(I'd swear I've written this somewhere before, but I see no evidence of it anywhere.)

I've talked before about superblocks. There's the Barcelona model, of 3x3 blocks with one way loops so cars legally can't go through. (Disadvantage: may be complicated to scale.) I've privately imagined various other configurations, like putting diagonal diverters in so that cars have two-way access but physically can't go through the area, dividing the superblock into four half-diamond quadrants. (Possible disadvantage, access requires entering from the correct side.) ( Read more... )