people will pay more for cul-de-sacs. they don't want to live on busy streets where their pets and kids are likely to wander into the street and get killed.
lol, you failed to read my first paragraph that specifically said "I get why people (myself even) like the suburbs and cul-de-sacs but they have been taken to an extreme"
btw, sorry my whole shared hosting server crashed, and is still down since yesterday. I can now say, "hacker news crashed my server", so I consider it an achievement unlocked and am very happy about it.
No, I did not fail to read it. Just knowing that people like them doesn't mean you understand that people pay substantially more for them. Or that developers are able to squeeze more houses into a development by using lots of cul-de-sacs.
From reading the comments here, I think in my attempt to bust out this article quickly I failed to emphasize that I do NOT think that ALL cul-de-sac and curvilinear loop neighborhoods are bad.
Many of the comments here are completely For or Against Grid or Cul-De-Sac street layouts. This isn't about that.
I myself live in a very moderate curvilinear loop design, just a block and a half away from a major road. I am against EXTREME and OVERDONE versions of these street designs. I would HATE living in a grid street design (for reasons I'll cover in my next article). This is about isolationist and protectionist culture taken to such extreme levels that they are illogical and add 8 miles a day to your commute.
We all know why people love the suburbs, it's more than just white flight. It's because city planners failed to listen to the needs of people. Better schools, actual lawns, nature, smaller curvier streets to give the feeling that you live far away in a cute little town where everyone knows each other. These are all legitimate emotional needs.
Presumably if the market is working properly this means that more people want to buy these homes and/or value these homes more highly than others. That is, people want to live on cul-de-sacs.
Homes on cul-de-sacs sell for more money.
The more of these you can squeeze into a given neighborhood, the more money you'll make off the development.