The grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron design is a sort of city layout in which streets intersect at right angles to form a grid. Regular grid arrangements have greater infrastructure costs than systems with discontinuous streets. They are used because they allow for fast and efficient transportation by foot or vehicle, easy movement of large objects such as ships into position, uniform distribution of land uses, and other advantages.
There are two types of regular grids: rectilinear and orthogonal. In a rectilinear grid, all the streets are parallel or perpendicular to each other. In an orthogonal grid, the streets cross at right angles everywhere except at corners where there are usually intersections. Orthogonal grids are more difficult to construct but provide better access in cases where roads need to be crossed. Rectilinear grids can be further divided into those with even or uneven numbers of lanes per direction. Even grids have an equal number of lanes going in each direction, while odd grids tend to have more north-south than east-west lanes.
A grid is made up of squares or blocks, depending on how many times the length of a side of a square is used to define a distance. Each block in a grid system is the same size, and the only difference between them is where they are placed on the ground.
The Grid is Chicago's circulatory system, consisting of residential and business streets, secondary arterials, majestic boulevards, and bustling expressways, as well as gangways and alleyways. The system of street name and numbering is what makes Chicago understandable and easy to traverse.
The system was developed in the late 1800s by two civil engineers, William Le Baron Jenney and Daniel Burnham, who proposed a network of rectangular blocks, each with its own center line of traffic, which would make it easier to navigate Chicago by car. They called their proposal "the city plan," because they believed that only such a systematic approach could bring order out of chaos.
Today, the grid system is used by both drivers and pedestrians to find their way around the city. It's also useful for firefighters and emergency workers when responding to calls.
When you drive down the street, you're following the center line. This is very important because it allows officers to locate intersections using only their radar guns. Without this reference point, they would have no idea where they were in relation to other major landmarks or roads.
Also, when you cross from one block to another, you're following the gutters. This is necessary because without them, water from the roofs would cause extensive damage to cars parked below.
A grid is a system of straight lines that cross over one other to produce squares. Many canals were constructed in accordance with map grid lines. The word "grid" comes from Latin gratus, meaning "pleasing." A grid is used as a reference for marking off areas on which to perform certain tasks, such as digging or planting. Constructing a grid involves deciding how many rows and columns you want and marking off each row and column. Rows and columns should be the same length. Then, every other row or column is marked off.
There are several types of grids used by engineers: orthogonal, conforming, offset, and polar.
Orthogonal grids have equal divisions in both width and height. They are commonly used when dividing up land for building sites or farming. Conforming grids increase in size or decrease in size depending on the distance they go from a central point. For example, if you were to divide up an apartment building into rooms, then each room would use a conforming grid. Offset grids start out the same width as the original line but then taper down in width as they get further away from the center point. Polar grids work like a compass.
A grid is a network of parallel intersecting lines, whether actual or fictional. A "grid" can also refer to a physical network that isn't always made up of straight or parallel lines. You may be familiar with the national grid, which consists of high-voltage electrical wires that transport power across the country. But there are also regional grids, such as the San Francisco Bay Area Grid, which transports electricity around the Bay Area.
The word "grid" comes from the Latin word for "grating" or "screen". Electricity was first transmitted on a grid in 1882 by Hermann von Helmholtz when he used copper cables laid out on the ground between poles.
Today's power networks include distribution grids, transmission grids, and bulk power systems. Distribution grids connect together local power generators with consumers. Transmission grids connect distant regions with abundant resources like wind and solar power with those that need more energy, like cities. Bulk power systems supply power to industrial plants and other large facilities.
Each type of grid has different characteristics that determine what kind of infrastructure will be needed to transmit electricity over it. For example, transmission lines have higher voltage than distribution lines, so they require more powerful transmitters and stronger signals traveling over long distances.
Grid systems are commonly described by their voltage level: 500 volts (or less) means low voltage, while 1,000 volts (or more) means high voltage.