Maximizing the annual season of street comfort in hot climates requires synergies between all planning and design features. The absence of such combination compromises comfort and planning goals, like increasing walkability. Street orientation is both a determinant of its solar intake and a design feature that outlasts all others. In the hot planes of the Arabian Gulf, planners can typically choose the directions to expand a street network. However, regional designers do not seem to consider solar intake. In the case study of Bahrain, 38% of the street network has an orientation that generates the highest heat gain. We propose that utilizing a new measure – the Thermal Coefficient of Street Orientation – to quantify the excessive heat gain of masterplans could invert this trend. We simulated that the controlled expansion of the street network in Bahrain could result in a reduction of 40% of its solar intake. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.