Chang Moi Gate
Stefan Fussan · CC BY-SA 3.0ประตูช้างม่อย
An outer gate in the earthen wall, dated to 1282 in the chronicle, gone since the 1910s. Between 1910 and 1915 the earth bank and the gate were…
The old city, measured
The square inside the moat against the rings outside it, on the same questions: how connected, how many dead ends, how long a block, how much of a grid.
71.6km of road inside the moat
396intersections
14%dead ends
0.67grid score
44wats
33%one-way
Zone by zone
| zone | area km² | km of road | km per km² | intersections / km² | dead-end share | median block, m | grid score φ | one-way | km named soi | named | wats | signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| inside the moat | 2.9 | 71.6 | 24.4 | 134.8 | 14% | 59 | 0.67 | 33% | 22% | 63% | 44 | 24 |
| moat to 3 km | 25.3 | 508.4 | 20.1 | 82.0 | 26% | 59 | 0.17 | 20% | 11% | 41% | 52 | 73 |
| 3 to 5.5 km | 66.8 | 1,082.7 | 16.2 | 77.9 | 32% | 56 | 0.09 | 16% | 20% | 39% | 50 | 57 |
| 5.5 to 9 km | 159.4 | 1,851.8 | 11.6 | 57.9 | 35% | 56 | 0.07 | 14% | 16% | 32% | 88 | 61 |
| past 9 km | 476.5 | 3,419.9 | 7.2 | 31.0 | 35% | 65 | 0.03 | 6% | 7% | 17% | 1,139 | 46 |
How to read it. The moat zone is the square itself. The rings are bands of distance from the square’s centre: to 3 km, where the Superhighway and the canal road close a ring; 3 to 5.5 km for the middle ring; 5.5 to 9 km for the outer; then the rest of the box. A band is a stand-in for the road, chosen so the same arithmetic runs everywhere.
The grid score is Boeing’s φ: the entropy of street bearings in 36 bins over a half-circle, each way weighted by length, rescaled so 1 is a perfect grid and 0 is every direction equally. Dead-end share is nodes of degree one divided by nodes of degree one plus nodes of degree three or more, on the drivable network without service lanes. Block length is the median run between two intersections. All of it is OpenStreetMap, which means all of it is a floor: a lane nobody has drawn does not count.
The finding
Jakub Hałun · CC BY-SA 4.0Seven centuries of building have not laid out a neighbourhood as well-connected as the first one
The argumentGates and corners
Chang Phueak Gate
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0ประตูช้างเผือก
The northern gate, formerly Hua Wiang, the head of the city. Kings entered here; the road north to Mae Rim and Fang, Route 107, still begins outside…
Chiang Mai Gate
gary4now · CC BY 3.0ประตูเชียงใหม่
The southern gate, formerly Tai Wiang, the foot of the city. A market sits against it, open before dawn, and Wua Lai Road runs south from it.
Hua Lin Corner
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0แจ่งหัวลิน
The northwest corner of the moat, one of the four bastions (chaeng) added to the wall in later restorations. Where two straight sides of the moat…
Katam Corner
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0แจ่งก๊ะต๊ำ
The southeast corner of the moat, one of the four bastions (chaeng) added to the wall in later restorations. Where two straight sides of the moat…
Ku Hueang Corner
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0แจ่งกู่เฮือง
The southwest corner of the moat, one of the four bastions (chaeng) added to the wall in later restorations. Where two straight sides of the moat…
Si Phum Corner
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0แจ่งศรีภูมิ
The northeast corner of the moat, one of the four bastions (chaeng) added to the wall in later restorations. Where two straight sides of the moat…
Suan Dok Gate
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0ประตูสวนดอก
The western gate, the flower-garden gate, named for the royal garden that became Wat Suan Dok outside it. Suthep Road leaves here for the university…
Suan Prung Gate
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0ประตูสวนปรุง
The second gate in the south wall, added under King Sam Fang Kaen in the 1400s, so that the south wall alone has two. The hospital of the same name…
Tha Phae Gate
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0ประตูท่าแพ
The eastern gate of the walled city, at the head of Tha Phae Road, facing the river a kilometre away. Originally Chiang Rueak Gate, after the trading…
Lanes and alleys
3,733named sois on the map
811km of them
8named after a wat
3,650numbered
4,757km of lane with no name
The hom
Daibo Taku · CC BY 3.0ฮ่อม
The lanes between houses: residential streets, living streets and service lanes in OpenStreetMap's terms; hom in Kam Mueang, soi on the postal…
The Nimman sois
gary4now · CC BY 3.0ซอยนิมมานเหมินท์
The numbered lanes off Nimmanhaemin Road, odd on the west side and even on the east. Soi 1 has held a festival since 1999. The lanes are counted on…
How a soi gets its number
เลขซอยมาจากไหน
A soi branches from a main road and is numbered along it, even numbers on one side and odd on the other, counting from the road's start; a lane off a…
The longest sois, by name
Measurements
How far between intersections
ระหว่างแยกไกลแค่ไหน
The median run of road between two intersections, per zone: 59 m inside the moat, 59 m to 3 km, 56 m to 5.5, 56 m to 9, 65 m beyond. The means are…
What the map says is being built
แผนที่บอกว่ากำลังสร้างอะไร
OpenStreetMap's highway=construction, in the box: 111 ways, 16.9 km. The longest: unnamed 0.8 km, unnamed 0.8 km, unnamed 0.63 km, unnamed 0.56 km…
Dead ends, zone by zone
ทางตัน ทีละโซน
The share of network ends that are dead ends: nodes touched by one way only, divided by those plus the intersections, on drivable ways without…
The grid score, zone by zone
คะแนนตาราง ทีละโซน
Boeing's orientation-order index φ on the street network of each zone: the bearings of every drivable way, service lanes excluded, in 36 bins over a…
Intersections per square kilometre
ทางแยกต่อตารางกิโลเมตร
Nodes where three or more drivable ways meet, per square kilometre of zone: inside the moat 135; to 3 km 82; 3 to 5.5 km 78; 5.5 to 9 km 58; beyond…
The network, in kilometres
โครงข่าย เป็นกิโลเมตร
52,389 ways. By class: residential 4,280 km, service 1,238 km, track 494 km, unclassified 454 km, path 337 km, tertiary 312 km, primary 288 km…
How much of the road runs one way
ถนนวิ่งทางเดียวแค่ไหน
Kilometres tagged one-way as a share of drivable kilometres: inside the moat 33%, to 3 km 20%, to 5.5 km 16%, to 9 km 14%, beyond 6%. The moat loop…
Road bridges over the Ping, counted
ขัวรถข้ามแม่ปิง นับแล้ว
A bridge way that crosses a way named Ping, with the two carriageways of a dual bridge collapsed to one: 23 in the harvest box, from Mae Rim to…
Sois, counted by name
ซอย นับตามชื่อ
A way whose name carries ซอย, ซ. or Soi, ways of one name summed: 3,733 names, 811 km. 3,650 carry a number; 8 carry a wat's name. The longest by…
Wats, zone by zone
วัด ทีละโซน
Buddhist places of worship on the map, by zone: 44 inside the moat (15.0 per km²), 52 to 3 km, 50 to 5.5, 88 to 9, 1139 beyond; 420 in the box.…