4 ms·

What is up with the terrible street naming around Seattle? N.E. 28th Street? Not just 28th street? And it's one block south of N.E. 28th Place? There's an S.E.

What is up with the terrible street naming around Seattle? N.E. 28th Street? Not just 28th street? And it's one block south of N.E. 28th Place? There's an S.E. 28th Street further east? How did anyone get around this place before GPS?

oniTony 15y ago
Pff, try "1st ave", "1st avenue south", and "1st ave N.". Yup, 3 different (albeit connected) streets in Seattle.
- throw_away 15y ago
  bellvue ave, bellvue court and bellvue place intersect in cap hill. to answer the OP, those directionals are required to uniquely identify addresses in Seattle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle#Directionals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle#Direct... note that they're prefixes for east-west streets, but suffixes for north-south avenues. I've lost deliveries before when I've omitted the directional, even if the street #/street name was unique to the zip code.
- prodigal_erik 15y ago
  I wonder whether any GPS can parse addresses like 123 W E St out in Shelton. Not to be confused with 123 E St SW in Auburn. As a deliverator before GPS was common, figuring out how to look stuff like this up in a Thomas Guide was pretty entertaining.
shalmanese 15y ago
It's actually fairly logicial once you're used to it. It's just a quadrant grid system. Streets run east-west, avenues run north-south. The center of the city is approximately somewhere downtown, streets go out in a radial fashion from downtown.
darklajid 15y ago
I invite you to come to Europe [1].. :) 1: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cologne,+Germany&hl=en&ll=50.940907,6.960182&spn=0.021985,0.055189&sll=32.093279,34.773593&sspn=0.014925,0.027595&vpsrc=6&hnear=Cologne,+North+Rhine-Westphalia,+Germany&t=m&z=15 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cologne,+Germany&hl=en&#3...
lytfyre 15y ago
2nd Ave North and 2nd Ave West run parallel to each other, two blocks apart. I don't think a compas was much help for navigation, or at least I don't think one was consulted during the naming process.
andyking 15y ago
I've never been to Seattle, but coming from Europe I found it very logical when I visited Grand Rapids, MI earlier in the year. There, they append a compass point on each street depending what area of the city it's in - Lake Drive SE, Wealthy St SW, 28th St SW and so on. It took me a little while to fathom, but it turned out these main thoroughfares keep their name right across the city, so the compass points help you keep your bearings. I love your grid systems (and I'm sad enough to sit and look at maps of them for hours) - I find it really difficult to get lost in the USA. Everything's just so logically laid out when you're used to European maze-like towns and cities. My small English town (11,000 people) is easier to get lost in than a city the size of South Bend or Grand Rapids.
- barrkel 15y ago
  I have exactly the opposite reaction. I can't stand the grid. I love cities I can get lost in. Streets that wind and wend are my favourite; ideally with a mix of canals and shortcuts. Wide, broad, straight streets are to my mind inhuman: built for grandeur and ego of despots in old cities, for cars in new ones. I like pedestrianized streets on a human scale, with organic layout and a mix of residential and retail. My home town of Galway, Ireland approaches the optimimum of small size that gives walkability and scale that gives diversity. Larger cities can be and often are formed like constellations of such smaller towns
  - Valien 15y ago
    In that case come visit Greenville, SC. Small but it looks like someone sneezed on a map and drew the road lines from there. It's chaos but you get used to it.
  - ggwicz 15y ago
    I love getting lost in cities too, but if I'm in a rush nothing beats the simple "streets go this way, avenues go that way" grid of NYC. (that's just what I say in my head with matching hand motions)
    - Sukotto 15y ago
deleted 15y ago
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oniTony 15y ago

Pff, try "1st ave", "1st avenue south", and "1st ave N.". Yup, 3 different (albeit connected) streets in Seattle.

throw_away 15y ago
bellvue ave, bellvue court and bellvue place intersect in cap hill. to answer the OP, those directionals are required to uniquely identify addresses in Seattle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle#Directionals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle#Direct... note that they're prefixes for east-west streets, but suffixes for north-south avenues. I've lost deliveries before when I've omitted the directional, even if the street #/street name was unique to the zip code.
prodigal_erik 15y ago
I wonder whether any GPS can parse addresses like 123 W E St out in Shelton. Not to be confused with 123 E St SW in Auburn. As a deliverator before GPS was common, figuring out how to look stuff like this up in a Thomas Guide was pretty entertaining.

shalmanese 15y ago

It's actually fairly logicial once you're used to it. It's just a quadrant grid system. Streets run east-west, avenues run north-south. The center of the city is approximately somewhere downtown, streets go out in a radial fashion from downtown.

darklajid 15y ago

I invite you to come to Europe [1].. :) 1: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cologne,+Germany&hl=en&ll=50.940907,6.960182&spn=0.021985,0.055189&sll=32.093279,34.773593&sspn=0.014925,0.027595&vpsrc=6&hnear=Cologne,+North+Rhine-Westphalia,+Germany&t=m&z=15 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cologne,+Germany&hl=en&#3...

lytfyre 15y ago

2nd Ave North and 2nd Ave West run parallel to each other, two blocks apart. I don't think a compas was much help for navigation, or at least I don't think one was consulted during the naming process.

andyking 15y ago

I've never been to Seattle, but coming from Europe I found it very logical when I visited Grand Rapids, MI earlier in the year. There, they append a compass point on each street depending what area of the city it's in - Lake Drive SE, Wealthy St SW, 28th St SW and so on. It took me a little while to fathom, but it turned out these main thoroughfares keep their name right across the city, so the compass points help you keep your bearings. I love your grid systems (and I'm sad enough to sit and look at maps of them for hours) - I find it really difficult to get lost in the USA. Everything's just so logically laid out when you're used to European maze-like towns and cities. My small English town (11,000 people) is easier to get lost in than a city the size of South Bend or Grand Rapids.

barrkel 15y ago
I have exactly the opposite reaction. I can't stand the grid. I love cities I can get lost in. Streets that wind and wend are my favourite; ideally with a mix of canals and shortcuts. Wide, broad, straight streets are to my mind inhuman: built for grandeur and ego of despots in old cities, for cars in new ones. I like pedestrianized streets on a human scale, with organic layout and a mix of residential and retail. My home town of Galway, Ireland approaches the optimimum of small size that gives walkability and scale that gives diversity. Larger cities can be and often are formed like constellations of such smaller towns
- Valien 15y ago
  In that case come visit Greenville, SC. Small but it looks like someone sneezed on a map and drew the road lines from there. It's chaos but you get used to it.
- ggwicz 15y ago
  I love getting lost in cities too, but if I'm in a rush nothing beats the simple "streets go this way, avenues go that way" grid of NYC. (that's just what I say in my head with matching hand motions)
  - Sukotto 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

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