Shortest road name?

[agentsteel53]

the commonly found "A Street" and its 25 cousins are 8 characters, including the space.

there is a local road called "Ian Way", which is 7.

is there an "A Way" or the like?  that seems to be the minimum, at 5.  unless someone can think of shorter.

[english si]

Strand gives you a 5 character lane (often erroneously given a definite article). There's also 'Poultry' for 7, mentioned just for being a funny name.

I was kind of hoping this was a 3, but sadly it's a 6: SR A1A. And yes, that is the road name.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Well, Y Road exists on 101 several miles south of Gilroy. Only six characters though.

[NE2]

A Lan, a short street off Goa Terrace.

[NE2]

I was kind of hoping this was a 3, but sadly it's a 6: SR A1A. And yes, that is the road name.

That's State Road A1A. Otherwise SR 2 would be three.

[roadman65]

Other than the lettered streets and avenues, I am sure there are two letter names.  In fact someplace in New Jersey, I remember a two letter name.  I cannot remember where, but it (and I am sure many others) exist.

Nye Avenue in Newark (the I-78  frontage road) is one that I know for sure and where its at.

[triplemultiplex]

Lettered streets can be found all over the place; not as common as other themes, but they're around.

I can say that there's not enough short, little names on all the tiny, dead end cul du sacs (hey, redundancy!) out there in suburbia.  On behalf of every map in the world, there ought to be a character limit on those stupid things, man.

[agentsteel53]

Strand gives you a 5 character lane (often erroneously given a definite article).

you mean 6, I presume?

still, that is shorter than "Ian Way" by one.

I had forgotten about "Y Road" (it's very close to a cateyed sign!).  If there is gonna be a lettered "way", it is probably gonna be "Y Way" somewhere, because Y has the use of a fork in the road, as well as being part of an indexing scheme.

[NE2]

F Way (and others) in Pittsburgh: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.373065,-79.912663&spn=0.014909,0.033023&gl=us&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.372961,-79.912788&panoid=hPmTc5jnXC2OyKX9xFTgPA&cbp=12,85.38,,1,-11.7

[xcellntbuy]

There are A Road, B Road, C Road, D Road and I believe E Road in Palm Beach County, Florida, west of West Palm Beach.  B Road is somewhat of a major thoroughfare in parts.

[DaBigE]

On behalf of every map in the world, there ought to be a character limit on those stupid things, man.

Interesting notion. Upon looking up some design regulations, I came across such policies for Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (edited for length):

A. Selection of Roadway Names.
1.  Roadway Name Length. Roadway names shall have no fewer than three and no more than fourteen (14) characters. If the roadway will cross a baseline, thereby requiring a directional prefix, then the roadway name shall be limited to twelve (12) characters. A space between two words is considered a character.
11.  Numbers and Alphabet. Numerical names (1st, second, etc.) or alphabet letter names (A Street, B Drive) will not be approved.
13.  Abbreviations. Roadway names may not contain abbreviations. For example "Saint" must be written out in full.
15.  Punctuation. Punctuation is not allowed in roadway names. Names shall not contain hyphens, apostrophes, or other non-letter characters.
17.  Multi-word Roadway Names. Roadway names shall be comprised of no more than two words. A roadway name may only contain one space if it is a multi-word name.

http://library.municode.com/HTML/13968/level3/SUHITA_TIT15BUCO_CH15.32RONAPRADDIST.html#SUHITA_TIT15BUCO_CH15.32RONAPRADDIST_15.32.040RONAST

[agentsteel53]

Roadway names shall be comprised of no more than two words.

grammar fail.  fucking elected officials.

[Kacie Jane]

Roadway names shall be comprised of no more than two words.

grammar fail.  fucking elected officials.

What's the error here? 

[NE2]

The prescriptive definition of comprise is contain, not compose. There's enough misusage that the latter has become part of the descriptive definition. Since it's always clear what's being said, I don't see it as a major issue.

PS: the correct wording here is "shall comprise no more than".

[Kacie Jane]

There's enough misusage...

That's an understatement, as I'm relatively certain I've only ever heard "be comprised of".

FWIW, here's Merriam-Webster's take:

Although it has been in use since the late 18th century, sense 3 is still attacked as wrong. Why it has been singled out is not clear, but until comparatively recent times it was found chiefly in scientific or technical writing rather than belles lettres. Our current evidence shows a slight shift in usage: sense 3 is somewhat more frequent in recent literary use than the earlier senses. You should be aware, however, that if you use sense 3 you may be subject to criticism for doing so, and you may want to choose a safer synonym such as compose or make up.

[formulanone]

Roadway names shall be comprised of no more than two words.

grammar fail.  fucking elected officials.

Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.

[mgk920]

Let's see - Chicago has 'Avenue A' through 'Avenue O'.  Also, don't forget those famous 'lettered' streets in Washington, DC.

Mike

[Alps]

I should note that in the Midwest, frequently small towns drop all road identifiers. You'll come in and see "D," "C," "B," "A" in order on street blade signs. Can't really get shorter than that.

[agentsteel53]

The prescriptive definition of comprise is contain, not compose. There's enough misusage that the latter has become part of the descriptive definition. Since it's always clear what's being said, I don't see it as a major issue.

PS: the correct wording here is "shall comprise no more than".

yeah, generally I wouldn't complain, but this is my tax dollars being wasted on shitty law clerks, so I will in this instance.

actual lawyers on the forum: could that grammatical error be exploited as a loophole?  "well, your Honor, Lower Possum Bottom Belly Liberador General Road is not, by strict definition, comprised of more than two words."

[agentsteel53]

I should note that in the Midwest, frequently small towns drop all road identifiers. You'll come in and see "D," "C," "B," "A" in order on street blade signs. Can't really get shorter than that.

got any evidence of formal US Postal Service proscription of this? 

yes, I probably could mail a letter to "11660 A, Springfield" and it will get there, but is that correct?

[1995hoo]

Roadway names shall be comprised of no more than two words.

grammar fail.  fucking elected officials.

The irony of this post, which contains a grammar failure itself..... 

[agentsteel53]

The irony of this post, which contains a grammar failure itself..... 

good point.  colloquially, though, saying "fail" gets my point across a lot faster, I think.

again, it's not poor grammar in general which I dislike (goodness knows I use plenty of it myself!) but rather, the use of poor grammar by those who theoretically are supposed to be experts at writing all the fine-print stuff which trips up ordinary folks all the time. 

[1995hoo]

The irony of this post, which contains a grammar failure itself..... 

good point.  colloquially, though, saying "fail" gets my point across a lot faster, I think.

again, it's not poor grammar in general which I dislike (goodness knows I use plenty of it myself!) but rather, the use of poor grammar by those who theoretically are supposed to be experts at writing all the fine-print stuff which trips up ordinary folks all the time. 

Yeah, you'll notice I put the laughing smiley there for a reason. I didn't really care all that much. I simply found it amusing to see the faddish misuse of "fail" in a comment pointing out a grammatical error!

It's a good thing I never make misteaks.

[jeffandnicole]

There's "Ox Road" in the Fairfax, VA area.

[empirestate]

The prescriptive definition of comprise is contain, not compose. There's enough misusage that the latter has become part of the descriptive definition. Since it's always clear what's being said, I don't see it as a major issue.

PS: the correct wording here is "shall comprise no more than".

yeah, generally I wouldn't complain, but this is my tax dollars being wasted on shitty law clerks, so I will in this instance.

actual lawyers on the forum: could that grammatical error be exploited as a loophole?  "well, your Honor, Lower Possum Bottom Belly Liberador General Road is not, by strict definition, comprised of more than two words."

Could be...as written, isn't it saying that only two words in total may be used to devise all of the road names in the area? Let's see, we've got "Cat Hollow" and "Hollow Cat"...uh oh, ran out of possibilities!

I actually have a friend who is a proofreader for municipal codes and would likely have caught that.