Now that I live on a highly contained island (and with no car), I look in wonder at roads -- not highways or interstates, but damn ROADS -- that traverse through and between whole-ass cities! How did I think that was normal!!!
I don't mean just things like the Appian Way... Roman Cities had big ass roads. Paris got remodeled (to prevent barricades during riots/revolutions) to look like Republican/Imperial Rome.
When I got my first GPS as a Christmas present, the first thing I said was "Now I won't get lost in Minneapolis". Because yes, there's a grid. And no matter where you want to go there's a lake in the way. They jump out in front of you, glinting evilly. Along with their co-conspirators, the highways.
Here is my favorite bit of terrible, confusing street naming: behold 45th St (yellow) and 46th St (red) in Los Alamos, NM (and those two are just the worst offenders)
In La Jolla, CA, you can find the intersection of La Jolla Village Dr. and Villa La Jolla Dr. Close by is the intersection of Nobel Dr. and Lebon Dr., which is just "Nobel" spelled backwards. Together, these streets form a wholly unnecessary square of confusion.
Notice how 124th Ave curves around to the point where it’s parallel with 124th St, although by then it has a different name, which is definitely enough to stop it from being confusing
I grew up with a similar grid system where everything east/west was a street and north/south was a road or ave. My house was on 43rd Street Road because it took a bend like that and rather than breaking it into two parts they just double named it.
Okay, our street names aren't that bad, but our origin point is in the centre of the city so there can be as many as 4 of any given address or intersection. Sometimes a long ways away from each other.
Be like Millwaukee, some random cow path becomes a major street that slowly curves and twists into a nice L/ shape. I hated driving around there for a conference.
Or be like me on the coast! Oh Hurricane Andrew took out that neighborhood in 92, it's just pylons and beach now.
I learned to drive in an area where one of the biggest east-west roads in the center of town was broken into five pieces, all using the same name, none of which which connected with each other.
Naturally, the address numbering was contiguous across all five sections.
Yeah, where I live now is that way. There are canals breaking up the same streets. You could be on the 400 block heading for the 800 block and not be able to get there from here because surprise water dead end
Comments
They had a thing for roads.
Or be like me on the coast! Oh Hurricane Andrew took out that neighborhood in 92, it's just pylons and beach now.
I would mention the intersection of W 4th & W 10th St, but nobody drives in Manhattan, so it doesn't really matter.
Naturally, the address numbering was contiguous across all five sections.
It was educational.