So you ended up with very convuluted street layouts that were often useful in local defences for individual streets or local parts of the town. The thing that makes many of those areas walkable, but not driveable, were the little alleyways that would get built to allow for pedestrian, but not horse, traffic. some of these cut throughs require steps to transition from one topohgraphic area to another. Modern automobile-based design often neglects putting those little cut-throughs in place that existed in the ancient and medieval towns, so the cars follow long windy roads tracking the contours of the land.

http://maps.google.es/maps/ms?msid=20124 7910824497624305.0004b59d269dbce89aee0&m sa=0&ll=40.331546,-3.864634&spn=0.01042, 0.023303

There is about 45.000 people living here, zoom in the mapped area and you will see that buildings (6 to 10 floors high) are scattered across green areas and cul-de-sacs (not many of them though) are connected through walkable parks.

This is the place where I was raised, not much fun (suburban at the end) but in terms of efficiency, public transit (2 metro stations, 1 commuter station and 2 fast bus lines into Madrid city which go through the highway passing north to the area) and walkability is great.

Of course, parking was always a nightmare (in the 70s not every family had even one car in Spain) that was mitigated after many underground parkings were built 30 years later.

There is also two big sports recreational centers, a few schools (primary and secondary), a great public health care system and a university in the northwest boundary.

Again, I was raised here, boring for a teenager, but in terms of urban design I always wondered why there are not many places like this, even in high density Madrid and Barcelona.

It’s unfortunate that Mr. Lewyn’s family didn’t check with a local before renting there. Other neighborhoods of Jerusalem provide easy access to the main attractions – with a little workout for your legs on the hills.

This comment comes right after a series of train breakdowns affecting ALL train lines for about a week before Christmas, and a bus driver killed a stationary driver on a road near where I live (in an underserved part of Singapore too). I’m sorry, but I laughed rather hard.

I think this article might elucidate: http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2012/0 1/02/share-with-public-all-data-on-bus-s ervice-standards/

Cities with a lot of hills demand streets that follow contour lines or otherwise minimize sharp gradients, combined with stepped shortcuts or even funiculars and lifts like Lisbon. The alternative is unpleasant inclines that leave you sweaty; I’ve walked across the whole of SF often enough to resent them thar hills.