efficient and that's why we use it today. And the city grid does have problems, some which were adressed quickly in this video. Another point, would be to talk about traffic, because the city grid is terrible in that aspect. Overall, I'm just dissappointed as I know you guys ( at Cheddar) are capable of better. And you have proven of that in the past, so it would be wrong to abuse your reputation now...

[@Angel-zv2yi]

K. Yagi agree, they just did it to stretch the video to 10mins for KZbin algorithms to put this in “recommend” or having better income. Many channels force 10mins long videos for this reason. Just take a look at any of your subscribed channels with +100k subscribers and you will see many videos 10-11mins long.

[@Angel-zv2yi]

thorakvideos I already unsubscribed long time ago, still watching some recommended videos hoping for quality and impartiality but this was another disappointment...

[@Floedekage]

They could have used more time on alternative layouts and the European "non-layouts". Also would have been good to hear something about public infrastructures effect. If they had bothered it could have been an interesting 20 min. video, if they had researched a little more and expanded on the topic.

[@will1230]

Agree with this. Their recent video on artificial coral reefs along Long Island NY was so padded with repeated info that I found it unwatchable.

[@ardentvibe6917]

You are spot on, my friend. I feel like Cheddar has lost their sense of what constitutes as quality content. Check out Vox. I’m way more impressed with their subject matter and creative execution.

[@pieal7368]

Cheddar: the grid makes it hard to go a direct route. Also Cheddar: Try Cul-de-sacs

[@judetheatlantadude]

*Culs-de-sac I know. It feels so wrong.

[@fernandoaldado]

I stopped watching there.

[@LandoMercy]

I usually love cheddar but this entire video is one big stretch, I’m gonna hope that they were just a day late on their April fools joke

[@HamishDuh2nd]

Rome built the roads. Why not just say roads are inherently evil?

[@eduardo42897]

Roads for?

[@tubester4567]

Most of this is just radical left wing theory and propaganda. Grids are efficient for large numbers of people to have clean water, sewerage systems, and paved roads, in other words, first world living conditions. Suburbs were not built because of racism. This is another left-wing lie. Suburbs grew out of the need for housing after the second world war. It gave working class people the chance to own their own homes with a yard, in greener, low density areas. The same thing (suburbs) happened in many western countries, and nearly all of them didnt have black people, or any minority group.

[@str2010]

@@tubester4567 I don't see how this is left wing. This isn't left or right. It's just pure bs. Pretty sure both sanders and mcconnell would agree

[@tubester4567]

@@str2010 Saying things like suburbs came from racism is left-wing theory.

[@ilenastarbreeze4978]

@@tubester4567 i mean they didnt bave non white people because they had laws and such to say no blacks allowed. So i mean that is kinda racist

[@dbaldwin2803]

I didn't know that Cheddar got bought by The Onion.

[@MuddieRain]

Or Vice

[@AsiaMinor12]

@@MuddieRain if vice was still good, then the title of the video would have been "Urban gun battles on the grid system".

[@KP-ty9yl]

“You can’t make a ten minute guilt by association fallacy about a geometric pattern, it’s impossible!” Cheddar: hold my beer

[@meme-lu2yu]

Me: I hope they tell us how the grid is bad in a psychological sense and for traffic and having more curvy roads is better Cheddar: IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM

[@jonathangazit4739]

Curved roads suck. Straight lines are so much better

[@thorejohannsen1781]

@@jonathangazit4739 why?

[@jonathangazit4739]

@@thorejohannsen1781 something to do with better visibility, navivation ability, ultimately leading to lower accident rates and such

[@YagamiKou]

@@jonathangazit4739 thats false actually straight roads and grids are widely considered the most dangerous way to make roads curved roads seem to keep drivers more attentive and happy -people report actual enjoyment- which lowers rates of incident, weird cury suburbs with T intersections and roundabouts are the most safe road type as far as science is concerned _suburbs have no enjoyment, merely suffering_ but they are technically the safest

[@marchernandez4596]

@@YagamiKou they only have lower rates because they have lower traffic. What is true is the T intersectiin reduces statiscal possibilities of accidents. But in thr end what matters is how you manage traffic. Also, roundabouts solve most issues ant X intersection may have and are more efficient in X intersections than the T ones.

[@ifxthenwhy6202]

"Surprising Problems With The City Grid" Cities Skylines players: *laughs*

[@JonathanBondu]

Sim city players : cry.

[@dynomar11]

Kind of why I'm watching the vid 😂😂😂

[@stratecheese1302]

Surprised not surprised. We cities skylines are far more advance in city planning than these youtubers.

[@li_tsz_fung]

Choc-a-bloc grid

[@Floedekage]

I still play SimCity 4 with the NAM add-on. I've build a whole region with an hexagonal layout and it is by far the most efficient when not establishing any non-road public transport. I've never really gotten hooked on Skylines. I love all the features and the apperance, but I really hate that it doesn't fill out the landscape with buildings. Nothing bothers me more than a dense city center with huge open grass areas in between buildings. But I'm sure we can all agree that SimCity 5 is a waste of time.

[@marqueanthony2837]

High School argumentation called and wants its "premise in search of any random facts we can cobble together" back. Sensationalistic headline. Rubbish reporting.

[@kylelabriola4237]

The last thing I wanna do is come into a KZbin comments section and argue about city grids but I just wanna note [as those much smarter than me have] that laying out a city in a grid-like structure [maybe not as strictly as some cities have] is a vital aspect of making transportation more reliable and feasible for those with less income. Winding, curvy, cul-de-sac suburbs are not good for transportation nor good for the environment so I definitely wouldn't want a city to be more like that just in an attempt to retain the beauty of the landscape.

[@Joe--]

This comment is wonderfully enlightened compared to the video. Thank you! I was searching for something like it. Btw, do you think the isolation is affecting the staff at Cheddar to the point that the quality of their research/reasoning/ videos is going down?

[@NatureShy]

I prefer winding, curvy roads over straight grid patterns. Much less boring and a far more appealing aesthetic design. Plus, many cities built in hilly areas just cannot have a grid pattern. SF's grid pattern is a bit on the extreme, and many cities are built on even steeper terrain (2-5x steeper even). Connecting pathways, sidewalks, multi use paths, bike lanes, and transportation can all help to integrate winding street patterns together. Installing many interblock connecting pathways, stairs, and sidewalks pretty much negates the need to use a grid pattern to create walkability. Unfortunately, most modern suburban cities don't make use of connecting pathways (stairs in hilly areas) and many don't even have sidewalks.

[@seeitsayitdoggo]

The UK solved this problem by making cul-de-sacs off of multiple main roads. This way, you only have to walk between 3-5 mins to get to a bus stop or rail station.

[@polandball999]

My plan Lay out 1 mile squares Build grids or something else like natural grid inside the main grid Keep the grid as the main roads for traffic Use streets inside the grid for housing and commercial

[@alexbosworth1582]

Paul Zawkiewicz I believe Barcelona did something similar. Small grids within a bigger grid; small grid roads were pedestrian-only, big grid roads for cars

[@Gamepro2112]

Strange how the “grid” is named after the torture device gridiron while the footballs “gridiron” is named after a fireplace cooking device also named a gridiron.

[@bouteilledeau1463]

The grid named after the torture device is the most far-fetched thing I've ever heard from Cheddar. Wtf...

[@darkraiknb4279]

I cant fully tell which was named first but none the less the guy naming the street design most likely had no idea about the torture device and even so that is just the name that we use it was used in ancient greece wtf is wrong with chedder

[@kertas1991111]

@@darkraiknb4279 Presumably, both forms of grid iron and the city grid were not named for each other but for the shape they share, the grid. Grid Iron = Grid shaped contraption made of Iron. City Grid = Grid shaped layout of a City

[@darkraiknb4279]

@@kertas1991111 Good chance of it

[@tarcal87]

7:05 Was she serious? She took a 45-degree example, which is (indeed) the worst-case scenario. Yet omits the fact that some destinations lie on a dead straight, on the quickest path possible. And there is a range in between. What's the alternative? Curvy streets? Then you'll ALWAYS take an inefficient route, as you can never go straight to a destination, ever. And good luck managing that, finding your way around, and so on.

[@tarcal87]

​@@KateYagi Yeah I couldn't listen to that whine readout and conspiracy theories any more. If KZbin needs to prohibit something, it's subpar videos like this ;) You can't expect people to want to watch this to the end when suddenly conspiracy theories, repression and shit comes in. So she said hexagonal. Cool, so with two opposite points, you still have to go around, and you still never, ever have a chance to go dead straight (on the most efficient path). Not two blocks, let alone forever. Instead of dedicating your time to respond in a personal way, you could have thought this over.

[@NatureShy]

@@tarcal87 Some cities are built on very hilly terrain, and having a grid pattern would be absolutely impossible. Winding streets also has an aesthetic design advantage, which isn't appealing to the practically minded person. But there is value in the aesthetic beauty to them. The negative effects of winding streets can be mitigated by building interblock connecting pathways, standard curbside sidewalks, and stairs in hillier terrain. Unfortunately most cities don't employ this tactic.

[@martinkunev9911]

@@tarcal87 She says hexagonal, but at 9:25 she actually shows hexagons mixed with triangles. In theory this should work better than a grid.

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

@@tarcal87 guess what ... you can combine straight and curved roads ... it's often the most efficient way anyway to adapt to local circumstances like a river, hill or mountainside, historic structures or other systems like railroads. E.g. as the RR track makes a turn, why should the road go straight and then make a 90° hard turn instead of slowly turning and staying parallel to the railroad track?

[@Danbatio]

The city of La Plata in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, mix the grid with a well planned diagonals. The result is a fairly open city, easy and fast to travel across.

[@ScottGladstein]

I love your stuff normally but this had terrible audio quality and sounded like a middle school book report.

[@LemonExtras]

Scott Gladstein Maybe the producers are working from home and that everybody has decent equipment

[@kyrakia5507]

I had to speed it up just to stop myself from being bored to death by the way it was presented

[@kaitlinsullivan2327]

Journalists are making due with the resources they have right now. Chances are, this reporter/producer isn't usually tasked with voice over but had to do it herself in a closet given the current circumstances.

[@thelight3112]

@@kaitlinsullivan2327 It just wasn't edited properly. Modern smartphones have surprisingly good microphones. Even then, if the person doing the voice over sounds like they're being forced to read their english paper, the recording quality isn't going to make a ton of difference.

[@TomBruhh]

It was really slow and the actual content was shit.. highly disappointing

[@Krillinish2]

This is a good April Fools joke. Well done.

[@kingmantheman]

Was it am April fools joke?

[@dbclass4075]

@@kingmantheman Uploaded two days after the "holiday", 3rd of April 2020.

[@svis6888]

@@dbclass4075 for me it's on the 1st

[@neonsamurai4604]

Grids are efficient and safe. Imagine unironically defending culdesac and suburbs lol.

[@trigrrug]

This

[@gumbyshrimp2606]

It’s not defending those. It probably wants to bring back the chaotic web of paths that Native American villages had LOL

[@LaFacedera]

Grids look boring, I prefer my European city.

[@alexbosworth1582]

As an urban planning major, cul-de-sacs make me burn on the inside with rage

[@YagamiKou]

ok just saying but grids are scientifically known to be the *most dangerous* sort suburbs and culdesacs are the safest, because their shapes are actually designed for safety before anything else that is why they are so weird and complex, its part of the safety in a culdesac children can actually play safely in the road and thats pretty much all kids do here because their odds of being hit are basically nill the safest version of a grid, is where every intersection has a round-about as they are far safer and faster then lights but america doesnt have many which means america actually has the most dangerous roads possible we have tones of suburbs and culdesacs at most T intersections or culdesacs there is actually a rather large walkway, pointed at local stores so it is also faster to walk instead of drive in the city i could easliy go months without driving and i could go even longer without stopping at lights since my city doesnt have any lights -all round-abouts- sure, grids are efficient for space division and easy to navigate without any help but beyond that, city planners typically regard grids as poor design due to how dangerous they are and if they use lights, how slow they can be for no real reason its not like most first world countries moved to suburbs and culdesacs for no reason... its a mechanics math formula applied for safety vs efficiency

[@Boonek]

time to figure out how to make hexagonal blocks in city skylines

[@sdwucf]

Same, my cities are a merciless gridded mess

[@ifxthenwhy6202]

I hardly play the game anymore but that was my first thought too lol

[@Floedekage]

Did that in SimCity 4 with NAM add-on years ago. Good for road transport but you'll probably have to use a different layout for train lines.

[@Michael-ff1tw]

Hexagons are the bestagons

[@pierredufresne996]

We'll need hexagonal rooms and hexagonal furniture. Hexagonal sinks! Hexagonal ovens! But why not a Penrose tile city grid? No repetition! But why stop at two dimensions? We could live in 3D aperiodic quasi-crystal tilings. No, I don't think so.

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

Cul-de-sacs: 'co-occurred with racism' is not the same things as 'rooted in racism'. Nor does a grid system preclude having room for nature. Also, the Romans would have been jerks even if they didn't implement a grid system.

[@Stars-Mine]

They never said cul-de-sacs were rooted in racism, They said the housing regulation at the time was.

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

@@Stars-Mine They were talking about cul-de-sacs at the time. The implication was that cul-de-sacs were bad because of their 'association' with racism. I don't like cul-de-sacs, but they are no more racist than a racist book means that books are racist.

[@alexhutchinson4138]

@@qwertyuiopgarth Cul-de-sacs were originally created to reduce through-traffic in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods by less wealthy, less white people. There's definitely a least a little tinge of racism present.

[@RickyCatto]

Also, what is cul-de-sacs? "Bottom of the bags" makes no sense since there are lots of bottoms. It is culs-de-sac - "bottoms of the bag"

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

@@RickyCatto A cul-de-sac is a short dead-end street.

[@bennib91]

As an European I think most of our cities are grown over time giving them a lot of character. If you plan a city from scratch it's a different story though.

[@niklasmolen4753]

That is also why European cities are so chaotic and inefficient labyrinths. I know because I live in Europe.

[@lewisgarrison860]

This is a very good point. There's so much beauty in preserving the charm and character of historical locations. But if were talking about a city from scratch it very much is a different story.

[@fbyi2940]

@@niklasmolen4753 wanna trade? I live in US i don't like this car culture country

[@Aron-ru5zk]

Niklas Molén you’ve never driven in New York have you? I will take London or Paris any day of the week lmao.

[@JJT3001]

Europe doesnt have a lot of huge gride like cities, therefore Europe cant be racist.

[@Swoost]

"geometric oppression" lol

[@Ritaaw1]

There’s a lot of evidence of this. Don’t take it from me or Cheddar, you could look up other videos speaking about this issue.

[@christianwestling2019]

@@Ritaaw1 Yes, lets ask professor Marcus, son of the founder of the Frankfurter School. :D

[@jack_the_stripper]

Sounds like something Sponge Bob could accuse his creators of.

[@Akoalawithshades]

This is quite bad. It didn't provide a shread of evidence that a "grid" is bad. Just living in a city sucks ​ 八神こう Roundabouts can exist in a grid system, as many do outside of USA. Also, considering the suburb has far less cars, it's hard to justify it's safer, when the conditions are so different in a city. A suburb is not a city, it's "an outlying district of a city, especially a residential one." i.e away from the busy centre. It could be in a grid formation, the definition doesn't define it as not being so. They are saying the "grid" is bad, but all the evidence only supports that a "city" is bad. I don't necessary disagree with the premise but there is no evidence in the video for it.

[@Akoalawithshades]

@@KateYagi that's not evidence. The studies cited were just about living in a city. Hence my comment.

[@coopaloopvt]

But suburbs are equally bad due to cars

[@Akoalawithshades]

@@coopaloopvt What? One, the argument that a city is bad is the video's, two cities have ... cars.

[@YagamiKou]

grids are known to be more dangerous then suburbs that is the main reason other countries use them less today and having a roundabout at the intersection is the safer and faster then lights which is why alot of places are going with roundabouts too the video is crazy but there is legit reason not to use grids as americans have them

[@GuinessOriginal]

A Koala with Shades yes but Americans don't know how to use roundabouts. They're even worse at them than they are at manual gearboxes

[@vincenzorutigliano5435]

I expected something more like city beauty, not anti-imperialist speech :/ xD

[@abramslion1]

oi oh your grids are oppressing me. how dare you?

[@jossdeiboss]

The first part was good, before the title. And the last part about some of the curvy solution was good. The stuff in between about "colonization" and "power control" is simply - sorry for the brutality - shit. You can achieve the same standardization and contrallability with circles, triangles, exagons...but of course rectangular shape is the most efficient to build and save space. The fact that rectangles are monotonous is true and yeah, park make a huge difference (or the super blocks). Do we want to increase efficiency? You could build a city prevalentely rectangular but with some diagonals with bigger roads and a centre that is round. All the "triangles" generated by the intersection of squares and the diagonal can be filled by parks or other structures that don't need to be square. Finally, I would suggest these connections between diagonal and perpendicular system to be "one-way" to avoid >90° turning angles but only quick enter and exit of vehicles.

[@TheTrainmobile]

7:51 What? That doesn't even have to do with a grid layout. You can plan parks and green areas on the grid system. Central park in New York City is literally shown in this video.

[@collectmail3088]

Why the hell is sheeee Talking in this rythmmm As if this is actuallyyyy A very bad rap sonnnng

[@mstech-gamingandmore1827]

now that I've seen this I can no longer unhear it

[@scorpionblade4112]

Why grids are colonial in nature: Colonisers use grids. Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[@TheSpacemannspiff]

I live in a city that isn't based on the grid system. It caused some neighborhoods to be cut off from one another by terrible planning. Public transport in my city is an incredibly inefficient mess and is a large reason for why most commute by car.

[@Cooe.]

Why does EVERY FREAKING CHEDDAR PRESENTER have absolutely freaking GOD AWFUL UPTALK?!?!

[@Robert89349]

THANK YOU! I suppose this is the normal modern girl talk. This one is also vocal frying which makes me mad.

[@wudupfammm8555]

so.... city grids raycis ?

[@massimookissed1023]

Should've let MC Escher design city layouts.

[@sevegarza]

About time someone talk about this. I hate my phone, desk, and house I live in because they are made with straight lines. We all need to live in hobbit holes people!

[@Wewereneveryoung]

A more curvy world

[@LordProteus]

Engineer: "I have developed a hyper efficient new grid system which also solves stress problems!" Armchair Expert: "No this is all a dastardly plot by White Straight Men!" Engineer: "Sigh..."

[@krishnamaggarwal9167]

This was used by evil people. We must stop doing this. Dies from dehydration.

[@fbyi2940]

Grid sux ass Its only cool if you want your people to be obese and unhealthy

[@alexmoore9580]

@@fbyi2940 cul-de-sacs cause more obesity than grids. NYC people walk everywhere, suburban people drive everywhere, now you see who's healthier.

[@happilyham6769]

The grid system is very efficient and simple to navigate. Those are the two most important factors when designing a large city. The only issue I have is that I feel that in almost all cities, the blocks are too small. They should be like 3x larger with less streets for cars and more walkways for pedestrians and green areas.

[@stormysamreen7062]

Basically, they're talking about the US from start to finish while making it seem like it is a video for the whole world.

[@alissonlares2926]

That is how most US citizens see the world, for real. I had the chance to talk to many of them, and when I ask "where is Tunisia?" as example, they said "I dunno, is it in the south?"

[@oleksandraverchenko9920]

I have lived in 6 cities in my life and visited many more. Grid is perfect, and I would like to see it's more modern improved version.

[@Aphfaneire]

As a private sector planner in a country that does not do grids, I find this video fascinating and also slightly weak in that it does not fully explain the racist, colonial, globalisation or passive sunlight implications. Skirting the edge of a lot of issues without being firm in its conviction or statement of proven fact. One often overlooked fact of cities in North America is that most of the major cities in Canada are at the same latitude as Milan. During the brighter months, they get a lot more sun than northern parts of Western Europe or even several significant Asian cities. Ireland, by comparison, is further north than most of Canada's cities and has short winter days and long summer nights. Amazing long sunsets up to 1130 pm at the height of summer. The orientation of the grid to passive solar gain is an important consideration and organic urban forms, not necessarily suburbia, can be better suited to orientation buildings to make better use of this. It's far from perfect, and we have also adopted suburbia with no logical justification, but modern high-density developments are now required to be tested against measures such as the quantity of daylight and sunlight that a habitable room receives throughout the year, as well as the shadows a building casts. Permeability is more important for pedestrians and cyclists than a grid. Geography can not be flattened to man's will in every landscape. Respond to your environment, you can't control everything with geometry.

[@v4l3nt1nn]

she speaks like the voice of Danger Dolan XD

[@shrgn]

In my opinion the European street system is much better and more characteristic than the American grid system. Suburbs are better distributed and you don’t have to entirely rely on a car if you want to get somewhere.

[@Joe--]

Even if the grid system was replaced relying on vehicles would still be over half the country including those in the cities.

[@kuyaleinad4195]

It’s probably because European road systems follow the most used paths used. They generally follow the flow of trade. The grid system ruins this natural flow as you have to navigate the grid and some roads will just end up being busier than others. By following the flow of trade, you’re more likely to predict which roads need to be built bigger and maybe require extra space to add a roundabout or something. With grids, you’re often not able to add a roundabout due to not having enough space 🤷‍♂️

[@GoogelyeyesSaysHej]

monny287 “most of those cities” is just not true. American public transit is pretty dismal with only a few exceptions like NYC

[@dylanpamperin]

A lot of the information brought up in this video sound like a stretch at best. Sure, the grid system has its inherent flaws, but alternatives such as cul-de-sacs found themselves causing more problems than they were designed to solve. I'm certain the use of the grid system was never intended for oppression among other claims - it was likely implemented for the same reasons its continued to be used; for its efficiency, space optimization, the ease to buy and/or sell plots, etc..

[@JasonB808]

Teacher: I give this school project a D-

[@danderson8431]

Downtown San Antonio’s downtown is a mess of winding roads and one way streets. Apparently the city planners just paved over the old horse trails. It can be a pain in the butt to get around.

[@Tjp361]

You are very correct sir. Horrible for traffic. But perhaps a great layout for pedestrians.

[@danderson8431]

Tyler Powers .... that is in a way true. Our downtown being the way it is allows the river to flow through it easily, and the streets are all raised above the river, so what happens is that most of the Pedestrians stroll along the river. I absolutely get why it’s that way, and it’s one of those things that makes San Antonio special, but it really is tough on drivers.

[@wroughtironmgtow9558]

Yes,somebody gets our downtown. San Antonio never took advantage of it's flat terrain where downtown lies now.The grid system would have alleviated so much traffic.

[@omar7396]

@@wroughtironmgtow9558 have you been to Amsterdam or Central Copenhagen stroget, or many more beautiful city's that's old charming full of life that has super public transportation, safer for people, great for tourists. Instead of taking your car everywhere you can actually get to enjoy your city by foot. It's nothing wrong with a car centric road design, but don't think it's the only way out there. With good city planning there is less need for cars.

[@YellowToomNook]

Grids do show how the centralization of design by "technocrats" have dominated the city landscape, it's very efficient, and it's easy to expand and develop city limits.

[@BrendanPJames]

The quality of cheddar videos, both the motion graphics and content, has taken such a nose dive

[@DoomFinger511]

I feel like I learned just as much as I already knew before I watched this video

[@arcana_4081]

Implementing both grids and diagonals streets could perhaps be the best choice, with wider oblique avenues cutting through a gridded layout. Thus providing a quick way to travel around the city while keeping it simple and logical for the development of neighbourhoods.

[@Joe--]

Upvoting this

[@oliviastratton2169]

This comment is more logical than anything said in this video. Breaking up grids with diagonal streets solves most of the major problems grid layouts have (urban canyon effect on wind, exhausting steep streets in hilly areas, and inefficient 45° travel). Grids inter-cut with diagonal streets are the best city design in my opinion.

[@TheTrainmobile]

I feel that the evidence presented in this video doesn't connect well with the begining claims that were being made.

[@chadgunter4275]

just shy of saying "Every serial killer that has ever lived drank water"

[@ashleyzheng2244]

I live in New Zealand. In Auckland, there is very little planning. The only so called planning that exists are zoning laws. All the roads are winding and turning all over the place and everything is a mess. It’s very hard to find a nice area where the roads are straight and the plots of land are nice and square.

[@shadowrealmcitizen1149]

This video gave me Cornonavirus.

[@radudeATL]

I'm gonna blame this video on Coronavirus. There: I feel better now.

[@californialiberationmoveme180]

1. The video misses the traffic engineering flaw of the Grid: It routes traffic down streets meant to be quiet lanes, and allows drivers to try to use non-arterial streets as "short-cuts" when traffic congestion is high on main routes. Manhattan is the worse -- the Avenues move lots of vehicles, but the east-west streets are usually very narrow, and they get congested easily. 2. San Francisco shows that the Grid is not a problem in itself. Many of the most spectacular views in San Francisco would not exist if the streets of S.F. followed surface topography. In particular, the cable cars would not exist today if San Francisco did not have so many streets that seem to run straight up steep slopes. This is all because San Francisco was laid out with various grid patterns running from the diagonal avenue called Market Street.

[@AlessandroRodriguez]

3:00 I don't see the connection between Rome grid system and oppression, for one there is no overarching oppression system that engineer every aspect to oppress (with exception os socialism/comunism), second a cursory google search show that Rome itself wasn't much grid bases, chinese/Japanese/Aztec cities were more grid based or regular in that aspect. 3:56: As far as I remember, the land was cheap, it was given away!, because you have to convince the people to go there in the middle of actual nowhere and "your grid system" is only because they have a POOR SURVEY OF THE LAND and have to give simple instructions to the people settling there. 4:49: Still didn't explain why is bad, but trying to suggest that because is linked to colonization/centralization/globalization makes no sense, also I know a lot of left leaning people that will writhe in agony in that notion 5:49: Is bad because in one language represents one thing that was in the past? that the argument. 7:02: That US city planner of old doesn't understand aesthetic or ambiental concepts or even where the sun shines on the place, only makes them bad city planners for today standard point of view, that doesn't deem the grid system as bad. 7:08: From all the problem the city grid has, you have to choose the most irrelevant one, check the Wikipedia for Hitchens's sake. 10:00: So AGAIN, you say there nothing wrong with the grid planning method, but only the old city planner, where bad city planner in today standards, Imagine my shock . It seems that having so much in the production department, left nothing in the research department.

[@afgor1088]

imagine saying the grid is bad then cul-de-sacs, famously the single worst way to lay out a city, are an improvement

[@JamesRoth]

The surprising problem with hats. Colonists all wore hats. It's also worth noting "hat" is shorthand for "hate."

[@JarlFrank]

As a visitor, I find gridded cities harder to navigate than cities with irregular layout. Non-gridded city: "Ah, the place I'm looking for is close to that snake-shaped road, and I am at this weird squiggle of a road, and to get there I must follow this curved road." Gridded city: "Uuuh all the roads on this map look exactly the same, where am I????"

[@james5460]

"The answer to the grid is... a bigger grid, like in Barcelona, Spain." Well, I'm glad we worked that out!

[@pbldiaz28]

The script was well written, but try to not make it sound like you are reading straight off one please, it's the dryest delivery you could give...

[@ConernicusRex]

No it wasn’t.

[@denvervlogs1236]

I like the grid because it’s easy to navigate even for tourists, because no matter what in a grid you can go anywhere by just making 1 turn (usually) With other systems you even the hexagon one you may have to make 3 or 4 and it’s less tourist friendly.

[@denvervlogs1236]

Ofcourse Salt Lake City was designed for cars there are good grids like Chicago, Baltimore, NYC and bad grids like LA and Salt Lake City and Miami made for cars. I think it’s more so the intentions behind the city planners than the system itself

[@overthecounterbeanie]

The narrator probably also thinks that Page 2 of Google search is the "deep web".

[@JazzRastaf]

„geometric oppression”, gimme a break! 🤣

[@avikalmann592]

It does not matter how they started! What matters is how good or bad they are objectively now or will be in the future.

[@trevorclive]

"Evil people used grids therefore the problem is the grids." -Cheddar I couldn't make it through the whole video. The stupidity was more than I could bear. Great job, Cheddar.

[@leandrotami]

Exactly what I felt. I had to stop it, read the comments to verify if the world had indeed gone mad, then returned to the video but only for a while because my kidney just cannot handle so much stupidity all of the sudden

[@colchiccoduvapassa]

I was born and live in Milano (Italy) that is a circular town. All roads goes toward the center connected by circular roads around the center. But I've been in many grid towns. What I like more in grid towns is that squares are really places dedicated to stop and relax, places where people can meet. In towns like my one they become crossroads good for cars but with no space for people.

[@palmespilates1294]

Cheddar: Have you apologized for your city grid yet?

[@shubhamarutwar9396]

I think in Chadar office, job of most of employees is to find problem in everything exists and attach history and some scientific terms and make it sound legit

[@crystaldrano]

This is perhaps the weakest argument I’ve ever seen. It has got to be an April fools joke.

[@musqul8566]

Did seriously, for 10 minutes, tried to convince me that grid cities are evil.

[@TheBaconVanMan]

I will never get those ten and a half minutes back :(

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

My capital isn’t like a grid, my grandpa knew how to rebuild a city and make it amazing

[@jamesbcfc]

One thing I noticed when I visited NYC was how slow it was to walk anywhere. You were crossing a road full of traffic every two minutes which I would find infuriating if I lived there. Also, it looks like hell to drive in with so many traffic lights! I loved the Superblocks in Barcelona however, and it felt as though you could breathe and relax much, much more.

[@marchernandez4596]

Because NY is extremely populated and public transport in US cities is not very good, even in NY

[@matthewcollins4764]

I just wanted to see the negative traffic and living implications of living in a gridded city which I have seen Americans and Europeans be in disgust about but now I guess I know how the grid got cancelled by Cheddar.

[@504ever4]

One of the biggest problems of the grid system that you didn't even mention is crime. When there is a grid system, is it easier for a criminal to run away and escape because they have so many routes that they could use to get away. People prefer the cul-de-sac, one-entrance neighborhoods due to safety concerns (or as the narrator put it, racism smh). You can take my home state of Louisiana as an example. New Orleans was built on a grid, and bars and businesses are right next to homes and neighborhoods, which make it quite easy for a robber or killer to commit a crime then escape easily. When Baton Rouge was designed, they wanted to combat that by building a city not on a grid (for the most part) with one-entrance neighborhoods and strict zoning laws. Baton Rouge shows the downside of this approach: bad traffic, long travel times to many places, and overall inaccessibility.

[@petepector]

People who use upspeak/high rising terminal/valleyspeak should not be allowed to narrate anything. This annoying speech pattern makes the video unwatchable.

[@kenster8270]

She does speak like an airhead, but least she's not a vocal fryer. In any case, I had to stop watching after 2 minutes.

[@ColtraneTaylor]

@@kenster8270 She does that too! It's in there.

[@ColtraneTaylor]

This comment should be pinned. It's the most relevant comment here.

[@BvousBrainSystems]

Glad I kept watching to the end. The association between the grid and authoritarianism/colonialism seemed to me a tenuous philosophical link that wouldn't be worth calling a "problem", but better points were made later in the video. Watch the whole thing before downvoting people, it's not as cringe as the first minutes make it look

[@AlessandroRodriguez]

ok ok I will try, I was 3 minutes in and almost quitting in this nonsense.

[@chronoflect]

Just because the last few minutes are relevant doesn't justify the pointless drivel you have to watch to get to it.

[@Joe--]

The video still deserves a downvote even after watching the whole thing... Their research & reasoning has faltered greatly -let alone the quality of the video; perhaps due to the prolonged isolation?

[@BvousBrainSystems]

@@chronoflect There's definitely a writing issue, what they put at the beginning of the video should have been final thoughts. Still, just because there's this structure issue or some dubious claims doesn't make the whole video worthless.

[@shero113]

I almost gave up (that awful voice!) but watched to the end, and then decided that it's truly awful, with little to sway me otherwise.

[@farhansiddiqui1280]

The biggest problem with a grid like Manhattan is that you have to stop every thirty seconds at a bloody traffic light.

[@chrischampagne9469]

"She concludes that the grid is not inherently evil, but it's strong historical association with colonization, centralization, and globalization, gives pause for thought." And the thought should probably be that this is an example of when correlation does not equal causation. Throughout history the conquerors have tended to be the civilizations with more advanced weapons and economic production. That all correlates with generally more advanced technology, including more advanced urban planning. Thus you will see a similar correlation with a large range of different technologies.

[@ArchOfWinter]

My most ideal city plan would be a miniaturized/compartmentalized hybrid approach to the grid and super block while following the natural landscape. Each neighborhood/borough/ward are gridded, but overall, the entire city conforms to the natural landscape. This also helps with distinguishing different neighborhood from another. Major roads follows the hills or body of water, and each block builds out from that, so not every block is equally sized or a square. The only neighborhood that should remain a strict square/rectangular grid should be where city hall, major monument, or nation's capital, but the blocks away from those area should conform back with the landscape. Example: Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Venice, Monaco, Copenhagen.

[@Joe--]

Agreed

[@arxvphoto809]

I love the grid.

[@Floedekage]

And that's okay too. 💚

[@eddielopez2373]

This video should be called “the problem with using emotional reasoning to understand history and how it applies to current events.”

[@arthursoares610]

Expectation: A video about traffic inefficiency on grid system. Reality: Grid is a Roman evil invention

[@fun2fun2fun]

Grid city planning was first used in INDUS valley civilization... Around 5000 years ago...

[@theinternetsavedmylife]

I wonder who they were discriminating against back then

[@alexanderpozdnyakov3189]

The corona pandemic could have begun, spread and ended during each of the looooooong pauses between each sentence...

[@martinkunev9911]

You can watch on 1.25 speed. Really useful for most videos.

[@KuraIthys]

I find grids hard to navigate, especially when there are tall buildings everywhere, because you lose any sense of uniqueness. Everything looks like everything else. You struggle to tell where you are, or where you should be, because everything looks more or less the same. Granted you are less likely to end up in a dead end, but... It makes it hard to navigate intuitively. Instead you have to resort to street names and maps, and other factors that have relatively little to do with what's actually physically present in a city...

[@mechailreydon3784]

You see kids, this is why you don’t start writing your essay the night before it’s due.

[@DanielFranco24]

Only in city builder games (like SimCity or Cities Skylines) the grid is the best layout because it takes advantage of much space as possible to build, but this is because buildings always grow in square lots, unlike real life where buildings can grow in any space, adapting to the limits of the lot (curves, close angles, roundabouts, etc)

[@oliviastratton2169]

Square buildings are the cheapest to build in real life, though. So square lots are the best way to maximize development in real cities too.

[@ih8thinkingofnames1]

This intern needs to be let go

[@ScooterinAB]

I do like the superblock idea. I had an idea similar to this many years ago, where existing residential streets could be closed and converted into park space so people could actually go outside and see their neighbours, with local traffic being diverted through allies. Basically reverse backyards with a large greenbelt on each block. But the idea of more densified urban spaces that have a lot of amenities in them is interesting.

[@LogicAndReason2025]

Hopefully we can someday put all the roads all underground. But the superblock is a good start.

[@LukewarmFoxxo]

@@LogicAndReason2025 eh, I'd say we just get rid of the car altogether in cities (apart from special cases like emergency services or whatever).

[@Agent-Blaze]

People in the 1900s: I predict we'll have flying cars in 2021 People in 2021: Grids are racist!!!!!

[@ryanhatesgirls]

Probably the worst narrator on KZbin

[@sanbetski]

ryanhatesgirls exagerated much? Calm your balls down

[@kaitlinsullivan2327]

That's just mean. Journalists right now are having to play double-duty and make due with what they have and take on roles that they normally would not. People have to go through training to get good at voice over.

[@ryanhatesgirls]

@@sanbetski balls are calm. Calm your volva

[@ryanhatesgirls]

@@kaitlinsullivan2327 oh, you consider cheddar journalism? That's too bad

[@okikeure7422]

Her voice is so monotonous and she keeps saying "take the".

[@RabbiSamGaming]

Everyone freaking out doesnt realize this is an april fools joke

[@markw.schumann297]

You know, you could have taken ten minutes to summarize Dr. Grant's paper, which probably made a stronger and more interesting point than "the Romans were oppressors and they liked grids, so grids are bad."

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

7:05 Actually, I think cul-de-sacs are harder and longer to travel on and navigate because of dead ends and getting lost more. 7:14 Getting lost in a non-grid city makes me more anxious then it looking monotonous. Beautiful and diverse looking buildings, more nature, walkability, bikeability, less cars, more mixed zoning would suffice, are more important, and are lacking.