MAPQUEST names Houston hardest to navagate!

[DJ V Lawrence]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/3871490.html

I guess I never thought of how difficult it was to navagate around Houston 'til I read this article. I can't think of anything that can be done about it now, but according to the article...

From the Chronicle:

Old cities such as New York were built on a grid system, explained Bob Abbott, vice president of production at Key Map.

But newer cities like Houston, with its hundreds of master-planned communities, are increasingly adding confusingly winding roads to create a sense of privacy.

Add to that quick growth, new streets and roads that change names multiple times, and Houston becomes harder to get around in than cities with geographically fixed borders.

Houston's grid is jumbled and inconsistent. In the Heights, streets are numbered, but without reason numbers turn to letters. In downtown, street names change without clear definition. Gray and Alabama turn into West Gray and West Alabama. East Gray is nowhere to be found.

Or try to explain why Elgin turns into Westheimer or the difference between the Southwest Freeway and U.S. 59, or the Gulf Freeway and Interstate 45.

Just curious, why do so many streets in Houston change their names in an area, like Westheimer/Elgin, etc.?

[musicman]

Just curious, why do so many streets in Houston change their names in an area, like Westheimer/Elgin, etc.?

Some of it has to do with who developed certain areas. Developers name streets when projects are submitted to the City. When one area then connects another area, sometimes this results in a name change.

[Jeebus]

Just curious, why do so many streets in Houston change their names in an area, like Westheimer/Elgin, etc.?

Annexation. If the city annexes a new neighborhood with a "Richmond Ave", that's not the actual Richmond Ave., they have to change the name.

[wendyps]

I like it! It is our own form of Darwinism...

Edited May 18, 2006 by wendyps

[houstonfella]

The streets that change names are confusing. But as far as being harder to navigate than in D.C. No way.

[Trophy Property]

I like it! It is our own form of Darwinism...

I feel like I have a great grasp of the city and many of the suburbs. Trust me though it was not learned overnight. I have been in Real Estate for 12 years here in Houston and I used to study the key map and try and understand the logic (which I discovered there was none) behind the roads. I learned NYC in about 12 minutes while starring at a map in a cab into the city for my first time. I have never looked at a map again.

But I agree, I have a sense of pride about understanding the system here. I have friends who have lived here all there life and are clueless about the city. They know the area around where they live, but can't put it together for the whole city.

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

I dont think its hard to navigate at all. You should try Pittsburgh.....complete insanity!!!!

[dbigtex56]

While it's true that much of Manhattan is easily navigated, don't forget that trainwreck of streets in the West Village, where one finds Little West 12th intersecting with 23rd(?) and other seemingly impossible configurations, all built on geometry that would make Euclid weep.

An example in Houston would be that ragged edge where the downtown street pattern meets the true east-west grid of The Montrose. Even people who have lived here for years find it easy to get turned around in those oddly angled blocks.

[dp2]

"Gray and Alabama turn into West Gray and West Alabama."

Yes, I can see how such a complex puzzle would totally dumbfound media members.

"Tonight on your News at 10, how your city's street names may be increasing your danger and could get your children killed!"

Edited May 18, 2006 by dp2

[jm1fd]

Let's see if we can find the most name changing street in the Houston area....I nominate W 43rd...according to Google Maps, from east to west it is....

Green River Dr

Ley Rd

E Crosstimbers

Ernie

E Crosstimbers

Crosstimbers

W Crosstimbers

W 43rd

Clay Rd

Edited May 18, 2006 by jm1fd

[skwatra]

yeah, and its really difficult for all of our freeways to have numbers and a local name. no cities do that...

[sevfiv]

my favorite name changes are (depending on which way you curve):

bellaire - west holcombe - holcombe - old spanish trail - south wayside - wayside - north wayside

bellaire - west holcombe - holcombe - old spanish trail - wheeler - telephone - north main - south main - telephone - north gordon - south gordon, then official hwy 35

Edited May 18, 2006 by sevfiv

[Trophy Property]

While it's true that much of Manhattan is easily navigated, don't forget that trainwreck of streets in the West Village, where one finds Little West 12th intersecting with 23rd(?) and other seemingly impossible configurations, all built on geometry that would make Euclid weep.

Too True. It is very easy to get lost in that part of Manhatten. Nothing like Cab Drivers getting lost over there.

[skwatra]

A lot of other cities do that. New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago all do, as do many other cities. Look at an atlas.

i was being sarcastic. i don't mind having numbers and name designations.

what really gets me is when cities have multiple number designations for the same road - LA, Austin (81-290-I35, though everyone calls it 35 the maps don't always), and St Louis (I-64 and US 40 are the same in the city, and locals don't even know what I-64 is when you ask) come to mind.

I understand the cases i listed are when highways merge in the city, but its annoying when people and maps aren't consistent in what they call it.

[texas911]

Houston is super easy to navigate because of our freeway system.

Basically Houston is a classical radial city. If you think of it that way, its not so hard.

[HeightsGuy]

So wrong.

I find Houston one of the easiest large cities in the US to navigate. OK, so it might be hard for a newcomer to find a small street in the Woodlands that didn't exist two years ago, but Houston as a whole is very easy to get around and it's greatest strength is the ability to easily correct navigation mistakes. Try missing a freeway exit in Boston, it'll take you a half hour to get back to where you need to be. In Houston, it's as easy as taking the next exit and u-turning onto the feeder road. Try finding a feeder road in most east coast cities. (not that I'm a fan of feeders, I'm not by a longshot, but I'll admit they do make driving easier)

[Orikal]

Try missing a freeway exit in Boston, it'll take you a half hour to get back to where you need to be. In Houston, it's as easy as taking the next exit and u-turning onto the feeder road.

I was just going to mention Boston. And not just freeway exits. Any part, with the exception of major thoroughfares like Mass Ave and Storrow Dr, are just mind boggling. Took me a while to get used to driving there.

[desirous]

Bah, that article is BS.

Houston has the most intuitive freeway network of any city I have ever visited; not only that, but the freeway design itself is intuitive. In Boston, it was easier to find a new job than an entrance ramp.

Edited May 19, 2006 by desirous

[DJ V Lawrence]

I dont think its hard to navigate at all. You should try Pittsburgh.....complete insanity!!!!

Can you imagine being a first-time tourist to Houston with a rent-a-car and a place to go?

[skwatra]

Can you imagine being a first-time tourist to Houston with a rent-a-car and a place to go?

yeah, i could. and it would be easy relative to other cities. our freeways are so easy to navigate its not hard to get anywhere. yeah, some of the surface streets can be confusing, but you'll find that everywhere, and worst case you'll be driving around for a few minutes trying to figure it out.

going to the theatre district? get on 45, exit "Theatre District" and you're there. going to the Zoo/Hermann Park/Museum District? Get on 288 exit Binz or MacGregor and follow signs (a couple of turns). Going to Reliant? get on 610, if you miss it you shouldn't be renting a car.

getting back on the freeway can be tricky sometimes, but i still think we're alright here.

i'm not saying we're the easiest to navigate, but we're far from the most difficult.

[desirous]

Getting back on the freeway is by far the easiest to do in Houston: drive toward the general direction of a freeway, turn onto the feeder road, and voila, there's a ramp!

[skwatra]

not always. i think that's part of the problem, since i've come to expect that's the case (feeder with ramp).

that doesn't work downtown, or on 59/288 south of downtown. it's also a problem near most of the 610 interchanges, its not always easy to find a ramp if you don't know where you're going.

it can be tricky, but once you know it there's no problem. that's part of the charm, you don't want your roads to be too vanilla either.

[TJones]

Just curious, why do so many streets in Houston change their names in an area, like Westheimer/Elgin, etc.?

Yeah all the roads mentioned only changed about 50 years ago. It is not like it happen last week.

Edited May 19, 2006 by TJones

[ssullivan]

I really have never found Houston hard to navigate, but then, friends tell me I have an incredible sense of direction. And to be honest, I rarely get lost anyplace, despite being in a different city every week. But for a visitor who has never been here before, I could see some confusion -- but it certainly should not be worse than other cities, like the aforementioned Boston. And we do have one of the easiest freeway systems to navigate. It might be intimidating to people from other places because our freeways do tend to be much bigger than other what you find in other cities.

And I'm so sick of the media rehashing the "US 59 is also the Southwest Freeway/Eastex Freeway" crap every six months. Get over it! Every city in this country is the same way -- freeways have local names used for address purposes, and numbers assigned by the state and federal government because they are part of a national system of highways. It's the same thing in even the smallest of towns. Nobody in my hometown seems confused by the fact that US 69 is also locally known as Magnolia St. It seems like it's only people who work for the Houston Chronicle and local TV stations who seem to have a problem with this. My suggestion for reporters who find this concept confusing -- go find a job in a town/city where this is not the case and a freeway like I-10 is known only as "Interstate 10." And then don't complain that you're unemployed because you could not find a place to work where this existed.

[JasonDFW]

I dont think its hard to navigate at all. You should try Pittsburgh.....complete insanity!!!!

Pittsburgh makes any Texas city look like a piece of cake. You can't even use a map in Pittsburgh because you have no idea if the two streets cross. You could be high on the side of a cliff looking down at the road you wanted to connect to.

Also, the townships mess everything up. Everyone goes by townships but many maps don't even bother putting them on. Local signs tend to be only for cities so that doesn't help. Then many places have pittsburgh addresses but for whatever reason they're not in Pittsburgh. This makes even using a GPS a pain unless your GPS can search for addresses without cities like so do. In Houston or Dallas I can use a GPS to find anything perfectly, but in Pittsburgh there are so many streets clumped next to each other that often the GPS can't react fast enough. Texas cities tend to be laid out on a grid and this solves most of those problems but you can't have a grid when everyone lives on the side of a hill.

Jason

Edited May 19, 2006 by JasonDFW

[Subdude]

This is pretty misleading. Their methodology, such as it were, was to poll city residents on how often they got lost in their home towns. What they're really measuring, then, is the relative number of people who don't know their way around. Quite a different thing from saying that the city is hard to navigate.

[brijonmang]

Well so is the title of "fattest city..." seeing as its based on the number of fast food restaurants and such versus gyms and parks and things.

[skwatra]

that makes more sense (for the ranking). i would put LA and Houston up there because how big they are how far out people live. if you're from one part of the city, and don't get to other parts often there are more chances of getting lost.

like subdude said, it shouldn't be called hard to navigate.

[Spencer Street]

yeah, trust me, houston, or any american cities for that matter, is not hard to navigate, at all. i was amazed that every single street has a name...

[Trophy Property]

that makes more sense (for the ranking). i would put LA and Houston up there because how big they are how far out people live. if you're from one part of the city, and don't get to other parts often there are more chances of getting lost.

like subdude said, it shouldn't be called hard to navigate.

I tend to agree. There is nothing more painful than trying to give a native Katy resident (or Woodlands, Sugarland, etc) directions to an out of the way restuarant in town. Typically the cell phone better be on, because these people get lost very very easily.