[Talk-us] Would Like To Clean Salt Lake City Street Names

[Kevin Atkinson]

On Sat, 31 Jul 2010, Mike Thompson wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Kevin Atkinson <kevin at atkinson.dhs.org> wrote:
>> Is there a reason you replied privately?  May I forward your post to the
>> list?
>>
>> On Sat, 31 Jul 2010, Mike Thompson wrote:
>>
>>> In presume you live in Salt Lake City?
>>
>> Yes I do.
>>
>>> I don't live in Utah, but my experience during my travels has been
>>> that streets are generally signed like "S 900 E."
>>
>> Not in salt lake city.
>>
>>> All cities in Utah
>>> (that I am aware of) are laid out in a grid and use grid style
>>> addressing (I think you alluded to this in your post).  In the above
>>> example, there is probably also a "N 900 E."  If move the "S" or
>>> "South" (I don't want to get into the expand vs. not expanding
>>> abbreviations here), you introduce a potential ambiguous situation.
>>
>> There is a North and South 900 East, but they are the same road.  North
>> becomes South when it crosses South Template.  The only ambiguous situation
>> is if you give an address of "333 900 E", as this has two potential
>> locations (one North and one south of South Temple). The correct address is
>> 333 S 900 E".  Hence, the directional prefix is more part of the address.
>>  In additional most printed maps do not include the directional prefix.  It
>> is only really found on online maps.
>
> If the road changes names when it crosses South Temple (other cities
> in Utah use "Main" or "Central" as the dividing line), then I would
> contend that it is a different road, at least name wise.

The road name does not really change.  The directional prefix is not 
really part of the road name, it is not signed that way.  When someone 
asks you what street you live on you would say "900 East" (or sometimes 
"9th East"), you will not include the directional prefix.

> Wash DC has a different four quadrant grid system. 14 St NW becomes 14
> St SW when it crosses Constitution Ave.  I don't think anyone would
> suggest changing it to 14 St W and moving the "N" or "S" to the
> address.

Washington DC, uses a different system, and is a separate case.

> I think putting the first "directional" in with the address makes
> handling the address more difficult.  When finding a numeric address
> it is just a matter of comparison, 850 is between 800 and 900.
> Typically anything that follows the address, e.g. "Suite B", just
> makes the address more specific, it does not mean the location is on
> the other side of town.

Yes it does, slightly.  Which is why online maps probably include it.  It 
simplifies forming the address.  You simply combine a number with the 
street names.  But a full address is more complicated than that.  See
   http://vidthekid.info/misc/osm-abbr.html
Also see
   http://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/pub28c2.html (section 233)

The directional prefix (especially when spelled out) in my view just adds 
noise to the map.