Cities/Metro Areas With The Best-Looking Map Layout (compare, Los Angeles, Chicago)

[MrSykes]

I've always been a big fan of city/metro area maps. With every new city I would visit I'd always make it a point to pick up a map to add to my existing collection. Highway/street layout, park/attraction locations, geographic features and rail lines are just a few of the pictorial elements that contribute to a particular layout's aesthetic appeal. If I had to choose my top 3 metro area layouts, I'd go with:

1. Los Angeles
2. Chicagoland
3. Houston/Galveston

[Dub King]

Whatever type of drugs are working for you, let me now what they are. I want to look at a map of a metro area and see the 'aesthetic appeal' as well. One chunk of satellite view I love is Newark Airport: new - Google Maps

[vertigo5110]

Well, I've never been to Chicago but whenever I look at maps of other cities I always tend to compare them to Houston. I mean, I know Houston like the back of my hand...it's my home. That said, I've always felt that Houston's layout makes so much sense! It's so easy. It's literally like a giant bull's-eye with the 45/59 and I-10 making the cross hairs and 610 and the Beltway making the rings!

[Neworleansisprettygood]

Yeah, I was going to say Houston as well.

Dub- have you tried this stuff called marijuana? I liked maps as a kid, and there was probably some in my bloodstream at birth.

[coolguy2222]

I think the obvious choice would be Houston, the layout is almost perfect. Almost makes it feel like the generic model for other cities to replicate. But other than that I love the way Chicago is laid out.

[Dub King]

D.C. - the diagonals beat Houston's grid

[Alacran]

Chicago is the home to the grid system.
It is perfect.

[coolguy2222]

What I don't get is how European cities can be laid out so terribly. It's like they laid the streets out after everything was built.

[1208]

Originally Posted by Neworleansisprettygood

Yeah, I was going to say Houston as well.

Dub- have you tried this stuff called marijuana? I liked maps as a kid, and there was probably some in my bloodstream at birth.

Yeah man if you ever want to make looking at a map interesting, that'd be the way to go.

What I don't get is how European cities can be laid out so terribly. It's like they laid the streets out after everything was built.

That might be actually how it happened, most of those cities have been around for hundreds or thousands of years.

[Trimac20]

I can look at the map of Greater Los Angeles all day, there are so many diverse cities and neighbourhoods and a diverse geography. Most US cities just seem sort of bland and anonymous, with generic sounding streets named by number and areas named after presidents or something.