Just in time for Valentine's Day, here is a new and interesting way to compare streets. At www.beautiful.st, you can compare 200 randomly selected streets in Philadelphia, plucked from Google Street View, two at a time. Vote for the most beautiful and two more images pop up for you to compare.
The site was designed by OpenPlans (disclosure: OpenPlans is Streetsblog's parent organization), which hopes to use variations on this tool as a dynamic way to get community input about street designs. Planners and community organizations could ask not only which street is more beautiful, but which one looks safer or more appropriate for a particular neighborhood.
In the meantime, it's a semi-addictive way of thinking about urban design. How will you compare, say, a lushly wooded parkside avenue with the dense and bustling commercial area?
