The Crookedest Streets in San Francisco

By Dave Schweisguth (email: dave at schweisguth dot org)

San Francisco has one famous crooked street, Lombard Street, and one or two others known mostly to locals. Occasionally someone will claim that Lombard Street isn't really the twistiest. Clearly this issue needs a definitive treatment.

Like all fundamental questions, this is in part a question of terms. What does "crookedest" mean? Some reasonable choices are

the number of turns
the total curvature of the turns
the average sharpness of the turns
the sharpness of the sharpest turn

It's protractor time!

		Turn angle (degrees)
	Turns (not counting ends)	Total (counting ends)	Average (not counting ends)	Maximum
Lombard Street, between Hyde and Leavenworth	8	1042	110	118
Vermont Street, between 20th and 22nd	5	744	125	135
Broderick Street, between Broadway and Vallejo (a private driveway, not a street, but too cool to not mention)	3	400	93	100
22nd Street, at Collingwood	1	270	180	180

If it's quantity you're after, Lombard is it, with more turns and more total degrees of turn. Vermont has sharper turns, but then again, if sharpness is your thing, you can't do better than the perfect 180-degree turn that 22nd Street makes at Collingwood. Anyone backing Vermont will have to come up with a different criterion.

No question, though, that if you need to show your relatives San Francisco's ruggedness in a short time, you can't beat a drive down 22nd Street, which as well as two twisty spots also includes one of San Francisco's two steepest blocks, between Church and Vicksburg.

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