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On house numbering

Started by 20160805, December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM

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20160805

Inspired by the thread on zero points, what is your favorite system of house numbering?  Several different systems are in use in various parts of the world, with the most common in the United States being adding 100 for every block away from a determined zero point downtown, with addresses such as 720 W Water St.  Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.

So with that being said, what are some interesting layouts you've seen, and what is your favorite method of house numbering?  Mine would probably be the first one I listed above, except using 20 per block so the city doesn't seem bigger than it is (an address of 4726 N Franklin St just seems big-city to me).

Just for fun, how would you number this basic grid below?

This is a city of 50-60 thousand people, although only the major arterials are shown.  There are of course houses and businesses (where else would the people live and work?) and streets in between on a grid pattern.  All the major streets shown are one mile (1.6 km) apart, which is equal to 10 blocks, and they are colour-coded as follows:
Green: Arterials with significant direct business access.  Two lanes in each direction (three in some more-congested parts) with a central left-turn lane and traffic lights at intersections with other green arterials.  Speed limit is 40 mph on the inner arterials and 40 or 45 on the outer ones.
Orange: North-south boulevard/expressway with some at-grade intersections and direct business access, but not much, and interchanges at major intersections.  No traffic lights.  Three lanes in each direction with a median.  Speed limit is 50 mph in town.
Red: East-west freeway that meets Interstate standards.  Has no at-grade intersections or traffic lights.  Three lanes in each direction with a median.  Speed limit drops to 70 mph in town; in a rural area it is 75.
(You can ignore the yellow dots on the map.)

Happy roadgeeking!
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.


Scott5114

Most cities I'm familiar with peg the house numbering so that it matches the street numbering. 4726 W. Franklin St. would be somewhere between W. 47th Street and W. 48th Street. In Norman, for instance, this functionally works out to house numbers increasing 1200 per mile because the major north-south avenues are numbered in increments of 12 (12th Avenue NE, 24th Avenue NE, etc.)

First time I realized that the house numbers and the street numbers were related it blew my mind. Not every city does it, but you can find lots of examples if you look.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

CtrlAltDel

Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.
Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

20160805

Quote from: Scott5114 on December 20, 2016, 08:24:41 PM
Most cities I'm familiar with peg the house numbering so that it matches the street numbering. 4726 W. Franklin St. would be somewhere between W. 47th Street and W. 48th Street. In Norman, for instance, this functionally works out to house numbers increasing 1200 per mile because the major north-south avenues are numbered in increments of 12 (12th Avenue NE, 24th Avenue NE, etc.)

First time I realized that the house numbers and the street numbers were related it blew my mind. Not every city does it, but you can find lots of examples if you look.

That actually makes a lot of sense - you know exactly where, for example, 1256 Fifth Avenue is on the grid.

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Good point.  What I was saying is that the fifth house from the start of the street, ignoring what side it's on, would be numbered 5, across from 4 or 6 and between 3 and 7.
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

doorknob60

#4
I like the Salt Lake City (and a few other places in that region) method. I can't explain it that well, so I'll copy/paste a description I read about it a while back.

Quote
Salt Lake’s unique street numbering system is almost identical in concept to that of longitude and latitude. Think of the point at which the Equator intersects the Greenwich Meridian – in other words, 0 degrees longitude and 0 degrees latitude. On the globe, that zero-point is just south of Ghana off the West African Coast. In Salt Lake City, it’s at Temple Square. Salt Lake is laid out on a simple grid system. Virtually every address in the city has a set of two coordinates telling how far east or west and how far north or south it is from Temple Square (or the corner of Main and South Temple Streets to be exact). Although an address such as 682 East 400 South may look strange to you, just remember that it simply describes a location on the grid. Consequently, both “halves” of the address (“682 East” and “400 South”) are equally significant, the second half being the street name and the first half being a specific point on that street. Even streets with names (Harvard Avenue, for instance) also have a numbered “coordinate.” If you were looking for Harvard Avenue, it would be helpful for you to know that its coordinate is 1175 south.

Driving east from Temple Square, you’ll find that the numbers on the street signs get larger. You’ll come to 5th East, 9th East, 13th East, etc. These streets run parallel to Main Street, which borders Temple Square on the East. Driving south from Temple Square, you’ll reach 4th South, 17th South, 39th South, 45th South, etc. These run parallel to South Temple, which borders Temple Square on the south. The same principle holds true, of course, when traveling north from North Temple or west from West Temple. Simple so far, right?

And yet a couple of things still tend to confuse out-of-towners. To begin with, the street signs will generally say both “Fifth East” (the street name) and “500 East” (the coordinate). In order to make sense of this seeming discrepancy, imagine a decimal point just prior to the two right-most digits. Once you recognize that Fifth East = 5.00 East = 500 East, the battle’s half won. Any way you look at it, you’re talking about a street 5 blocks east Temple Square, running parallel to Main Street. Likewise, 350 West is really 3.50 West. That’s 3½ (or 3.5) blocks west of Temple Square. To find a business located at 1633 East 4500 South, look first at the second half of the address. Your destination is located on Forty-fifth South, the street which runs parallel to and is 45 blocks south of South Temple Street. The first part of the address, 1633 East, designates where on 45th South the business is – in this case, 16 and one-third blocks east of Main Street. (That’s over 8 miles – better consider driving!)

This brings us to one last thought. Think of a “block” as a unit of measure. There are just under seven blocks to the mile in Salt Lake. And because a “street” is not necessarily the same as a “block”, it’s important to understand the difference. For instance, if you were walking from Fifth East to Sixth East, you might pass Oak Street. The sign on the corner would give both its name, “Oak Street”, and its coordinate, “525 East” (think 5.25 East). In other words, the distance between Fifth East and Sixth East is one block, while the distance between Fifth East and the first street east of it is only about ¼ of a block. See how easy?

Source: http://www.city-data.com/forum/salt-lake-city-area/963927-getting-around-salt-lake-city-primer.html

It still looks a little weird to me since I don't see it often, but it makes a lot of sense and I think it's a good system. The only thing I'm not sure I like is how big the blocks are in SLC. Salt Lake City's downtown block size is 660 ft * 660 ft. Compared to Boise, which is 260 ft * 300 ft. It's a bit much for me. But the grid system could work equally fine with smaller blocks (though they should probably be square).

20160805

Quote from: doorknob60 on December 21, 2016, 03:39:01 PM
I like the Salt Lake City (and a few other places in that region) method. I can't explain it that well, so I'll copy/paste a description I read about it a while back.

Quote
Salt Lake’s unique street numbering system is almost identical in concept to that of longitude and latitude. Think of the point at which the Equator intersects the Greenwich Meridian – in other words, 0 degrees longitude and 0 degrees latitude. On the globe, that zero-point is just south of Ghana off the West African Coast. In Salt Lake City, it’s at Temple Square. Salt Lake is laid out on a simple grid system. Virtually every address in the city has a set of two coordinates telling how far east or west and how far north or south it is from Temple Square (or the corner of Main and South Temple Streets to be exact). Although an address such as 682 East 400 South may look strange to you, just remember that it simply describes a location on the grid. Consequently, both “halves” of the address (“682 East” and “400 South”) are equally significant, the second half being the street name and the first half being a specific point on that street. Even streets with names (Harvard Avenue, for instance) also have a numbered “coordinate.” If you were looking for Harvard Avenue, it would be helpful for you to know that its coordinate is 1175 south.

Driving east from Temple Square, you’ll find that the numbers on the street signs get larger. You’ll come to 5th East, 9th East, 13th East, etc. These streets run parallel to Main Street, which borders Temple Square on the East. Driving south from Temple Square, you’ll reach 4th South, 17th South, 39th South, 45th South, etc. These run parallel to South Temple, which borders Temple Square on the south. The same principle holds true, of course, when traveling north from North Temple or west from West Temple. Simple so far, right?

And yet a couple of things still tend to confuse out-of-towners. To begin with, the street signs will generally say both “Fifth East” (the street name) and “500 East” (the coordinate). In order to make sense of this seeming discrepancy, imagine a decimal point just prior to the two right-most digits. Once you recognize that Fifth East = 5.00 East = 500 East, the battle’s half won. Any way you look at it, you’re talking about a street 5 blocks east Temple Square, running parallel to Main Street. Likewise, 350 West is really 3.50 West. That’s 3½ (or 3.5) blocks west of Temple Square. To find a business located at 1633 East 4500 South, look first at the second half of the address. Your destination is located on Forty-fifth South, the street which runs parallel to and is 45 blocks south of South Temple Street. The first part of the address, 1633 East, designates where on 45th South the business is – in this case, 16 and one-third blocks east of Main Street. (That’s over 8 miles – better consider driving!)

This brings us to one last thought. Think of a “block” as a unit of measure. There are just under seven blocks to the mile in Salt Lake. And because a “street” is not necessarily the same as a “block”, it’s important to understand the difference. For instance, if you were walking from Fifth East to Sixth East, you might pass Oak Street. The sign on the corner would give both its name, “Oak Street”, and its coordinate, “525 East” (think 5.25 East). In other words, the distance between Fifth East and Sixth East is one block, while the distance between Fifth East and the first street east of it is only about ¼ of a block. See how easy?

Source: http://www.city-data.com/forum/salt-lake-city-area/963927-getting-around-salt-lake-city-primer.html

It still looks a little weird to me since I don't see it often, but it makes a lot of sense and I think it's a good system. The only thing I'm not sure I like is how big the blocks are in SLC. Salt Lake City's downtown block size is 660 ft * 660 ft. Compared to Boise, which is 260 ft * 300 ft. It's a bit much for me. But the grid system could work equally fine with smaller blocks (though they should probably be square).

That sort of reminds me of the system used in the suburbs of Milwaukee, WI, where addresses contain two letters and a number after each.  There is one number that begins with an N and another with a W, and IIRC either one can come first, depending on whether the address is on a north-south or east-west street.  The first number is contracted to the hundreds place and up, and the second is a standard 100-per-block address, for example, W62N14250 Smith Road.  This means that the address is on a north-south road in the 6200 block west; compare to the standard 14250 N Smith Rd or similar.

Personally, in small or medium-sized cities, I'm not a fan of numbers above about 2500 because to me they conjure up the image of "suburbs of a large city", when it often isn't.
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
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Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

Brandon

I would have modified the grid to 8 blocks per mile, such that minor roads are on the 1/2 mile, and residential streets are at the 1/16 (splitting blocks in half), 1/8, and 1/4 miles as well.

Therefore, the numbering would start at 0 and increase every 100 for each block, 800 for each mile.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

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Duke87

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Also, address numbers are usually not assigned sequentially, but rather based on distance - yes, even in the northeastern states that number freeway exits sequentially. So, the fifth house on Water Street might well be numbered 5, 11, 23, or 107... depending on how many houses there are and how big the lots are.

Stamford, CT for example has a standard policy of assigning addresses in 25 foot increments. So, for a house to be numbered 5 Water Street its front door would need to be somewhere between 50 and 75 feet from the beginning of Water Street, on the odd numbered side of the street. It would be numbered 1 if it were between 0 and 25 feet from the beginning, 3 if it were between 25 and 50 feet from the beginning, etc.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

20160805

Quote from: Duke87 on December 21, 2016, 04:44:23 PM
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Also, address numbers are usually not assigned sequentially, but rather based on distance - yes, even in the northeastern states that number freeway exits sequentially. So, the fifth house on Water Street might well be numbered 5, 11, 23, or 107... depending on how many houses there are and how big the lots are.

Stamford, CT for example has a standard policy of assigning addresses in 25 foot increments. So, for a house to be numbered 5 Water Street its front door would need to be somewhere between 50 and 75 feet from the beginning of Water Street, on the odd numbered side of the street. It would be numbered 1 if it were between 0 and 25 feet from the beginning, 3 if it were between 25 and 50 feet from the beginning, etc.

That would make more sense if the lots were different sizes on different sides of the street; otherwise someone could be driving down the road and thinking, "Wait, why is 327 across from 62?"  I think a lot of rural areas do something like this, except the zero point is the county line.
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

hotdogPi

Quote from: 20160805 on December 21, 2016, 04:49:26 PM
Quote from: Duke87 on December 21, 2016, 04:44:23 PM
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Also, address numbers are usually not assigned sequentially, but rather based on distance - yes, even in the northeastern states that number freeway exits sequentially. So, the fifth house on Water Street might well be numbered 5, 11, 23, or 107... depending on how many houses there are and how big the lots are.

Stamford, CT for example has a standard policy of assigning addresses in 25 foot increments. So, for a house to be numbered 5 Water Street its front door would need to be somewhere between 50 and 75 feet from the beginning of Water Street, on the odd numbered side of the street. It would be numbered 1 if it were between 0 and 25 feet from the beginning, 3 if it were between 25 and 50 feet from the beginning, etc.

That would make more sense if the lots were different sizes on different sides of the street; otherwise someone could be driving down the road and thinking, "Wait, why is 327 across from 62?"  I think a lot of rural areas do something like this, except the zero point is the county line.

When would one side of the street be more than a few hundred feet longer than the other side?
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20160805

Quote from: 1 on December 21, 2016, 04:52:35 PM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 21, 2016, 04:49:26 PM
Quote from: Duke87 on December 21, 2016, 04:44:23 PM
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Also, address numbers are usually not assigned sequentially, but rather based on distance - yes, even in the northeastern states that number freeway exits sequentially. So, the fifth house on Water Street might well be numbered 5, 11, 23, or 107... depending on how many houses there are and how big the lots are.

Stamford, CT for example has a standard policy of assigning addresses in 25 foot increments. So, for a house to be numbered 5 Water Street its front door would need to be somewhere between 50 and 75 feet from the beginning of Water Street, on the odd numbered side of the street. It would be numbered 1 if it were between 0 and 25 feet from the beginning, 3 if it were between 25 and 50 feet from the beginning, etc.

That would make more sense if the lots were different sizes on different sides of the street; otherwise someone could be driving down the road and thinking, "Wait, why is 327 across from 62?"  I think a lot of rural areas do something like this, except the zero point is the county line.

When would one side of the street be more than a few hundred feet longer than the other side?

I was referring to if they didn't base it on distance and simply counted (first on the one side are 1, 3, 5, other side is 2, 4, 6, and so on).  If there are small lots on the one side of the street and bigger, more-spread-out ones on the other side, the 164th house on the one side (#327) could be across from the 31st house on the other (#62), hence the discrepancy in numbers.  I wasn't implying that the one side of the street is longer than the other.
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

Brandon

Quote from: 1 on December 21, 2016, 04:52:35 PM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 21, 2016, 04:49:26 PM
Quote from: Duke87 on December 21, 2016, 04:44:23 PM
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Also, address numbers are usually not assigned sequentially, but rather based on distance - yes, even in the northeastern states that number freeway exits sequentially. So, the fifth house on Water Street might well be numbered 5, 11, 23, or 107... depending on how many houses there are and how big the lots are.

Stamford, CT for example has a standard policy of assigning addresses in 25 foot increments. So, for a house to be numbered 5 Water Street its front door would need to be somewhere between 50 and 75 feet from the beginning of Water Street, on the odd numbered side of the street. It would be numbered 1 if it were between 0 and 25 feet from the beginning, 3 if it were between 25 and 50 feet from the beginning, etc.

That would make more sense if the lots were different sizes on different sides of the street; otherwise someone could be driving down the road and thinking, "Wait, why is 327 across from 62?"  I think a lot of rural areas do something like this, except the zero point is the county line.

When would one side of the street be more than a few hundred feet longer than the other side?

Lots like that can happen anywhere.  Let's say you have a school on one side and about a dozen houses on the other.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

mgk920

#12
Interestingly, the 'zero' point here in Appleton is actually a '100' point - on either side of both baselines, the numbers start at '100', not '1' or '2'.  A special case here in downtown Appleton, the Avenue Mall, now called City Center Plaza, is addressed '10 COLLEGE AVE', as it sits on the baseline (a vacated block of Oneida St, the east-west baseline).  Everything else on College Ave (the north-south baseline) is addressed in the usual way, starting with the 100 block both east and west (ie, '525 W COLLEGE AVE').

There is also an address a block of two outside of the city, but in an area that uses Appleton city address numbers, of '0 (Zero) ONEIDA CT'.  (Is there a lower address number than that?  :-o )  Oneida Ct is an east-west street that starts at the north end of Oneida St (Oneida St curves into it), but that house sits on the mapped baseline due to a slight 'jog' in Oneida St just to the south.

Mike

jeffandnicole

Quote from: Duke87 on December 21, 2016, 04:44:23 PM
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 20, 2016, 05:44:57 PM
Other cities in Europe, Australia, and other places simply count from the beginning of the street (the fifth house on Water Street would simply have the number 5).  I'm sure there are others used as well.
Just for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.

Also, address numbers are usually not assigned sequentially, but rather based on distance - yes, even in the northeastern states that number freeway exits sequentially. So, the fifth house on Water Street might well be numbered 5, 11, 23, or 107... depending on how many houses there are and how big the lots are.

Stamford, CT for example has a standard policy of assigning addresses in 25 foot increments. So, for a house to be numbered 5 Water Street its front door would need to be somewhere between 50 and 75 feet from the beginning of Water Street, on the odd numbered side of the street. It would be numbered 1 if it were between 0 and 25 feet from the beginning, 3 if it were between 25 and 50 feet from the beginning, etc.


My residential street does something like this.  Small lots, just 15' between houses (about 7 1/2' per lot) on the non-driveway side; about 25 feet between houses when there's 2 parallel driveways (the driveways go up the side of the house, not in front), and the house numbers are still 4 or 6 numbers apart.

20160805

Quote from: mgk920 on December 21, 2016, 11:27:26 PM
Interestingly, the 'zero' point here in Appleton is actually a '100' point - on either side of both baselines, the numbers start at '100', not '1' or '2'.  A special case here in downtown Appleton, the Avenue Mall, now called City Center Plaza, is addressed '10 COLLEGE AVE', as it sits on the baseline (a vacated block of Oneida St, the east-west baseline).  Everything else on College Ave (the north-south baseline) is addressed in the usual way, starting with the 100 block both east and west (ie, '525 W COLLEGE AVE').

There is also an address a block of two outside of the city, but in an area that uses Appleton city address numbers, of '0 (Zero) ONEIDA CT'.  (Is there a lower address number than that?  :-o )  Oneida Ct is an east-west street that starts at the north end of Oneida St (Oneida St curves into it), but that house sits on the mapped baseline due to a slight 'jog' in Oneida St just to the south.

Mike

I actually live in the Appleton metro area, and the lack of a zero block (with the exception of the City Center Plaza) always trips me up when I'm trying to give directions.  For example, somewhere that is 23 blocks away but across the baseline could easily be referred to mistakenly as "25 blocks away" if you know the two places' addresses and what gridlines they fall on.

I've driven around in the Oneida Ct area, and I thought the numbering was terribly messed up over there.  13 Sioux Drive (the street Oneida turns into if you turn right after the first Oneida Court) is right next to 14.  Not only would they normally be numbered as 103, 107, etc., but sequential numbers are located on the same side of the street!  I didn't notice 0 Oneida Ct - that's messed up!

I've also noticed that Appleton's address grid extends through the neighboring Grand Chute Twp, and Asten Johnson in Greenville Twp by the airport still has an Appleton-style number (6480 W College Ave).  On all other sides, however, the addresses start turning into rural ones right away (and N1437 Example Rd in an urban setting just doesn't make sense).  Does the City of Appleton have some sort of agreement with Grand Chute to keep using their numbers or what?

What would you guys think of a system where instead of there being two baselines, there was just one central point and numbers increased based on total distance from that point?  One street that began 25 blocks from the point would have numbers beginning at 500 (or 250, or 1250, or 2500) and another parallel one beginning 30 blocks away would have numbers beginning at 600.  I could see it being rather confusing for navigation at first, but eventually people will figure out that to get to downtown (or the coast, or whatever) the numbers around you would have to be decreasing.  It would eliminate the out-of-place suburban streets in a big city that begin at 0; if it's 100 blocks away from downtown, its number would be 2000 (or 1000, 5000, or 10000).  And so on.  Do you guys like this system?
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

jeffandnicole

Quote from: 20160805 on December 22, 2016, 07:14:32 AM
What would you guys think of a system where instead of there being two baselines, there was just one central point and numbers increased based on total distance from that point?  One street that began 25 blocks from the point would have numbers beginning at 500 (or 250, or 1250, or 2500) and another parallel one beginning 30 blocks away would have numbers beginning at 600.  I could see it being rather confusing for navigation at first, but eventually people will figure out that to get to downtown (or the coast, or whatever) the numbers around you would have to be decreasing.  It would eliminate the out-of-place suburban streets in a big city that begin at 0; if it's 100 blocks away from downtown, its number would be 2000 (or 1000, 5000, or 10000).  And so on.  Do you guys like this system?

Most people (if not everyone) wouldn't get or understand the system. 

If someone's giving me directions, they're telling me what streets to turn on, or what street to look out for.  I'm not going to be concerned with the other streets I pass by.  And I'm certainly not going to be concerned with house/business numbers until I get to the block of my destination. 

english si

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on December 21, 2016, 01:30:11 AMJust for completeness here, in most places I've visited, the odd numbers are on one side of the street, and the even numbers are on another, so the fifth house on the street would have the number 9 or 10. Paris is a good example. I'm sure there are many others.
This leads to great fun if the road has many more houses on one side than the other (eg my road, where evens go up to 78 on the inside of a loop (with a big jump in numbers too) whereas the odds at that point are at 111 due to the outside not only having more houses along the edge, but spurs with several houses on, and then go up to 131). My grandparents' small cul-de-sac has 2, 4, 6 and 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 on the other side (should have gone with sequential numbers)

There's also the count up one side sequentially and then come back the other side sequentially (so, for instance, 20 is next to 21, opposite 21 is 22, next to 22 and opposite 20 is 23, and 42 is opposite 1) which is also quite common. Less so, but still quite common, is standard sequential, but all the houses form a logical line/loop so you don't really have (though you might have that line/loop jumping sides) numbers opposite ones that significantly higher - this is common on newer cul-de-sacs: either the far end is the highest number, or the highest and lowest numbers meet at the road in/out.

Rarer is odds sequential and evens sequential, but increasing in opposite directions (so the houses on you left will increase in number as you drive down the street), though I have been caught out by that.

Bitmapped

In cities, I prefer the numbering reflect cross-streets. For small blocks, this is normally 100 per block. In the Cleveland area, a lot of suburbs key off Cleveland's street numbering grid even if not all the streets are there. The street my grandparents lived on had intersections at State Road (W 35th St), W 44th St, W 48th St, and W 54th Street. The numbers fell in the range 3500-4799 on their road.

In rural areas, 1000 per mile so you can use an odometer to figure your position.

jwolfer



Quote from: 20160805 on December 21, 2016, 04:34:28 PM
[
Personally, in small or medium-sized cities, I'm not a fan of numbers above about 2500 because to me they conjure up the image of "suburbs of a large city", when it often isn't.

In most of the rural counties in this area there are high address numbers thanks to 911 service.. They used to have rural route addresses.

Some counties here in FL.. Like Nassau near Jax and Lake near Orlando.. There are what i call zone addresses.. Like 891062 Jimmy John Podunk Rd.. I havent been able to find a key to it


LGMS428


Doctor Whom

The system that I've encountered that differs the most from what I'm used to is in Florence, Italy. It's common for a street to have two independent numbering sequences, one in blue or black for residences and one in red (written with a "/r" suffix in addresses) for businesses. A block might have, for example, blue numbers 22, 24, and 26, red number 6, and blue numbers 28, 30, and so on.

20160805

Quote from: jeffandnicole on December 22, 2016, 08:20:52 AM
Quote from: 20160805 on December 22, 2016, 07:14:32 AM
What would you guys think of a system where instead of there being two baselines, there was just one central point and numbers increased based on total distance from that point?  One street that began 25 blocks from the point would have numbers beginning at 500 (or 250, or 1250, or 2500) and another parallel one beginning 30 blocks away would have numbers beginning at 600.  I could see it being rather confusing for navigation at first, but eventually people will figure out that to get to downtown (or the coast, or whatever) the numbers around you would have to be decreasing.  It would eliminate the out-of-place suburban streets in a big city that begin at 0; if it's 100 blocks away from downtown, its number would be 2000 (or 1000, 5000, or 10000).  And so on.  Do you guys like this system?

Most people (if not everyone) wouldn't get or understand the system. 

If someone's giving me directions, they're telling me what streets to turn on, or what street to look out for.  I'm not going to be concerned with the other streets I pass by.  And I'm certainly not going to be concerned with house/business numbers until I get to the block of my destination.

The bolded was referring to if you were lost in a suburban neighborhood with no GPS and didn't know how to get anywhere.  I don't see any reason why navigation would be any different than with a standard 100 per block system or otherwise.
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

mgk920

#21
Quote from: 20160805 on December 22, 2016, 07:14:32 AM
Quote from: mgk920 on December 21, 2016, 11:27:26 PM
Interestingly, the 'zero' point here in Appleton is actually a '100' point - on either side of both baselines, the numbers start at '100', not '1' or '2'.  A special case here in downtown Appleton, the Avenue Mall, now called City Center Plaza, is addressed '10 COLLEGE AVE', as it sits on the baseline (a vacated block of Oneida St, the east-west baseline).  Everything else on College Ave (the north-south baseline) is addressed in the usual way, starting with the 100 block both east and west (ie, '525 W COLLEGE AVE').

There is also an address a block of two outside of the city, but in an area that uses Appleton city address numbers, of '0 (Zero) ONEIDA CT'.  (Is there a lower address number than that?  :-o )  Oneida Ct is an east-west street that starts at the north end of Oneida St (Oneida St curves into it), but that house sits on the mapped baseline due to a slight 'jog' in Oneida St just to the south.

Mike

I actually live in the Appleton metro area, and the lack of a zero block (with the exception of the City Center Plaza) always trips me up when I'm trying to give directions.  For example, somewhere that is 23 blocks away but across the baseline could easily be referred to mistakenly as "25 blocks away" if you know the two places' addresses and what gridlines they fall on.

I've driven around in the Oneida Ct area, and I thought the numbering was terribly messed up over there.  13 Sioux Drive (the street Oneida turns into if you turn right after the first Oneida Court) is right next to 14.  Not only would they normally be numbered as 103, 107, etc., but sequential numbers are located on the same side of the street!  I didn't notice 0 Oneida Ct - that's messed up!

I've also noticed that Appleton's address grid extends through the neighboring Grand Chute Twp, and Asten Johnson in Greenville Twp by the airport still has an Appleton-style number (6480 W College Ave).  On all other sides, however, the addresses start turning into rural ones right away (and N1437 Example Rd in an urban setting just doesn't make sense).  Does the City of Appleton have some sort of agreement with Grand Chute to keep using their numbers or what?

Actually, it has something to do with Outagamie County.  Back in the late 1980s(?), the county was setting up an E-911 police/fire/ambulance dispatching system and for that needed a way to give every property in the county a unique address.  Prior to that, in the unincorporated areas, some townships used their own grid (ie, Greenville, but with a tiny part, like those College Ave places, on the Appleton grid), some used that of a nearby or adjacent incorporated muni (ie, Grand Chute and Freedom, both of which used Appleton's grid) and for many, it was just 'Route (x)  Appleton' (what the USPS used until then).

At that time, the County Board ordered that the all of the townships in the county - except for Grand Chute and that tiny part of Greenville that is on the Appleton grid (why they were exempted, I don't know) - convert to address numbers that are on a county-wide 'fire number' grid with the Nxxxx or Wxxxx address numbers.  Numerous roads had to be renamed, too, to allow for unique addresses.  The baselines for that grid are the south and east county lines.  Also, like with the City of Appleton, those numbers start at N100 and W100 at their baselines, with them stepping 400 for each section.  Thus, Wisconsin Ave (WI 96) west of Mayflower Rd is 'N900', and so forth.

When anything with those style addresses is annexed into a city or village, it is readdressed into its respective new muni's grid.

Calumet County uses a similar system.

Mike

kphoger

I'm really torn on this topic.

My most general answer is, anything except the English system of...
Quote from: english si on December 22, 2016, 10:33:22 AM
count up one side sequentially and then come back the other side sequentially (so, for instance ... 42 is opposite 1)
...which I'm really glad he mentioned, because it's just retarded.  If he hadn't mentioned it, I sure as heck was going to.

Some of the western suburbs of Chicago have an interesting system, where they base the address number on the zero-point of downtown Chicago.  So, for example, 26W402 would be a house 26 miles + 4 blocks west of Chicago's zero point.  Without shortening it, the number would be 21202 (20800 being the 26-mile point).  It also gets confusing in those areas, because they sometimes coexist along with suburb-specific numbering schemes (so, for example, 26W402 might be a block away from 722 or whatever).

In places where there is a noticeable grid, then I would number houses with increasing numbers as you move away from the baseline–but with only 20 numbers per block instead of 100 (whether 1/10-mile or 1/8-mile).  And the baseline should be the zero line, not some other number like 100.  Given those parameters, then, my house number would probably be 126 S. ____ insetad of 720 S. ____.  And my Chicagoland example in the previous paragraph would likely be 4242 W. ____ instead of 21202 W. ____ (212 blocks at 20 numbers each).  With 8 blocks per mile, every 800 would be a five-mile mark.  With 10 blocks per mile, every 1000 would be a five-mile mark.

In places where there is not a noticeable grid, then I would number houses sequentially, leaving gaps as appropriate for the possibility of subdividing lots.  Without a grid, knowing how far from a baseline you are isn't really a thing, and miles-long streets keeping a single name aren't nearly as common.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
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Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

NWI_Irish96

If I were numbering the buildings in a random city from scratch, I would start from 1 N/S/E/W from the city's center point and increase numbers by 1000 per mile, regardless of the length of blocks.  So 1250 N of any street would be almost exactly 1.25 miles north of the center baseline.

I would also avoid duplicating N/S addresses and E/W addresses.  In other words, only N and E addresses would use 1, 5, 9, 13, etc. and 2, 6, 10, 14, etc., while only S/W would use 3, 7, 11, 15, etc. and 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.  That way, if somebody knew an address but forgot the direction, you could figure out the correct direction based on the number.   Also, if there happen to be multiple streets with the same name but different suffix (Market St, Market Ct, Market Cir, etc.), you could not have the same house number on more than one of them.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

Brandon

Quote from: kphoger on December 23, 2016, 05:12:43 PM
I'm really torn on this topic.

My most general answer is, anything except the English system of...
Quote from: english si on December 22, 2016, 10:33:22 AM
count up one side sequentially and then come back the other side sequentially (so, for instance ... 42 is opposite 1)
...which I'm really glad he mentioned, because it's just retarded.  If he hadn't mentioned it, I sure as heck was going to.

Some of the western suburbs of Chicago have an interesting system, where they base the address number on the zero-point of downtown Chicago.  So, for example, 26W402 would be a house 26 miles + 4 blocks west of Chicago's zero point.  Without shortening it, the number would be 21202 (20800 being the 26-mile point).  It also gets confusing in those areas, because they sometimes coexist along with suburb-specific numbering schemes (so, for example, 26W402 might be a block away from 722 or whatever).

However, this system only really exists in unincorporated DuPage and Kane Counties.  Unincorporated Cook and Will Counties use the more typical addresses based of State and Madison.
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