<P> Real estate developers prefer culs - de-sac because they allow builders to fit more houses into oddly shaped tracts of land and facilitate building to the edges of rivers and property lines . They also choose these discontinuous network patterns of cul - de-sac and loop streets because of the often significant economies in infrastructure costs compared to the grid plan . </P> <P> From an environmental perspective, culs - de-sac allow greater flexibility than the common grid in adapting to the natural grades of a site and to its ecologically sensitive features, such as streams creeks and mature forest growth . </P> <P> The desirability of the cul - de-sac street type among home buyers is implied by the evidence that they often pay up to a 20% premium for a home on such a street, according to one study . This could be because there is considerably less passing traffic, resulting in less noise and reduced actual or perceived risk, increasing the sense of tranquility . A survey of residents on three types of streets: cul - de-sac, loop, and through (grid) recorded their preferences among these types . It found that 82% of cul - de-sac residents preferred their own street type, 18% preferred a loop, and 0% the grid . Only 13% of grid street residents preferred their own type and 54% would choose a cul - de-sac to live on . Two other studies, reported in 1990 and 2009 respectively, confirmed this upward trend and determined the premium that cul - de-sac streets command . The first found a 29% premium over the streets in a grid . The second, focused on trails and greenbelts, found that other amenities including cul - de-sac streets add significantly to the home value . </P> <P> The positive feelings that a cul - de-sac street could evoke, that residents value, are expressed vividly by Allan Jacobs in describing a short (250 ft), narrow (60 ft), densely built (14 du / acre), and wood - paved cul - de-sac in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: "Step into Roslyn Place and you are likely to sense, immediately, that you are in a place, a special place, a handsome place, a safe place, a welcoming place, a place where you might wish to live ."... "narrowness and enclosure and intimacy bring a feeling of safety to Roslyn Place..."Stay on our street" is all the kids have to know ." </P>

Where did the term dead end come from