4 ms·

Many parts of the US are the same. Even worse: there are areas in the Chicago suburbs (I presume other cities' suburbs too) where since a town boundary runs do

Many parts of the US are the same. Even worse: there are areas in the Chicago suburbs (I presume other cities' suburbs too) where since a town boundary runs down the middle of the street, the numbering on opposite sides of the street are actually going in different directions, because they are relative to two different town numbering systems. O.o

ghaff 7y ago
This and problems like this are rampant in New England which is mostly covered by a lot of smaller towns (with a few large cities of course). Basically everything usually resets at a town boundary. Sometimes the name changes. Sometimes it doesn't. But numbers almost always reset. And, even within a town, it's not unusual for streets to change name a couple times in the course of a few miles. And towns reuse street names all the time--especially for things like Main Street.
- hibbelig 7y ago
  > And, even within a town, it's not unusual for streets to change name a couple times in the course of a few miles. You say that as if it was a bad thing. This idea that a "street" is a line on the map, and whether there is actually asphalt at that spot is yet to be defined -- this is a very strange idea to me. If I get to the right street, I expect to be able to follow it until I get to the correct address. Streets with gaps in them don't work so well for this. Yes, if the city is laid out in a rectangular grid, that has its advantags, too. But I just want to point out a different way to look at things. (European perspective.)
  - ghaff 7y ago
    >If I get to the right street, I expect to be able to follow it until I get to the correct address. Assuming you're on the street in the correct town, sure. Continuity is actually one of the things that was fixed as part of the whole E911 system in the US. Before that, you would sometimes have streets that, for example, would have two segments that weren't actually connected in the middle. Or you'd have a single named road with a T shape or some other layout that meant you couldn't just follow it from one end to the other. You also, as someone else mentioned, used to have houses with rural route numbers (I grew up on one) that didn't have a street address at all. In our case, our town address didn't even correspond to where we were located because it was the adjacent town that did the RR deliveries.
    - gumby 7y ago
      This is still pretty common in the US. Midtown Palo Alto is full of streets with discontinuities and small side streets all bearing he same name.
gumby 7y ago
This is true and the boundary of Palo Alto, Mountain Virw, and Los Altos right at San Antonio and El Camino Seemed strange to me that Rambus could be in Los Altos (a largely residential town) until I drove past it one day and thought it was in Mountain View.
Treblemaker 7y ago
I well remember my confusion and frustration years ago trying to find an address on Kifer Rd between Sunnyvale and Santa Clara in California. I think I must have turned around four times before I realized what was happening...

ghaff 7y ago

This and problems like this are rampant in New England which is mostly covered by a lot of smaller towns (with a few large cities of course). Basically everything usually resets at a town boundary. Sometimes the name changes. Sometimes it doesn't. But numbers almost always reset. And, even within a town, it's not unusual for streets to change name a couple times in the course of a few miles. And towns reuse street names all the time--especially for things like Main Street.

hibbelig 7y ago
> And, even within a town, it's not unusual for streets to change name a couple times in the course of a few miles. You say that as if it was a bad thing. This idea that a "street" is a line on the map, and whether there is actually asphalt at that spot is yet to be defined -- this is a very strange idea to me. If I get to the right street, I expect to be able to follow it until I get to the correct address. Streets with gaps in them don't work so well for this. Yes, if the city is laid out in a rectangular grid, that has its advantags, too. But I just want to point out a different way to look at things. (European perspective.)
- ghaff 7y ago
  >If I get to the right street, I expect to be able to follow it until I get to the correct address. Assuming you're on the street in the correct town, sure. Continuity is actually one of the things that was fixed as part of the whole E911 system in the US. Before that, you would sometimes have streets that, for example, would have two segments that weren't actually connected in the middle. Or you'd have a single named road with a T shape or some other layout that meant you couldn't just follow it from one end to the other. You also, as someone else mentioned, used to have houses with rural route numbers (I grew up on one) that didn't have a street address at all. In our case, our town address didn't even correspond to where we were located because it was the adjacent town that did the RR deliveries.
  - gumby 7y ago
    This is still pretty common in the US. Midtown Palo Alto is full of streets with discontinuities and small side streets all bearing he same name.

gumby 7y ago

This is true and the boundary of Palo Alto, Mountain Virw, and Los Altos right at San Antonio and El Camino Seemed strange to me that Rambus could be in Los Altos (a largely residential town) until I drove past it one day and thought it was in Mountain View.

Treblemaker 7y ago

I well remember my confusion and frustration years ago trying to find an address on Kifer Rd between Sunnyvale and Santa Clara in California. I think I must have turned around four times before I realized what was happening...