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"you could infer that 1234 W Something Rd is nearby 1238 W Something Rd." Don't overestimate that. There are nasty exceptions where the street disappears and c

"you could infer that 1234 W Something Rd is nearby 1238 W Something Rd." Don't overestimate that. There are nasty exceptions where the street disappears and continues elsewhere without a significant gap in house numbers, especially in cities with a long history.

saalweachter 8y ago
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Being able to naively navigate city -> street -> number is incredibly useful, and that it is occasionally broken doesn't make it an undesirable feature.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  It's more than occasionally broken, there's billions of people living in spots where it doesn't work.
  - bradstewart 8y ago
    Billions? You've found navigation by street number to be unreliable in 20+ % of locations? Either way, it does work for several billion other people.
    - maxerickson 8y ago
      I haven't personally found it to be the case, but I do know that people in much of the developing world simply don't have/use street addresses like are common in the "West".
      - moftz 8y ago
        Just because you use a system like W3W or even just lat/long for a rural address in a developing country, doesn't really mean you will easily be able to navigate to it. Many rural roads don't have names/numbers and may not even be marked on mapping software. Navigating to these kinds of places takes local knowledge (or at least a GPS, a recent topo map, and careful planning) to get to.
velcrovan 8y ago
That's why an address consists of more than a street name and a number. It includes town, province/state, postal code, and country. When given two actual complete addresses, it is indeed possible to infer relative distance with reasonable accuracy, exceptions notwithstanding. (And I live near St Paul Minnesota!) Even granting that your “nasty exceptions” comprise fully half of all complete addresses, that would simply mean that a normal addressing scheme is better than W3W 50% of the time and no worse in all other cases.

saalweachter 8y ago

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Being able to naively navigate city -> street -> number is incredibly useful, and that it is occasionally broken doesn't make it an undesirable feature.

maxerickson 8y ago
It's more than occasionally broken, there's billions of people living in spots where it doesn't work.
- bradstewart 8y ago
  Billions? You've found navigation by street number to be unreliable in 20+ % of locations? Either way, it does work for several billion other people.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    I haven't personally found it to be the case, but I do know that people in much of the developing world simply don't have/use street addresses like are common in the "West".
    - moftz 8y ago
      Just because you use a system like W3W or even just lat/long for a rural address in a developing country, doesn't really mean you will easily be able to navigate to it. Many rural roads don't have names/numbers and may not even be marked on mapping software. Navigating to these kinds of places takes local knowledge (or at least a GPS, a recent topo map, and careful planning) to get to.

velcrovan 8y ago

That's why an address consists of more than a street name and a number. It includes town, province/state, postal code, and country. When given two actual complete addresses, it is indeed possible to infer relative distance with reasonable accuracy, exceptions notwithstanding. (And I live near St Paul Minnesota!) Even granting that your “nasty exceptions” comprise fully half of all complete addresses, that would simply mean that a normal addressing scheme is better than W3W 50% of the time and no worse in all other cases.