Naming rules for street names and house numbers in the United States

Have you been lucky enough to travel to the United States? Do you know the naming rules of street names and house numbers in the United States? Can you easily find the place you want to go? Come and learn with me at Chunxi Foreign Language What are the naming rules for streets and house numbers in the United States?

There are many types of streets in cities and towns in the United States, far more than those found in the country. In China, there are just a few types of roads, avenues, streets, alleys, and alleys. In the United States, there are dozens of them, such as: road, street, avenue, boulevard, way, drive, lane, parkway, place, court, circle, loop, Highway, terrace, etc. like pike, loop, island (island), etc. are relatively rare. There is Foster City ten miles south of San Francisco International Airport, and some community road names are xxxx isle, because those roads are related to residential buildings. It is built on a long and narrow island in the water. The backyard of every house is a waterway, and you can take a boat out.

Not only are there many types of streets, but there are also more street names, because addresses in North America are not like domestic alleys with numerical codes next to the same road, but each alley has its own name. Therefore, addresses in the United States and Canada only have a number, street name, city name, state or province, and zip code. At most, the apartment (apartment#) or unit (suite#) number is added after the street name, and often only two lines of characters are required. Just write it down, no need to use a few paragraphs, a few lanes, a few lanes, or a few.

As for which of road, street, avenue, parkway, etc. is wider or narrower, there is really no definite rule. There are only common principles. For example: boulevard and parkway are usually wider and have safety islands or Separated by roads and trees, lanes and drives are often used in narrow or curved community alleys in residential areas. Circles can mostly be seen on the map as approximately one or a half circle. Courts do not lead to the end and become a circular dead end like a dead alley. Circle goes around in a circle. In some cities, boulevards are narrower, even narrower than streets. This may be due to inconsistent local street planning in different eras, or it may be that a certain street was really narrow in the early years and was widened into a boulevard a few years later in line with the new urban plan.

Some of the street names in North America are systematically planned. For example, it is common to use numbers or English letters to name streets in a checkerboard pattern. In some areas, the names of states, past presidents, tree names, flowers and plants are used. Names, animal names, names of famous universities, etc. Some are like the GRE analysis questions that use a bunch of different words, but they are arranged according to the prefix letters. I have seen the street name 1/2 Street in Austin, Texas (it seems to be 38 and 1/2 Street), because the street is located in the middle of two other numbered streets.

Speaking of urban planning, in most of the later developed western and southern states in the United States, street house numbers have a local system plan, which corresponds to the east-west and north-south coordinates. It is customary for each thousand numbers to be approximately one mile in length. If there are no house numbers on a certain road section, they are still retained. In some communities, the houses are closely adjacent, but the difference is not necessarily only two numbers. The difference may be 4, 6, 8, or 10. , depending on the width of the street in front of each house. So sometimes when you see the house number of an address, you can roughly estimate the distance. For example, 12350 and 18350 are about six miles apart on the same road. The house numbers of each street do not need to be arranged from the first, and each town does not need to customize the coordinate origin of the house numbers. Instead, it refers to the east-west and north-south coordinates of the entire area. It may start from tens of thousands, but usually up to five is used. digits.

On AAA's urban maps, section numbers of hundreds or thousands are often printed in red fine letters next to certain major roads for reference to facilitate finding address locations. A few months before I arrived in the United States, I was not familiar with the relationship between house numbers and coordinates. I checked the map and found that the street where a certain company was located was in several intermittent sections, stretching for several miles. I didn’t know which section they were in. There was no internet back then. I had to call map service to inquire. Later, if you encounter a similar situation, you will know to directly find the correct location by referring to the east-west or north-south coordinates on the map.

In some areas, house numbers are also planned with checkerboard-style numerical street names. For example, No. 2350 is located roughly between 23rd Street and 24th Street. The beginning of this section may be numbers such as 2300, 2301, etc. In Queens, New York City, there are some urban house numbers such as 43-79 36th St. to represent the section of 36th Street between 43rd Ave. and 44th Ave.

However, not all cities and towns in the United States have such neat house number planning. Many street house numbers that existed for a long time before World War II still look like domestic cities. Each road is lined up from No. 1, and does not follow the habit of approximately one mile for every thousand No., such as in downtown Manhattan. However, many old New Yorkers are familiar with certain streets and can see the Broadway house number. I just know which street it is in downtown or midtown, all based on experience.

Well, that’s it for today’s naming rules for street names and house numbers in the United States. If you want to learn more about practical spoken English, please pay attention to Chunxi Foreign Language: Professional foreign teachers will help you speak pure and fluent English one-on-one.