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- The Fused Grid represents the synthesis of two traditional North American approaches to residential neighborhood planning: the traditional, nineteenth-century grid plan, and the curvilinear pattern of looped streets and culs-de-sac of modern suburbia. . This synthesis of inherited, common traditions is accomplished through the application of two practical means: a rectilinear, orthogonal geometry, a key characteristic of the grid, and the use of two street types that have generally been associated with curvilinear geometry. The grid’s second essential characteristic, connectivity, is recaptured through a third element that completes the “system” – pedestrians-only connectors between streets, which usually accommodate all movement modes. These connectors are typically routed through open spaces that occupy central points in a neighbourhood cell. Thus the neighbourhood street network comprises a mixture of streets; some pedestrian dominant and others car dominant. The complete system, though it appears unfamiliar, is composed of entirely familiar and extensively used elements. The goal of the fused grid is to provide a balance between vehicular and pedestrian movement, and to create safe, sociable streets and easy connectivity to community facilities. These attributes are achieved while retaining the land use and infrastructure advantages of conventional suburban plans, compared to the traditional grid. The rectilinear, orthogonal and open grid, which dominated North American city layouts in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, was first introduced some 2000 years BC and acquired the name "Hippodamian" after the Greek city planner Hippodamus(498 BC — 408 BC) who used it in his city layouts most notably the plan for the reconstruction of Miletus. The fused grid consists of a large-scale open grid of collector streets, carrying moderate to high-speed car traffic. The blocks formed by this grid are usually about 40 acres (16 ha) in size (1/4 mile x 1/4 mile or 400 m by 400 m). Within each block, the layout of residential streets in the form of crescents and cul-de-sacs eliminates through traffic. In addition, a continuous, open-space pedestrian path system provides direct access to parks, public transit, retail and community facilities. Residents can cross a block on foot in approximately five minutes. The most intensive land uses such as schools, community facilities, high-density residential uses, and retail are located in the center of the plan, reached by twinned arterial roads which connect longer, district destination points. The plan provides efficient vehicular traffic, without sacrificing safety and convenience for pedestrians. At the neighbourhood scale it treats pedestrians preferentially by making their routes more direct than vehicular ones. It also provides new opportunities for bicycle routes on roads that are less traveled by cars, as these are continuous for bicycles only. These neighbourhood attributes have been articulated and codified by several 20th Century planners, most rigorously in Christopher Alexanders A Pattern Language . Patterns 49 (Looped Roads), 51(Green Streets), 52 (Network of Paths and Cars, 23, 61 and 100 are assimilated in each quadrant configuration of the Fused Grid. Similarly, it adopts Clarence Perry’s Neighbourhood Unit size of 160 acres and his allocation of about 10% of the land for open space and recreation within the neighbourhood. Unlike the grid of historic cities that tends to be uniform and repetitive, the Fused Grid neighbourhood cell of 40 acres can have many configurations. Though it differs in its exact geometry from others, every configuration retains all of the intended characteristics. Retroactive application of the fused grid model can be seen in the centres of old European cities, such as Munich, Essen, and Freiburg and in newer railway towns or suburbs such as Vauban, Freiburg and Hooten in the Netherlands. In most of these cases, acknowledging the constrains of an existing build environment, the key fused grid characteristic of a traffic impermeable centre is evident along with the primacy and continuity of pedestrian-only links to the remainder of the inherited street system. The Fused Grid is promoted in Canada by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. A similar debate has also been taking place in Europe and particularly the UK, where the term filtered permeability was coined to describe urban layouts which maximise ease of movement for pedestrians and cyclists, but seek to restrain it for motor vehicles. See: Permeability .
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