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What's the difference between st. ave. blvd.? |
Travel Info Is there a difference between street, avenue, boulevard, circle, court, drive? If so what is it? Travel Tips Ok I'll break it down: Boulevard: A boulevard is usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the center, and "roads" along each side designed as slow travel parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery. Street: A street is a public thoroughfare in the built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable surface such as concrete, cobblestone or brick. Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt, embedded with rails, or otherwise prepared to accommodate non-pedestrian traffic. Avenue: Traditionally, an avenue is a straight road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side Circle: Is an obvious one. Court: A court is basically a dead end street with a turn around. Drive: A drive is usually a local street in a neighborhood. At times a major expressway or parkway can be called a Drive such as Harlem River Drive in New York City or Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Others Sometimes there is. ~ Street and Avenue are usually straight roadways. Circle is what it means. A court is often like a circle but totally open, no central grass or anything (Place or plaza). Boulevards usually have a green strip, often with trees between the roadways. Drive is just another street but maybe shorter. All of the above also mean that names can be repeated with different suffixes. Just like computer file names. ;-) It used to be a street was simply a paved road. An avenue included landscaping such as trees sometimes with parking spaces and a boulevard had center dividers of some kind. The rest are kind of nebulous. Circle, for example, used to be a road you could turn onto and if you did not turn off would eventually take you back to the point you entered. The Beltway in Washington DC is an example of a circle, but it isn't named that way. Today, these names are no longer indicative of what the road construction is, sigh. For example, in some cities, streets run east-west and avenues run north-south even though both are identical. another bit of info if you end up NYC: Avenues (in manhattan) run South to North and increase in number East to West. Streets run East to West and increase in number as you North (again, Manhattan) Boulevards are found in the outer boro's and are generally larger than avenues, but can be considered the same thing in certain areas. In Queens however, the major boulevard is as wide as a highway with all its medians Circle, Court and drive have already been explained though they are far and few between in NYC Boulevard is used in Queens and Staten Island to indicate what are usually more important business streets. The term is not used in Manhattan, and rarely if at all in Brooklyn or the Bronx. Court almost invariably is a small street with a dead end, often a single development of houses is built around it. Commonly used again in Queens and Staten Island, but definitely also used in Brooklyn, not much in the Bronx. Drive and Circle again are primarily used for short streets. Drive is most common in Queens. Circle is sometimes used for streets that actually end in a traffic circle, but on Staten Island is also used for dead end streets that don't have a true traffic circle. In Manhattan Avenues run generally north-south, parallel to the length of the island. Streets run east-west, across the width of the island. Many of the streets are one way, even being eastbound and odd being west bound, but some of the major streets, such as 14, 23, 34, 42 and 59 are two-way. Outside Manhattan you will find in Brooklyn no real rules, with streets and avenues mixed and running into one another. Queens has an even more confusing set up, with such possibilities as 78 Avenue followed by 78 Street, followed by 78 Drive, followed by 78 Road. Oh, and some of the things in Queens start, end, and restart. 41st Avenue for example begins and ends five different places. On Staten Island Roads, avenues and Streets all are mixed, plus developers creating little cul de sacs with the names of their kids, girl friends whatever. Thus Tom Court, and Anita Way. (Of course, Brooklyn has Tennis Court, which at least is amusing) And I know of an avenue in the Bronx that splits and runs parallel to itself for a couple blocks. |
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