The streets (in blue) run north-south around the hexagonal blocks. I numbered them, although obviously, the indexing is off and 1st Street should be at the far west end of the city.
The avenues (in red) run northeast-southwest. I gave them Latin letters. The boulevards (in green) run northwest-southeast. I gave them Greek letters.
Two things to note:
- intersections are three-way (three roads come together)
- two different roads "intersect" for a whole block
The east-west (horizontal) blocks are on both an avenue and a boulevard. The northeast-southwest blocks (diagonal bottom left to upper right) are on both a street and an avenue. The northwest-southeast blocks (diagonal upper left to bottom right) are on both a street and a boulevard. Can you locate A Avenue and Gamma Boulevard?
Addresses could be given this way: "22 A Ave. and Gamma Blvd." I think address numbers would reset for each block; there would be a "22 A Ave. and Beta Blvd."
How hard would it be to navigate?
Let's say you lived at 1st Street and A Ave. and wanted to travel to 4th Street and Alpha Blvd. You know that you need to go east (to higher numbered streets) and not sure whether you need to travel north or south overall. But you don't need to worry. Just head northeast on A Ave. Either you'll intersect 4th Street first or Alpha Blvd. first.
How would the road signs look? Let's work our example in detail. Again, you want to travel east (from 1st to 4th), so you would take A Ave. northeast. (Taking 1st Street north would get you there but not necessarily in the most direct way.)
Let's look at the points (intersections) on the grid you would travel through:
At point U, the signs would say:
LEFT - N on 1st Street, NW on Gamma Blvd.
RIGHT - NE on A Ave., SE on Gamma Blvd.
At point V, the signs would say:
LEFT - N on 2nd Street, NE on A Ave.
RIGHT - S on 2nd Street, SE Gamma Blvd.
At point W, the signs would say:
LEFT - N on 2nd Street, NW on Beta Blvd.
RIGHT - NE on A Ave., SE on Beta Blvd.
At point X, the signs would say:
LEFT - N on 3rd Street, NE on A Ave.
RIGHT - S on 3rd Street, SE on Beta Blvd.
At all four points, you would choose to continue driving northeast on A Ave. The numbered streets are increasing, which is correct, and the Greek letters are decreasing, which is also correct. You know you're going the right way.
At point Y, the signs would say:
LEFT - N on 3rd Street, NW on Alpha Blvd.
RIGHT - NE on A Ave., SE on Alpha Blvd.
You've reached Alpha Blvd, so you're going to turn on it. Which way? Northwest or southeast? You're at 3rd Street. Not far enough east, so turn southeast on Alpha Blvd.
At point Z, the signs would say:
LEFT - NE on A Ave., N on 4th Street
RIGHT - SE on Alpha Blvd., S on 4th Street
You've almost arrived. A right turn puts you onto 4th Street and Alpha Blvd., the block you are looking for.
It would take a little getting used to, but I don't believe this kind of navigating in insurmountably complex.
Would it take longer to travel on a hexagonal grid?
If one is traveling in a straight line on the rectangular grid, the hexagonal grid is 15% longer.
But if one is traveling in a "straight" line on the hexagonal grid (at an oblique angle), the rectangular grid is about 18% longer.
I tested out a bunch of random points; it more or less seems to even out. Sometimes the rectangular grid is shorter. Sometimes the hexagonal grid is shorter. Here's the results of 10,000 random trials:
Averaging them all together came up with that the hexagonal grid is about 0.3% longer, but that really might just be variability of taking a random sample. I'd say it just about evens out. So, are travel times the same?
One thing to consider is that the intersections on the hexagonal grid are faster, three-way intersections as opposed to the slower, four-way intersections in a rectangular grid. In a three-way intersection, there must be three cycles. Each right turn is allowed in 2/3 cycles; each left turn is allowed in 1/3 cycles. In a four-way intersection, there must be four cycles. Each right turn is allowed in 2/4 cycles (or 3/4 cycles if right-on-red is allowed); each left turn and each straight is allowed in 1/4 cycles. Comparing the two types of intersections, left turns are 33% faster in the three-way intersection; assuming no rights-on-red, right turns are also 33% faster in the three-way intersection. That means that the three-way intersections are 33% faster overall.
Because the travel distance are just about equal, the hexagonal grid is actually going to be faster due to the faster intersections.
Maybe bees are onto something.
As one more thought, it'd be quite easy to make park blocks at a ratio of 1/7 blocks.
No location would be more than 2 blocks from a park.
