Okay - forgive me for asking what might be to some of you a stupid quesion, but Sky Tv in Italy is mostly American Fox channels and I'm tired of hearing about this "block"

I know what it is.

I'd like to know if all blocks are roughly the same in length and how much time does it take to walk a block .......... and why do all the people on Americam tv take a taxi (cab) just for a few blocks.

Hence my question - how long is a block?

Thanks for the non stupid and non cliquey answers

It depends on the city. Here in Phoenix the full blocks are one mile on each side.

That now might explain the cab just to go a few blocks ............ but when they talk on tv they make it sound like no distance.

The short (i.e. north/south) blocks that cover much of Manhattan are 1/20th of a mile each. So I guess it's impossible to generalize.

To be perfectly honest - most of the talk of 'blocks' comes from Sex and the City and CSI and other shows like that.

There is no set definition of a block. Taking a cab across a few 'street' blocks (streets run E-W) in Manhattan is silly. Taking a cab across a few 'avenue' blocks (avenues run N-S) might make sense if you have groceries and the like.

Blocks generally exist in the older parts of town, i.e. pre-suburbs. These city core areas were generally built > 50 years ago when housing was a bit smaller so a block could be relatively small. In the suburbs there are culdesacs and curvy roads such that true blocks didn't really take shape.

Hmmm...take a look at Pimlico, just south of Belgrave Road, in London on Google Maps. See how there is a slight 'block' pattern (slightly different lengths). A US block is generally somewhere between the size of those blocks in Pimlico.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_big_is_one_city_block

Mr lansbury,

did you even try and read the link that you gave me? It's almost imposible to understand with its differentiating values between streets and avenues.

Penguinsix's post was much more succint.

Often, but not always, the avenues go one way and the streets cross them, forming a rectangular grid. Sometimes, there are numbered streets in one direction with named streets crossing them.

ive always taken it mean the (variable) distance before the next intersection. So it varies depending on how soon the next road is. In the UK you would say after the 3rd right - here they say after the 3rd block.

Unless you live in San Francisco where 3rd St intersects at right-angles with 16th to 25th Sts and no avenue intersects with a street!

Quite cheap and easily available, really.

A block is is really bad weed that comes from Mexico. It's dehydrated and stored in kilo blocks for travel. Should cost anything from $400 up

Yes, but the Sunset District does mostly follow the Street / Avenue pattern.

... and, of course, in San Francisco sometimes the change in elevation along a single block is almost as great as the length of the block ...

The very first time that we went to Orlando on holiday from the UK my dad asked where the nearest liquor store was he was given directions to the ABC liquor store 'just a few blocks down' he thought (by the way he was told) it was within easy walking distance it ended up being about 3 miles away.