Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by estebank 2903 days ago
The narrowest street in San Francisco is roughly a regular European street. This[1] is par for the course on most European cities, while San Francisco has very few streets narrower than this[2] (and the average is probably wider, if you look anywhere westwards of Park Presidio where theoretically two way streets are wide enough for traffic to continue flowing in both direction even with double parked trucks.

I would also point out that I'd prefer narrower streets in SF[3].

[1]: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-narrow-san-francisco-...

[2]: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7998615,-122.4141133,3a,75y,...

[3]: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/08/san-francisco...

1 comments

Just as a side point... A lot of architects like this idea from an aesthetic or architectural-sociological reasons.

Living in em.. these as houses don't give you a lot of privacy. People walk by, less than a meter from where you're sitting. They sometimes stop to look at your TV.

You get used to it, but it's not the kind of thing people go looking for on purpose.

Put stores or offices in the ground floor. Or have a raised ground floor.
Or just embrace it, like the Dutch do[0].

[0]: https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2010/11/24/no-8-not-owning-...

I like the half basements, but they have their issues: http://copenhagenbydesign.com/blog/2015/5/21/half-up-and-hal...