ELI5- Why do streets have different labels like Ave, Blvd, Rd, etc.? Are there certain qualifications for what determines them?
In: 909
In my city, we have a lot of Boulevards, and they’re required to have a strip of land between the two directions of traffic. They’re usually small parks or walking trails. Avenues tend to be bigger, busier, and more important.
In the nearby suburb I grew up in, the East-West streets are numbered, AND their labels go in order like this:
* 1st St
* 1st Terr
* 1st Ct OR 1st Cir (for a cul-de-sac or dead end offshoot)
The reason is to keep the grid uniform, so for instance 1st St and 5th St are half a mile apart. If the houses are more spread, there’s fewer roads in the grid and fewer names, but if there’s lots of houses, they can use more labels to cram more roads in there but keep the big grid.
The North-South streets in that area are word names, and don’t really seem to have much of a pattern as far as the titles, BUT they’re themed. In one neighborhood, they’re alphabetical. By the house I grew up in, they’re named after trees.
Basically, it’s all to keep the city grid pretty, sensible, and organized.
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