In a letter the LJS titled "Neighborhood trapped", Gary Sloniker complains about poor access to his neighborhood near 84th and Vine. He laments that Vine Street ends at 84th, eliminating what could have been a handy exit point for the neighborhood to the east.
I don't know much about the specifics of Mr. Sloniker's neighborhood's traffic dynamics, but I do agree with him that Vine Street should not have been cut off at 84th. The same is true for several other streets around town, including South Street (ends at 84th) and 48th Street (ends at Old Cheney). These "half-section" roads help support the grid of streets that lie on section lines, spaced approximately one mile apart. The fewer through roads there are, the more we have to rely on personal automobiles to get around and the more difficult it is to access Point B from Point A. Conversely, with more through roads, you have more options for getting from Point A to Point B, both in terms of route and mode.
It's possible to take that logic too far, of course. An entire city laid out on a city block grid would be a traffic nightmare. Sure, you'd have a seemingly limitless number of options for getting places, but you'd also have to stop nearly every block. What a pain!
I have always liked the notion of streets laid out more or less on a half-mile, or perhaps a quarter-mile, grid. It increases the number of route options available to people, which decreases traffic pressure on any one route. It also provides more readily-available alternate routes if a particular route is closed or becomes clogged.
I could go on (and on and on), but I'll cut myself off and simply say that I wish Lincoln hadn't decided as it grew to rely solely on streets on the mile, eliminating those on the half-mile on the city's edge. Mr. Sloniker's complaint is but one of many reasons why I like streets like Vine, 33rd, and South.
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