A lot of these communities are built explicitly hostile to through-traffic. I grew up in a Houston suburb, and I would get lost in the little subdivisions all the time as the developers intended. This was to discourage people from bypassing main roads in order to short-cut through residential communities. And also, ostensibly, to discourage burglars unfamiliar with the neighborhood.
You ended up with some weird geography. For instance, my friend's house had a cul-de-sac that was separated by a little strip of lawn from another cul-de-sac. It was a two or three minute drive between them, so if I was on my bike I'd be better off just cutting through someone's yard than sticking to the roads. There was also a golf-course that had straighter and more direct routes than the neighborhood it encapsulated, and I'd piss off golfers all the time by riding backwards along the golfing paths in order to short-cut through.
An I the only one who is kind of infuriated with the streets not meeting in the middle of the circles?
A lot of these communities are built explicitly hostile to through-traffic. I grew up in a Houston suburb, and I would get lost in the little subdivisions all the time as the developers intended. This was to discourage people from bypassing main roads in order to short-cut through residential communities. And also, ostensibly, to discourage burglars unfamiliar with the neighborhood.
You ended up with some weird geography. For instance, my friend's house had a cul-de-sac that was separated by a little strip of lawn from another cul-de-sac. It was a two or three minute drive between them, so if I was on my bike I'd be better off just cutting through someone's yard than sticking to the roads. There was also a golf-course that had straighter and more direct routes than the neighborhood it encapsulated, and I'd piss off golfers all the time by riding backwards along the golfing paths in order to short-cut through.