Help with road name standards

[Feebes]

Anybody know a good site for learning about the whole road naming system? i.e. roads, avanues, lanes....basically so I can get around towns I dont know better....and use just an adress to find something quickly. Thanks.

 

[Jzero]

I can tell you that odd numbered 2-digit Interstates run North and South (I 95 on the East Coast, e.g.) and even numbered go East and West (I 76, e.g.) an interstate with 3-digits is a spur (connects to the corresponding 2-digit interstate at 1 end, e.g. I 195 connects to I 95 at one end) if the first digit is odd, and connects at both ends if the first digit is even.

The little sign that says "Exit XXX" will be on the left side of the big sign for left-exits and the opposite holds true for right-exits.

I'm not sure road names have any universal significance...

 

[bizmark]

I think it's pretty much different wherever you go. Some cities are very good - 90-degree angles, streets in alphabetical/numerical order, everything is easy to find. Others are very hard - one-way-streets that change names every 2 blocks, intersecting with 4 other one-ways all at odd angles. See Boston, MA for a good example of this.

 

[Vic]

I don't know any good sites for this, just what I've learned on my own.
Address systems vary greatly by locality. Some cities are very well laid-out, while others are beyond horrible.
One general given is that odd numered and even numbered addresses are almost always on opposite sides of the street from each other. Another is that most cities have some type of central point that all the address numbers are plotted from. A "0" address if you will and then numbers will get bigger from that point in each direction, like a descartesian grid.
IMO, the best laid out cities in America are Portland, OR and Salt Lake City, UT, although both are very differently designed.
Portland has narrow streets and short blocks, the east side is a near perfect grid (the west side is too hilly), and the city is split into 5 quadrants: SW, SE, NE, NW, and N (North and Northwest are essentially the same quadrant, but bisected by the Willamette River). The central point of the city (and much of the outlying areas) is the Burnside Bridge and street numbers and addresses get larger from there. Streets all run east-west and are named, avenues are all run north-south and are numbered. Address format is [house #] [directional] [street] or for example, 1200 NE 39th Ave. Go up 12 blocks from Burnside on 39th Ave and there you are.
SLC has wide streets and huge blocks (a single city block is 10 acres :Q ) and is very well grided. The central point is the intersection of State and South Temple. Address format is the most unique in the world and is almost never seen outside Utah, but amazingly functional once you understand it. It is [house #] [house directional] [street] [street directional]. For example, the address example for Portland above would be 1200 North 3900 East in SLC. Plot it like a grid and drive right to it.
Other cities fall off from there. Some cities have way too many directionals (Seattle has all 8 plus the central downtown core), others only use the directionals in address for certain quadrants (for example, IIRC Denver has 4 quadrants but only uses the directionals in adress for the S and E quadrants), while some never use them at all. I've even been in cities where house #'s and street #'s don't correspond in any way, where 400 N Main might be at the corner of 7th and Main (seriously!).
Anyway, I could go on so I think (hope) you get the point...

 

[Feebes]

Haha, And I thought this country would be smart enough to standardize this stuff. I live in a place where it's pretty well laid out, and was thinking most other places would at least have the same type of organization. I guess that would be too easy.

 

[MrBond]

Yeah, it's different in differnet places. My parent's live in Ohio, each county's N-S rounds are numbered 1-XX starting from the east (ie: the eastern-most road is county road 1) and they increase in number with every mile. The East-west running roads are named according to the alphabet, starting in the south. The southern most road is county road A and they increase with each mile. Makes it very easy to find someone in the country.

Here in indiana where I'm living now, apparently roads are all numbered with reference to the county seat. IE: a road that is 1.5 miles East of town is 150 East. A road that is 4 miles north of town is 400 North. I find that terribly confusing

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: Feebes
Haha, And I thought this country would be smart enough to standardize this stuff. I live in a place where it's pretty well laid out, and was thinking most other places would at least have the same type of organization. I guess that would be too easy.

WTH does there need to be standardization? What, now we need the federal government to come in and tell cities how to name their streets? geeshh....

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: Feebes
Haha, And I thought this country would be smart enough to standardize this stuff. I live in a place where it's pretty well laid out, and was thinking most other places would at least have the same type of organization. I guess that would be too easy.

WTH does there need to be standardization? What, now we need the federal government to come in and tell cities how to name their streets? geeshh....

You obviously don't live in Austin.

 

[BlueApple]

Straight Dope

 

[notfred]

Sacramento is basically like this:

East/West streets: A, B, C, D, E, F, G etc..

North/South streets: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc...

It's very boring and I prefer normal street names.

 

[rahvin]

1200 North 3900 East in SLC. Plot it like a grid and drive right to it.

I would like to see someone drive to that address. That would be somwhere on top of a mountain.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: Jzero
I can tell you that odd numbered 2-digit Interstates run North and South (I 95 on the East Coast, e.g.) and even numbered go East and West (I 76, e.g.) an interstate with 3-digits is a spur (connects to the corresponding 2-digit interstate at 1 end, e.g. I 195 connects to I 95 at one end) if the first digit is odd, and connects at both ends if the first digit is even.

The little sign that says "Exit XXX" will be on the left side of the big sign for left-exits and the opposite holds true for right-exits.

I'm not sure road names have any universal significance...

Right - also, the North-South routes increase in number from west to east, and the East-West routes increase from south to north.

There are a couple of glitches in the 'spur' designation, such as I 495 on Long Island, NY.

 

[Jzero]

There are a couple of glitches in the 'spur' designation, such as I 495 on Long Island, NY.

Meaning 495 doesn't connect with 95 at both ends there, or that it runs east-west?
B/c the secondary road doesn't have to follow the designation--the fact that it's the secondary road precludes it from being named properly.
For instance 195 in NJ goes east-west, and 476 in PA goes north-south. The 1 signifies that it's a spur, but the 95 doesn't imply the directions.

I guess it's a shortcoming of the system. You would think they'd do something like 1 and 2 mean the direction is the same as the primary road and 3 and 4 mean it's opposite?

hehe

The exit sign thing is pretty clutch for those unmarked left exits, though.

 

[rahvin]

Most signs try to update signs about every 10 years to keep the reflectivity up. I believe the new standards designate that "left exit ###" must be used when the exit is to the left in addition to the positioning that you mentioned. So over the next decade these exits should get better clarification. Of course the FHWA hates left exits so they will go away as the freeways are reconstructed if the costs aren't excesive.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: rahvin

1200 North 3900 East in SLC. Plot it like a grid and drive right to it.

I would like to see someone drive to that address. That would be somwhere on top of a mountain.

An example, it was an example.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: Jzero

There are a couple of glitches in the 'spur' designation, such as I 495 on Long Island, NY.

Meaning 495 doesn't connect with 95 at both ends there, or that it runs east-west?
B/c the secondary road doesn't have to follow the designation--the fact that it's the secondary road precludes it from being named properly.
For instance 195 in NJ goes east-west, and 476 in PA goes north-south. The 1 signifies that it's a spur, but the 95 doesn't imply the directions.

I guess it's a shortcoming of the system. You would think they'd do something like 1 and 2 mean the direction is the same as the primary road and 3 and 4 mean it's opposite?

hehe

The exit sign thing is pretty clutch for those unmarked left exits, though.

Only that 495 does not connect at both ends. It would be almost impossible to get the right direction designation on spurs, because they can go in any direction from the main route.
It can get a bit confusing around Baltimore and D.C. if you aren't used to it.