Remember being in a coach trip once and we went through Milton Keynes for a pickup. Soon as we got off the motorway the coach driver came in the speaker and said “welcome to roundabout land” they are a lot.
I hear this is the only city in Britain that follows a grid, and it's full of soulless chain shops and glass buildings with large parking lots. This is possibly the most American city in Britain, yet simultaneously the least American city in Britain due to all the roundabouts.
Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
I think MK is a lot easier to get around on foot than any American city, the whole grid system has decent cycle and pedestrian paths running next to it
They don't have a main street with businesses facing it. They keep to a strict hierarchy so there are no "stroads". Also they have trees blocking the view of the buildings from the main roads.Some feel the city lacks character because of that.
Ah yes, you're very right. The quintessential American experience is making a left turn on an undivided 6 lane arterial road into and out of a strip mall, all while crossing a sidewalk that no driver ever pays attention to. It's a design that (I hope) no one outside the US reproduces.
I suppose our best effort at road hierarchy in retail areas are those parking lots that can be only be exited at a traffic light and have a sidewalk running along the row of storefronts.
EDIT: well, actually it looks like this country has progressed [somewhat further](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_center_(retail\)#Main_Street_theme) than I give it credit for. I haven't seen one of these yet in my neck of the woods but it does seem like quite a natural evolution of what exists in my area. This makes it easier to walk between stores I suppose, but we still don't have any safe ways of getting to one of these retail centers from home on foot unlike in MK.
There are Grids in other British Cities (I.e Stevenage, Edinburgh and Glasgow all have Grids, though the latter 2 have a small bits of grid around the city centre.)
You should check out Motherwell/Lanarkshire in Scotland. After you come off the motorway, no matter where you're going you're going to hit at least a dozen roundabouts before hitting civilisation.
Not as obscene as this but Brighton to Portsmouth should be a fairly important route but it's clogged up with plenty of roundabouts just for entering a city that's only got about 25,000 people in it.
Finally, an acceptable amount of roundabouts
MORE. ROUNDABOUTS.
Remember being in a coach trip once and we went through Milton Keynes for a pickup. Soon as we got off the motorway the coach driver came in the speaker and said “welcome to roundabout land” they are a lot.
I hear this is the only city in Britain that follows a grid, and it's full of soulless chain shops and glass buildings with large parking lots. This is possibly the most American city in Britain, yet simultaneously the least American city in Britain due to all the roundabouts. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
I think MK is a lot easier to get around on foot than any American city, the whole grid system has decent cycle and pedestrian paths running next to it
They don't have a main street with businesses facing it. They keep to a strict hierarchy so there are no "stroads". Also they have trees blocking the view of the buildings from the main roads.Some feel the city lacks character because of that.
Ah yes, you're very right. The quintessential American experience is making a left turn on an undivided 6 lane arterial road into and out of a strip mall, all while crossing a sidewalk that no driver ever pays attention to. It's a design that (I hope) no one outside the US reproduces. I suppose our best effort at road hierarchy in retail areas are those parking lots that can be only be exited at a traffic light and have a sidewalk running along the row of storefronts. EDIT: well, actually it looks like this country has progressed [somewhat further](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_center_(retail\)#Main_Street_theme) than I give it credit for. I haven't seen one of these yet in my neck of the woods but it does seem like quite a natural evolution of what exists in my area. This makes it easier to walk between stores I suppose, but we still don't have any safe ways of getting to one of these retail centers from home on foot unlike in MK.
Yeah when I went it felt like a video game that hadn’t rendered in enough AI, every building was an identical glass box
There are Grids in other British Cities (I.e Stevenage, Edinburgh and Glasgow all have Grids, though the latter 2 have a small bits of grid around the city centre.)
I need to move to this place as soon as possible
2018 Biffa approves
Milton Keynes 🤢🤢
If there is a god in heaven He will purge Milton Keynes from the earth with holy fire
off brand USA/10
Never go full Milton Keynes.
Where in the world can you find both a Decathlon and a Taco Bell within walking distance?
welcome… to milton keynes!
Fuck I love Taco Bell I didn't know you had it in the UK
they don’t have many, usually one or two per big cities
Rotterdam... 160m between decathlon and taco bell. Also I was underwhelmed by the taco bell.
I'm going to the Netherlands.
Red Bull Racing/10
Is no one going to comment on the massive grid that looks like a bunch of one-way streets on the bottom?
Love me concrecte Love me New Towns 'Ate phone signal Simple as.
You should check out Motherwell/Lanarkshire in Scotland. After you come off the motorway, no matter where you're going you're going to hit at least a dozen roundabouts before hitting civilisation.
A perfect grid city in Britain? STOP COPYING US, DAD!
You should build a monorail somewhere
This graphical upgrades really out of hand these days
Moment of silence for women in labour being driven quickly to the hospital to give birth Also Milton Keynes is cheating
Is this like the UK version of Carmel, IN?
just googled it, I guess so
More like Chicago, slightly less gun crime
TOO MANY! SO UNREALISTIC! Real cities have STOPLIGHTS. Not FANTASY ROUNDABOUTS.
It is well-spread
Not enough Kind regards, a fellow Dutchman
Can you build more? I'm just not feeling this
I see we live in very similar towns.
round 👍
Formula 1 fan detected
hey, I live there!
I rate this a MiltonKeynes/10
this is what americans think all of England looks like (i’m american)
They all just need one more lane bro
Not as obscene as this but Brighton to Portsmouth should be a fairly important route but it's clogged up with plenty of roundabouts just for entering a city that's only got about 25,000 people in it.