Abstract
Urban street networks take many forms, from the circular streets in Black Rock City (which is built and removed every year as part of the Burning Man Festival) to the streets and avenues in the Manhattan grid. This paper compares the traits of cities with different street networks using the tools of urban economics. When both cities have commuting arteries of the same length, cities with circular streets have higher population densities unless access to these arteries is expensive and the number of arteries is large. Cities with arteries set at a 45o angle to the grid have smaller population densities under all circumstances.
Highlights
Every year tens of thousands of people gather in the Nevada desert for the countercultural Burning Man Festival
This festival may appear to be a far cry from urban economics, but the organizers of this festival design and build an entire city, called Black Rock City
This paper uses the design of Black Rock City, which has circular streets, as a starting point to explore, from an economist’s point of view, the impact of street network design on a city’s broad characteristics
Summary
This festival may appear to be a far cry from urban economics, but the organizers of this festival design and build an entire city, called Black Rock City. They draw a map of the city’s street network and reproduce this map on the desert itself. This paper compares the area, population, and population density of cities with different street networks, including circles and grids with and without commuting arteries This analysis is conducted through the lens of urban economics based on mathematical models of urban residential structure.
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