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What’s the Difference Between a Street and a Road?
Learned several new things today about roads, streets, avenues and boulevards.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/23588
Roads run between two distant points — two towns, for example. In each of those towns, you’ll find streets: paved roads lined with houses and other buildings. It used to be the paving and the buildings that made a street a street, but today you’ll find many paved roads that have buildings on them (I grew up on Wisteria Road). Modern sticklers for usage will tell you that what sets streets apart today is the street life that comes with them. On Main Street in a given town, you might find people walking their dogs, having lunch in a sidewalk cafe, waiting for a friend on the corner, or simply people watching. On the road connecting Town A to Town B, you’re not likely to find any of this.
The term street, then, should be specifically applied to urban roadways. Streets connect people for interaction, while roads connect towns and cities for travel.
In the real world, though, these distinctions aren’t always made.
As cities grow, roads can become urbanized and serve the purposes of streets without having their names changed. Some cities and towns may be planned with naming systems that designate roadways one thing or another without regard to their function. Other roadways serve different purposes along different parts of their length and get different designations accordingly. Pennsylvania Route 611 is a major state highway that runs from South Philadelphia north to Coolbaugh Township in the Poconos. Within Philadelphia, 611 is Broad Street, where you’ll find homes, businesses, street life and, on New Year’s Day, Mummers urinating everywhere. At the northern end of Philadelphia, PA 611 leaves Broad Street and becomes Old York Road, a historic road that connected Philadelphia to New York City. As it continues north, it also becomes Easton Road, Delaware Drive, and Fox Town Hill Road along certain stretches.
The term street, then, should be specifically applied to urban roadways. Streets connect people for interaction, while roads connect towns and cities for travel.
In the real world, though, these distinctions aren’t always made.
As cities grow, roads can become urbanized and serve the purposes of streets without having their names changed. Some cities and towns may be planned with naming systems that designate roadways one thing or another without regard to their function. Other roadways serve different purposes along different parts of their length and get different designations accordingly. Pennsylvania Route 611 is a major state highway that runs from South Philadelphia north to Coolbaugh Township in the Poconos. Within Philadelphia, 611 is Broad Street, where you’ll find homes, businesses, street life and, on New Year’s Day, Mummers urinating everywhere. At the northern end of Philadelphia, PA 611 leaves Broad Street and becomes Old York Road, a historic road that connected Philadelphia to New York City. As it continues north, it also becomes Easton Road, Delaware Drive, and Fox Town Hill Road along certain stretches.
19 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I do appreciate the explanation above: roads between places/towns, streets within them, lined with houses/buildings.
There are two other "Drives", and one "Lane" in our neighborhood.
Fancy schmancy.
All paved.
No sidewalks, curbs, or gutters.
But we do have streetlights.
