# Numbered Street



## mrsmartman (Mar 16, 2015)

A numbered street is a street whose name is an ordinal number, as in Second Street or Tenth Avenue. Such forms are among the most common street names in North America, but also exist in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. Numbered streets were first used in Philadelphia and now exist in many major cities and small towns. Grid-based naming systems usually start at 1 (but sometimes at a higher number or even at zero), and then proceed in numerical order. In the United States, seven out of the top ten most common street names are numbers, with the top three names being "2nd," "3rd," and "1st" respectively.

Some cities also have lettered street names. For example, Washington, D.C., in addition to having numbered streets, also has streets identified as a letter followed by "Street," going as high as the letter W. New York City (mostly in Brooklyn) has avenues titled "Avenue" followed by the respective letter of the alphabet, such as Avenue D. The idea for such a system was developed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who devised the system for Washington.

The numbered street system is criticized for taking away the individuality from a community that a named street would provide.

Source: Wikipedia

In my opinion, numbered streets assist the identification of location. They also help us feel the power of urban sprawl.

The highest street number in my city is the 28th. As I know, many streets in NYC are over the 200th.

I thought the numbering of street is great when you enter New York subway at 110th Street and the train passes through streets and quickly it stops at 81st Street. That's the Museum of Natural History. 

In my hometown, streets are mostly named by people, surrounding geographical features, trees and other towns. There are also some interesting combination of street names. Transit stations are named for the surrounding areas/districts instead of streets. 

Street numbering has become a trend in America since the progressive era. You know how far you've traveled when streets are named in numbers. 

Even football fields are numbered...


----------



## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

We don't have numberred streets here in Rotterdam city, but in the port, dock numbers are used as address instead of streets.

A small town in NL named Geldrop has something completely else: Streets named after Lord of the Rings characters.










http://www.telegraaf.nl/reiskrant/22248292/___Geldrop_is_Middle_Earth___.html


----------



## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

Are there any European cities with a considerable amount of numbered streets?


----------



## BriedisUnIzlietne (Dec 16, 2012)

My city of Rīga has 144 numbered streets.

But they are divided by areas and direction, for example, "Dārziņi 61st street" or "Čiekurkalns' 8th cross-street".

How do other European cities stack up?


----------



## CNGL (Jun 10, 2010)

Mequinenza, Spain is the only example I can think. When the Ribarroja dam was built, the old town was flooded by the reservoir and they had to build a new one. The rage was so large, the streets of the new town ended up being lettered. And they run out of alphabet, so they continue with A plus a number, reaching A13. There are also 10 numbered streets.


mrsmartman said:


> Even football fields are numbered...


Define 'football'. I guess you meant American football, but anyone outside the USA will take 'football' as association football, which is far more popular.


----------



## alexandru.mircea (May 18, 2011)

It smacks of lack of imagination to me. Barcelona has an iconic grid system and yet they still have lovely, evocative street names. And while I'm sure numbering streets makes it easier, I'm convinced the locals of Barcelona are not having it harder, they must be managing it.


----------



## BriedisUnIzlietne (Dec 16, 2012)

In the age of GPS navigation, having beautiful street names rather than functional ones is indeed a lot better


----------



## fieldsofdreams (Sep 21, 2012)

Numbered streets here in San Francisco can be found in nearly every community here, especially in larger cities.

San Francisco and Oakland have numbered streets and avenues, in which, to avoid confusion:

*San Francisco:*
- Numbered streets go east-west (south of the Central Freeway) and northeast-southwest (north of the Central Freeway)
- Numbered avenues go north-south and can be found in the Richmond and Sunset Districts

Notes:
- Third Street actually goes as a semi-circular loop between Market Street and US-101 @ Bayshore Boulevard)
- There is no First Avenue; instead, it is called Arguello Boulevard
- There is no street or number with the number 13 in it; instead, those are named Duboce Avenue (instead of 13th Street) and Funston Avenue (instead of 13th Avenue)
- Numbered streets and avenues are used as well to name several San Francisco Muni lines, including:

> KT-Ingleside/Third Street (a light rail line, formerly 15-Third Street which was a bus line)
> 18-46th Avenue
> 28 and 28R (named 19th Avenue)
> 33-Ashbury/18th Street
> 48-Quintara/24th Street
> 55-16th Street

*Oakland:*
- Numbered streets go east-west, and some of them go to and from nearby Emeryville, with the lowest being Second Street and the highest being 67th Street at the Oakland-Berkeley border
- Numbered avenues go northeast-southwest, starting from 1st Avenue next to Lake Merritt all the way down to 172nd Avenue in San Leandro (next to Interstate 580)

Notes:
- There is no First Street; instead, it is named Embarcadero West (right next to Jack London Square) and goes as far northwest as the Port of Oakland
- South of Lake Merritt, you will need to add East next to the numbered street to avoid confusion with numbered streets north of it. The most infamous of them is E 14th Street, which runs from Lake Merritt to the north all the way down to Interstate 580 wherein it is a major drag for the homeless, prostitutes, drug dealers, and gun-wielding individuals. In Oakland, E 14th Street is also known as International Boulevard, which carries two major bus lines with AC Transit (the 1 and 1R)
- In West Oakland, certain numbered streets are skipped, in which the ones that provide through connections include 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th/21st
- Some roadways do not have consecutive numbering that you might get the impression that the numbered progression is disjointed:

> There is no San Pablo Ave & 58th; instead, you have San Pablo & Stanford/Powell
> There is no numbered streets between 49 and 52 along San Pablo Avenue; instead, from 48th Street, it jumps to 53rd Street
> There is no Sacramento & 64th St or Adeline & 64th St; instead, you have Sacramento & Alcatraz Avenue and Adeline & Alcatraz

In *San Jose*, it is much simpler:
- Streets are divided between North and South numbered street (the boundary line is at Santa Clara Avenue)
- The lowest is First Street (also the longest of the bunch), the highest is 33rd
- Some of those streets change names after a few blocks away from downtown (e.g. S 24th Street becomes McLaughlin Avenue), while others are much shorter than others that they do not appear north of McKee Road


----------



## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

In England we basically don't have numbered streets, except for a few small examples.
Like Trafford Park Village


----------



## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Milton Keynes in the UK has numbered streets.


----------



## eclipse182 (Mar 2, 2016)

There are tons of numbered streets in Kansas City, downtown is a grid which makes it very easy to navigate through the city. I live on 8th street and I know it goes up in to the hundreds.


----------



## Scba (Nov 20, 2004)

Ocean City, MD, goes up to 145th street, and probably has the highest ratio of numbered streets of any city (Most of the town is only one street wide).


----------



## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Some streets around Metro Manila are based in numbers.

Perfect examples are in *Bonifacio Global City*, one of the rising CBDs in the metro.


----------



## fieldsofdreams (Sep 21, 2012)

^^ What happened to 1st through 25th Streets? Coincidentally, my aunt and uncle now live in the Bellagio I Tower just west of the numbered streets! :yes:


----------



## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

fieldsofdreams said:


> ^^ What happened to 1st through 25th Streets? Coincidentally, my aunt and uncle now live in the Bellagio I Tower just west of the numbered streets! :yes:


There are labeled as *avenues*, at least the first ones.


----------



## RKO36 (Mar 20, 2016)

Numbered streets are a necessary evil because in a large city you are to likely run out of actual names for streets. They also run into problems like in Maspeth Queens, I once encountered an intersection 56th Rd/56th St/56th Dr and 56th Terrace a short distance away. That's just plain silly and cruel.


I can't post the link due to a low post county, but if you search "UPS Maspeth Queens" and head a bit east you can find it.


----------



## Rev Stickleback (Jun 23, 2009)

Svartmetall said:


> Milton Keynes in the UK has numbered streets.


Even there though, it's just one small area of the town.

Numbered streets generally are a product of the street layout being laid down before there were any buildings to fill it. In more historic cities, the streets gained names over time.

Even allowing for that, there are still many cities that have a grid system, but the streets are still named.



RKO36 said:


> Numbered streets are a necessary evil because in a large city you are to likely run out of actual names for streets.


...only if you seriously lack imagination.

There are apparently 60000 streets within a 6 miles radius of the centre of London, and they haven't had to resort to using numbers.


----------



## fieldsofdreams (Sep 21, 2012)

I want to put this on here (if mrsmartman will allow me): a variant of the "Numbered Streets" concept is "Lettered Streets", in which it is also common (in the US, it is A, B, C, D, and so on... Until Z). In some places, they use that concept uniquely that they use actual names for them. :yes:


----------



## BriedisUnIzlietne (Dec 16, 2012)

fieldsofdreams said:


> n some places, they use that concept uniquely that they use actual names for them. :yes:


As in:
Apple street
Barack Obama street
Cargo street
Discovery street
?


----------



## fieldsofdreams (Sep 21, 2012)

^^ Yep, something like that. In San Francisco, we have these instead:

[Note: for nearly each crossing, I list down corresponding bus lines that go through them]

*Sunset and Richmond Districts:* (named as Streets)

[North end: next block up is Geary Boulevard]

- Anza
- Balboa (on the 31-Balboa bus)
- Cabrillo

(skip D and E)

- Fulton (on the 5/5R-Fulton (Rapid) bus)

(skip G and H; if the G and H roadways were extended, it would have been Grove and Hayes, but those end on Stanyan Street on the east edge of Golden Gate Park)

- Crossover Drive (this is within Golden Gate Park; it links the Park Presidio Bypass with 25th Avenue for the western Richmond District, on the 29-Sunset bus)

- Lincoln Way (this is an exception because this roadway commemorates Historic Route US-40, which ends at Ocean Beach; supposedly it should be "H"; on the 7-Haight/Noriega, 7X-Noriega Express, and 29-Sunset bus lines)

Then continues as:
- Irving (on the N-Judah light rail line east of 9th Avenue)
- Judah (on the N-Judah light rail west of 9th Avenue; on the 6-Parnassus and 43-Masonic bus lines east of 9th Avenue; on the NX-Judah Express bus west of 19th Avenue)
- Kirkham
- Lawton (on the 6-Parnassus, 43-Masonic, 44-O'Shaughnessy, and 66-Quintara)
- Moraga
- Noriega (on the 7-Haight Noriega and 7X-Noriega Express bus lines west of 22nd and 23rd Avenues)
- Ortega
- Pacheco
- Quintara (on the 48-Quintara/24th Street and 66-Quintara bus lines west of 15th Avenue; on the 6-Parnassus east of 14th Avenue)
- Rivera
- Santiago
- Taraval (on the L-Taraval light rail)
- Ulloa
- Vicente
- Wawona

(Skip X -- if there was one, it would've been named Xavier)

- Yorba

[South end: next block down is Sloat Avenue]

*Bayview/Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley:* (named as Avenues)

The cycle along Third Street is interesting, such that the letter pattern starts immediately south of Islais Creek Channel, bordering Bayview and India Basin: 

(Note: streets in *bold* indicate stops along the T-Third Street light rail line, and those have corresponding stops on the 91-Owl line which operates overnights between SF State and West Portal Station via 19th Avenue, Marina District, Stockton Street, Caltrain Depot, Third Street, Geneva Avenue, Balboa Park BART, Ocean Avenue, and Junipero Serra)

- Cargo Way (instead of something with a letter A)
- Burke
- Custer
- Davidson
- *Evans* (on the 19-Polk, 44-O'Shaughnessy, and 54-Felton bus lines)
- Fairfax
- Galvez
- *Hudson* (on the 44-O'Shaughnessy and 54-Felton bus lines; on the T, it is named Hudson-Innes)
- Innes
- Jerrold
- *Kirkwood* (on the T, it is named Kirkwood-La Salle)
- La Salle
- McKinnon
- Newcomb
- *Oakdale* (on the T, it is named Oakdale-Palou) 
- Palou (on the 23-Monterey, 24-Divisadero and 54-Felton bus lines)
- Quesada
- *Revere* (on the T, it is named Revere-Shafter; another cross street is Bayview Street)
- Shafter
- Thomas (nearby cross street is Thornton)
- Underwood
- *Van ****/Williams* (on the 54-Felton and 91-Owl bus lines; east of Third, it is Van ****; west of Third, it is Williams)
- Wallace

(Skip X)

- Yosemite

(Skip Z, then continues with the cycle below)

- Armstrong
- Bancroft
- *Carroll*
- Donner
- Egbert
- Fitzgerald
- *Gilman/Paul* (on the 29-Sunset bus to Candlestick; east of Third, it is Gilman; west of Third, it is Paul)
- Hollister
- Ingerston
- Jamestown (on the 29-Sunset bus)
- Key
- *Le Conte*
- Meade

[End of alphabet, US-101 @ Bayshore Blvd/Third Street interchange]


----------

