How common are streets with both names and numbers where you live?
Posted by Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 91 comments
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Posted by Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 91 comments
[removed]
DoublePostedBroski@reddit
Usually only for state routes.
neBular_cipHer@reddit
Or county routes.
theoriginalcafl@reddit
Take me home
OK_Ingenue@reddit
Country road…
enstillhet@reddit
We don't have county routes here. Just US Routes (Route 1, for example) and state routes.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Oh, that’s sort of what I was thinking. It seems as though it’s most roads. Just not smaller neighborhood roads. The roads could also have completely different names. But lots of roads have been extended or added onto and they get a new name starting at that spot.
byebybuy@reddit
Not as common out west, at least not in coastal California. Nobody calls Topanga Canyon "highway 27". Although there are exceptions, such as the PCH also being the 1.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
It's actually very common, especially in SoCal. We had our own highway system before the rest of the country, and those highways had names before Eisenhower pushed the National Highways Act in 1956. Once that happened, named highways also got a number designation, and the names often stuck more than the number. These named highways often went by "The freeway," which is why we regularly append "the" to the beginning of freeway numbers when speaking.
Here's an interesting video highlighting it better than I can. It's only 6 minutes.
https://youtu.be/m5J-YZZ5Vw4?si=LubQT01-JNHzwjor
byebybuy@reddit
Fair, but I was talking more about smaller highways that people live on and have addresses on, as I thought that was more what OP was talking about. Hence Topanga being my example. Sorry if there's confusion there.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
I live up in Bakersfield, and we have Union Ave, Rosedale Hwy and Stockdale Hwy/Brundage Ln, which long ago were used as proper State routes, or at least the old parts were. They have since been extended and are now considered local roads for normal city traffic, but the last two still carry the "hwy" as part of their name designation. Union was the old 99, and Rosedale and Stockdale/Brundage were 58 West and East, respectively. At this point, it's really only visitors that refer to them by their numbers, but we still know what they're talking about. Especially with 58 being disjointed, we know enough to ask which direction they're going to direct them better and let them know the names to expect to see. Rosedale still has 58 scattered along the way.
Sundae_2004@reddit
US Route 1: in DC it’s Rhode Island Ave NE > MD/PG County, it’s now Rhode Island Ave > Baltimore Ave / Blvd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_1_in_Maryland
BreakfastBeerz@reddit
State and county routes/roads. Very common where I'm from.
HillbillyHijinx@reddit
Pretty much every road here in my part of NC has a name and a number. The number may stay the same between counties but the name may change.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
It’s pretty common where I live to have a road that is a state route in rural areas with a number and then it turns into a named road as it goes through towns. If you’re in town and you use the number people will know what you’re talking about.
warneagle@reddit
A lot of the main roads here have a state route designation but people really only use the numbers for interstates and US highways. They generally just use the name for the other roads even if they have signed numbers.
Master-Collection488@reddit
Where I live (upstate NY) only major streets tend to have state route numbers. This can get iffy with things like Google Maps and GPS. Because as a casual driver of whatever suburb you're in, you're not thinking "I'm on Route 87," you're thinking "I'm no Flickerflaff Rd."
Sometimes the map will switch from referring to the same street to and from route numbers. "Merge into Spatula Blvd" when you've been on it for 15 minutes. Also they do the name when a road changes names. There's a strip of road near my mom's that changes names three or four times over 25-30 miles. In her mind it's called whatever she starts on or finishes on. The route number would actually be helpful in that regard, but she'd ever remember it.
In Utah the streets are usually numbers, unless it's Main or Tabernacle. Some cities have a Diagonal, River St/Rd or a College Ave. What this means is that the addresses are mostly coordinates. Which makes it easier for missionaries to figure out where they're going. Las Vegas is one of the least-Mormon places, but they've still got about 10% of the vote and a fair bit of influence. So none of the streets are named after numbers, but the street numbers function as a measure of how far NSEW you are from the center of town.
In older parts of the U.S. more of the streets exist per the function they served before the roads were paved. Less grid, more curves and diagonals. In newer cities the bulk of the BUSIER streets are in grid format, with maybe less than five going in diagonal directions and named for whatever city they head towards.
LocalInactivist@reddit
The Devil’s in the details, but that sounds like a pretty good system. All you’d need is the street number to know exactly where you are in the city.
Ananvil@reddit
I haven't any idea what you're talking about.
hugothebear@reddit
How roads are a highway with a route number assigned to them, that are also known by a street name.
The the long island expressway is also 495, cross bronx is 95
smarti3pants@reddit
Okay so like sometimes the highway turns into a street, and sometimes it goes back as a highway. But like only that section of the highway is referred to as a street. Here in Indy, we have part of 465 refereed to as the Sam Jones Expressway, but only that part. I've never really even heard of anyone just not keep calling it 465 tho.
HailState17@reddit
For major roads? Very common.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
That’s why I was asking. Not neighborhood roadways, but most roads have both. In some cases they are even used on the street signs, and they could change depending where you are.
ThisCarSmellsFunny@reddit
It’s on every major road all over the country. Just because people never call it by the number, or people don’t realize it’s like this where they live doesn’t change that. Every major road in America has a designated route number.
shelwood46@reddit
Where I've lived in NJ & PA, extremely common for state and country roads. There is usually a local name, but it may or may not get used, especially it's long or changes a bunch. Sometimes there will be two names -- one for the whole road (olden time roads that connected two towns will have a name that includes both) but also a local name. What the post office decides to call it is up in the air, they usually honor all the names.
Advanced-Power991@reddit
numbers are for state routes and highways, names are for normal streets, sometimes the state route uses a normal street to go through a town, so both get used to name the street
Bear_necessities96@reddit
That’s the one that confused me most over here like MLK blvd is also the 60 so people sometimes call them by the number and I’m always confused.
pfta4@reddit
I thought this happened everywhere.
flying_wrenches@reddit
Small residential and local streets have just names.
Anything big enough to have a state name or highway name or bigger is a number.
“Route 16” “highway 29” “sr-19” (state road)
Compared to the local “mulberry lane”
GrunchWeefer@reddit
Pretty sure that's a rural thing. Here only county and state roads are numbered but they are few and far between. Most streets are just neighborhood streets.
hugothebear@reddit
Its common in jersey too, like 27 in edison is lincoln hwy, 35 in woodbridge is st georges ave, 27 through rahway is st georges ave, us 1 in edison is post rd
DerekL1963@reddit
Nope, not a rural thing, at least not here. Plenty of numbered state and county streets/roads/stroads in urban areas. Almost nobody uses the numbers, but they're there.
GrunchWeefer@reddit
Yeah I think I read the question more as "how coming is it to live on a numbered street". They exist here but aren't residential streets and usually aren't referred to by number anyway.
shelwood46@reddit
I'm curious what part of Jersey you are in because when I lived in Montgomery/Princeton/Hopewell it was super duper common, and even when county roads had local names people would use them interchangeably (Route 206/State Road/Nassau St)
GrunchWeefer@reddit
I'm in North Jersey but in Princeton are those county roads residential roads? I read the question wrong as "how common is it to live on a road like that"
shelwood46@reddit
County roads, absolutely plenty of houses on them. State roads can be a mix leaning more toward commercial, but quite a few still there, since Jersey loves their historic preservation. Whether they get called by the number or a "word" name depends on how cumbersome the name is -- like "The Georgetown-Franklin Turnpike" is awkward to write on an envelope, so most people would just put "Rte 518".
DerekL1963@reddit
Even reading the question that way... yeah, they exist as residential roads here. They exist as residential roads pretty much everywhere I've ever lived.
shelwood46@reddit
Huh, I lived in NJ for years, down near Princeton, and numbered county and state roads were everywhere. The only roads without names were usually developments.
TheBimpo@reddit
It’s not a rural thing. Find any state highway and you will find it weaving its way through cities where the local road name is used.
boulevardofdef@reddit
Here in Rhode Island, many of the major roads are numbered, though by no means all. It has a lot to do with how long the road is. Most of them are state highways, and a few are US highways. I used to live on US 1, which I thought was pretty cool.
hugothebear@reddit
It’s not how long the roads are, because Rts 10 and 37 are incredibly short, but process a lot of traffic through them.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Lol I’m not that far from US1, just in Florida.
NFLDolphinsGuy@reddit
This is typical of numbered state and US Highways and interstates in Iowa that run through urban areas.
These examples are for Des Moines-area.
Locals would use the road names, not numbers for these.
US 6 is Hickman Road (mostly).
US 69 is NE/E/SE 14th St.
Iowa 415 is 2nd Ave.
Sometimes highways are named but no one cares.
US 30 is the Lincoln Highway.
Interstate 235 is the John MacVicar Freeway.
Interstate 80 is the Grand Army of the Republic Highway.
Iowa 5/US 65 is Military Order of the Purple Heart Highway.
No one’s saying all that.
rogun64@reddit
It's common where I live, but we only use one or the other. It's probably common for any older city that was designed with a block grid.
49Flyer@reddit
Most numbered roads (i.e. state or U.S. highways) also have names; whether people refer to one or the other varies greatly by location.
cryptoengineer@reddit
There are a lot of highways that have both names, and numbers. In my neck of the woods, the Massachusetts Turnpike is also I-90, and the Mohawk Trail is more often just Route 2.
IWasBorn2DoGoBe@reddit
No, in Arizona our number streets run north and south, and our Name streets run East and West. The freeways have numbers, and only one road has both because it is the US 60 and in metro limits we call it Grand Ave.
Necessary-Sleep-3578@reddit
I suspect it would be more uncommon to have a location that did not have both. Some roads are eventually going to take on a name. And for utility and planing and all, you need numbers
rrhunt28@reddit
Where I live there are a few roads with names and numbers. It is usually a highway that comes into the city. So the road has the highway number, but also a city street name.
deebville86ed@reddit
In Manhattan, 110th Street is also called Cathedral Parkway, and 200th street is also called Dyckman street
canisdirusarctos@reddit
All streets with names in Utah are like this, though many are just their number with no name.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Super common here in New England. You will have a state route with a number that may have 6 different local names depending on where you are.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Yeah, that’s another thing that I was curious about. Lots of streets have multiple names depending where you are on them. Change into another county or city and it’s another name.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yup, very common in New England. 108 is is either Old Rochester Rd. because it’s the old Main Street to Rochester. Then in Rochester it becomes Rochester Hill Rd. then it becomes Main St. then it becomes 202A or something. Maybe it merges into 125 or 16, don’t know.
Anustart15@reddit
Pretty common where I grew up in MA that main roads between 2 towns are named for the town they are entering in one town and swap to the other towns name in the other. I.e. Worcester St. is the street in Grafton that goes into Worcester. Once you cross into Worcester, it becomes Grafton st (because it is now the street from Worcester into Grafton).
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
Where i live in rural central Virginia, they usually have both. My wife, who grew up here, said they used to mostly have numbers, but then in the 90s, they gave all of them names as well.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
That’s basically what happened here as well. Although some have always had both, some just seemed to get numbers more recently.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
I've only lived in a few states, but all rural roads I've ever been familiar with have always had numbers. Even if they aren't posted, they're on the county map.
tsukiii@reddit
Uh, the Pacific Coast Highway is also the 101. That’s the only one I can think of.
MrKieser@reddit
Almost every road with a number also has a name in Central Texas. The only exceptions I can think of are Interstate Highways, but there may be others. Some numbered highways have names that change as they go through different suburbs even and you can kind of pinpoint where people are from based on what they call a road.
RupeThereItIs@reddit
Like other's have said, for state highways yes.
We also have the mile roads, like the imphamous 8 mile.
For example 16 mile is also known as Big Beaver, Quarton or Metro Parkway depending on where your at.
Side note 16 mile is exit 69 on I-75, they make T-shirts about it.
Regular_Ad_6362@reddit
Usually only for state routes. But even then, they usually have a name associated with them not including a number. A city near me has a road called Lynn Riggs Blvd.. It’s Route 66.
I’m from Orlando originally and always had trouble explaining this to others. Especially when going to or from MCO with 436/Semoran. It gets terrible in South Florida with the “NW 61st Terrace” type of stuff
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
That’s exactly what I was talking about. I grew up in Orlando and it seemed as if most had one or the other then. But now on maps you can see both. I never thought about it until my wife was looking for something that I said was off Goldenrod. She kept asking where it was, and I pointed it out to her and it only had the number 551 until you zoomed in to see it’s also goldenrod. I definitely understand why people are always so confused and lost while driving around.
Regular_Ad_6362@reddit
If locals and Americans are lost and confused, imagine all the British tourists that rent cars!
Vachic09@reddit
It's very common. In fact, there are route numbers that change names depending upon where along the route you are.
nicheencyclopedia@reddit
I learned to navigate where I’m from with the help of GPS, which strongly prefers the names. My dad, on the other hand, uses the numbers. I can’t begin to explain how many times my dad will try to describe directions and I’m like “wtf are you talking about?? What is 50??”
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Exactly! This is why I was thinking about this. GPS seems to show only the number, until you zoom in. But growing up in the area those numbers aren’t really even known. So I’ll use the name while my wife is looking at the maps to see where I’m talking about and it mostly shows the numbers.
Wild-Attention2932@reddit
Most of our streets are named but have a coordinated number outside the city. They go off the name mostly, but the number is helpful for responding to calls.
The county roads are almost all numbers/alphabet, but there's the odd named road in there also. Especially in the new developments.
Relevant-Ad4156@reddit
Most places in the country have numbered highways that run between cities. Where those roads enter a city, that chunk gets named by the city. And so now it has a name, plus its number as part of the highway system. Some people will call it one, some will call it the other, and some will use whichever one they feel like at the time.
OldTiredAnnoyed@reddit
We don’t play that game here. The only exception are major motorways & highways.
The motorway I use most days is the M1 & just the M1. No name other than that.
The major highways will have a number name but I don’t think many people would know what that is as major highways always have names, like the New England Highway & the Pacific Highway.
Roads within cities & towns that are not a highway to motorway are just a named road. No number.
JessQuesadilla@reddit
Same here in South Florida (Miami)
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Makes sense! It’s just confusing looking at maps and seeing only one or the other until you zoom in and can see what the road is actually called.
Low-Cat4360@reddit
Can't think of any at all besides highways. Even roads like First Street in my town are spelled out
GF_baker_2024@reddit
Major roads? Yes. We usually use the name, though. E.g., Woodward Ave. north/south through the center of Detroit) is M-1, but I've never heard it called that.
tangledbysnow@reddit
I live where the Lincoln Highway ran through so fairly common. That said not everything is like that but it’s common enough.
Avery_Thorn@reddit
Near me, most of the freeway routes have names.
And absolutely no one knows what they are, we just use the number.
Some of the more prominent state routes have names and numbers, although for the most part it's more of a "the route runs on the street", and while obviously the route extends past the street, sometimes the street and the route are not concurrent for their whole length.
SuperPookypower@reddit
We have that in California.
NamingandEatingPets@reddit
Very common. I’m in Virginia and many roads have names now that didn’t have names before and local that have lived here a long time. We still say things like “612“. And some roads have numbers and multiple names. For example, route 3 is also Plank Road and the Blue and Gray Parkway.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Ok, that’s exactly what I was wondering. It’s the same here as well. I grew up with either the name or number and then suddenly the other appeared. I still call most roads what I grew up with because that’s what I learned.
bloopidupe@reddit
Absolutely not. Pick a struggle.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
Lol that’s what I’m saying! I grew up only hearing one or the other, then suddenly the other just appears.
Otherwise-OhWell@reddit
Ogden Avenue, aka Route 34, aka Walter Payton Memorial Highway is a major roadway from Chicago through the western burbs.
Thistooshallpass1_1@reddit
Roads in town mostly only have a name. Highways have a number. When a highway runs through town, it will also have a name, concurrent with whatever the town calls it. Sometimes it will get a new name in different towns.
For example, Highway 32 running through the city of Racine? Its name is Douglas Avenue AND Highway 32. The same highway continues south as 32. When it gets to the city of Kenosha? It gets a new name, Sheridan Road. But it’s still Highway 32.
Odd-Help-4293@reddit
If it's a main road, then yes. My city (about 100k people) has like.... 5 or 6 roads I think that aren't actual highways but are major enough roads to have numbers that people use.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
Yes in Chicago, but they aren't always a strict 1 to 1. I'll try to explain: we have the Kennedy, which runs from O'Hare airport to the West Loop, western downtown. The Kennedy covers parts of three different highways, though.
machagogo@reddit
Like state or county routes or highways? Common. Tertiary roads? Never.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
Chicago has this, yeah. 94 is the Edens, 290 is the Eisenhower, etc
7yearlurkernowposter@reddit
Quite Common.
Sort of neat when WW1 anti-German sentiment was brewing most of the german named streets were renamed.
Except for the ones nobody could agree on so you have silly things like 39th street appearing in the grid even if nothing is numbered for blocks around.
Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit (OP)
That’s really interesting. It’s pretty confusing for people who are new to the area. Especially if you ask someone for directions or where they are. And they aren’t grid like numbers were Main Street is 1st. They are just numbers that seem completely random. I’m sure there’s a reason for them, but I’m just not sure. Growing up here I never really thought about it, and lots of the street names I always heard. But looking at maps I started to notice most just had numbers as well.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
The legacy of segregation is so present in Chicago, it has made me wonder if there is something behind many west-to-east streets on the south side being numbered compared to similar north side streets having names.
TheBimpo@reddit
Very common. County, state, and federal roads often have local designations that usually precede the highway.
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