Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Chicago and Manhattan were the easiest for me. Boston was annoying cause I had to keep looking at a map. With Chicago and NYC I can just plot it all out in my head using street numbers in Manhattan or addresses in Chicago (every 8 blocks is one mile, every 4 blocks is a main street with a bus line basically) and never have to look at a map if I know the address of where I'm going.
Didn't have issues in the other places, but not sure which one is the "worst". Brooklyn/Queens were a little goofy cause the street names don't line up exactly since there are a ton of grids that kinds flip flop all over. And of course the area is just HUGE.
Boston should definitely be on this poll; it certainly was not a city that was designed with the car in mind, although that's what helps to contribute to its charm.
Washington, DC (ironically) has a pretty foreign layout to most Americans, but once you understand the quadrant system and cross-secting avenues, it actually isn't terribly hard.
Although Philadelphia is one of the first grid-planned cities, it can be pretty unnerving to drive in for its many very narrow, one-way streets, which, like Boston, also were not designed with the car in mind.
Boston. It's like the drunk guy who was laying out the streets dropped a plate of spaghetti on the floor and copied the design. That being said it is one of my favorite larger cities to visit and drive around in. God only knows where you may end up if you make what seems to be a logical turn; and the entire city is loaded with history so you may not end up where you wanted to be, but there is probably a cool spot to see where you did ended up.
Atlanta would be a close second for me personally... without the interesting history to make up for the screwed up street layout.
You should visit Pittsburgh. There are a few sections with a reasonable numbering system, mainly the Allegheny increasing as you go upstream from the junction from the Ohio, but in only works within a few blocks from the river in most cases. On the southside, the streets increase upstream from the Monongahela, but only work for several blocks from the river. In the Golden Triangle (downtown), you have numbered avenues parelleling the Monongahela from first to seventh (second avenue is part of the Boulevard of the Allies downtown), but most are short and a few miles eastward, Fifth avenue is a couple miles north of Second avenue! What you will find are disorganized grids, sudden curves, and lots of intersections at odd angles. Add the hills, tunnels, bridges, and winding streets, you'll see why it helps taking a GPS or map when visiting Pittsburgh.
None of the above. Atlanta has them all beat when it comes to a confusing and just plain awful street layout. Atlanta should have also probably been a bit more creative when naming streets, instead of having a million different streets called Peachtree. Charlotte is similarly bad, but at least it doesn't have a bunch of streets with the same name. Boston can be confusing to drive around, but it's makes up for it a bit by being one of the easiest cities to navigate by foot or public transportation.
Of the cities listed, I'd probably say LA as there are some wacky streets going in all directions in the hills. For the most part though, LA is very easy to navigate. NY, Chicago, SF, Houston, Dallas, and Miami are all some of the easier big cities in American to navigate as well.
The first city to come to mind before i even opened this thread was Boston.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.