[Talk-us] Street Naming Conventions

[Nathan Edgars II]

Dale Puch wrote:
>On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 4:44 PM, Nathan Edgars II <neroute2 at gmail.com>wrote:
>> Lord-Castillo, Brett wrote:
>>> But another good one close to us is "Old Olive Street Rd" and "Old Olive
>>> St Rd" (both official names for different sections of the road). These two
>>> streets run parallel to Olive St, Olive Street Rd, and Olive Blvd (all three
>>> of these are different roads).
>>
>> So if "Old Olive Street Rd" and "Old Olive St Rd" are different, how
>> do you distinguish them in speech? Or are they actually
>> interchangeable names, as would seem logical (in other words, one or
>> the other may be "official", but both are unambiguous and correct for
>> all practical purposes)?
>If "Old Olive Street Rd" and "Old Olive St Rd" are one road, ie. connected
>and not and a corner.  Then things that may explain it are different
>addresses where they intersect, or if they are in different jurisdictions.
>Like where two cities meet.  But if the addressing continues between the
>different names, then it seem one sign is wrong.  I personally think "Old
>Olive Street Rd" should be used, and only cardinal direction prefix and type
>suffix abbreviated.  The rest being the core name.

I'm not sure what you mean - if you tell someone "I live at 50 Old
Olive Street Rd", how is that any different from "I live at 50 Old
Olive St Rd"? (Obviously one would need to specify which city the
address is in, if the "official" name changes at the city line. But,
without the city name, neither of those statements, even written,
would be truly unambiguous, since the reader can't assume the chosen
Street or St is identical to the "official" usage. In fact, if we do
name these segments differently, it could cause more confusion, since
someone typing one might be taken to the "official" match when they
wanted the other one and didn't realize they were "officially"
different.)

As for abbreviations, there's no consistent way to abbreviate. Around
here, you'll see Parkway, Pkwy, Pky, and Py all used for the same
road. And directional prefixes are part of the address, appearing
above the block number in a separate square on street signs.