Which is the best street grid?

[hotdogPi]

I prefer 11th on highways signs compared to Eleventh btw.

As long as it's not 21th. (Such a mistake has been made before, as has the inverse, 111st.)

[US 89]

I prefer 11th on highways signs compared to Eleventh btw.

As long as it's not 21th. (Such a mistake has been made before, as has the inverse, 111st.)

I mean, Bilbo Baggins probably lives on 111st Street... 

[Scott5114]

I prefer a zero system that starts in the corner. This negates the need for any cardinal directions.

Well, in order for that to work, you need a hard border the city can't expand past, like an ocean or a state line. Otherwise, the city will inevitably annex the other side of the zero line at some point, and you have cardinal directions again.

Kansas City KS is the only city in this part of the country I can think of that can get away with that, and that's because their zero line is State Line Road. (They still use North and South for addressing purposes on N-S numbered streets, but no cardinals on E-W named streets.)

[westerninterloper]

I like the street naming system in my hometown, Terre Haute, Indiana.

There is a hard western border on the Wabash river, and numbered streets are North/South, major thoroughfares are First, Third, Seventh, Thirteenth, Twenty-Fifth, with a number of 1/2 streets - 6 1/2; 9 1/2; 13 1/2 Streets.

Downtown streets and those to the north are primarily Geographic/Botanical (Wabash, Ohio, Tippecanoe, Eagle; Cherry, Walnut, Poplar, Elm, Maple, Linden, Ash, Beech; with numbered avenues First through Eighth in between, but no cardinal directions on these streets;

Diagonals are named after the places they'll take you: Lockport, Lafayette, Prairieton.

Streets south of downtown are primarily named for important locals.

[epzik8]

In Washington, DC, going north on e.g. North Capitol Street from the direction of the Capitol itself, first you intersect lettered streets, A-W, then single-word two-syllable streets, and then single-word three-syllable streets, both in alphabetical order. Going on 16th Street NW, which lasts longer in the District, you encounter streets named after trees, flowers and plants, also in alphabetical order northward. Then you've got the diagonal state-named streets.

[23skidoo]

This is what I would design:

E-W streets north of center are numbered (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
E-W streets south of center are named for plants/flowers/trees alphabetically (Ash, Beech, Cedar)
N-S streets east of center are named for Presidents chronologically (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
N-S streets west of center are named for the states chronologically (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

I like this idea, but how would you handle the Presidents with the same last names (e.g., Adams, Bush, Harrison, Johnson)? Include their initials or just skip over the duplicates?

[hotdogPi]

The best street grid is one where the traffic lights are timed for consecutive greens in all directions. This is far more important than street names.

[Flint1979]

I like how Gratiot County has their road names. The East-West roads are named after United States presidents and the north south roads are named after Michigan governors.

[skluth]

This is what I would design:

E-W streets north of center are numbered (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
E-W streets south of center are named for plants/flowers/trees alphabetically (Ash, Beech, Cedar)
N-S streets east of center are named for Presidents chronologically (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
N-S streets west of center are named for the states chronologically (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

I like this idea, but how would you handle the Presidents with the same last names (e.g., Adams, Bush, Harrison, Johnson)? Include their initials or just skip over the duplicates?

I don't know anywhere President names get beyond Polk. In Green Bay, the second Adams is Quincy St.

[US 89]

I don't know anywhere President names get beyond Polk. In Green Bay, the second Adams is Quincy St.

Ogden, Utah starts with Washington as its Main Street and counts up to the east, using Quincy for the second Adams. It makes it all the way to Buchanan before running out of space on the east side, but starts back up again on the west side of downtown with the two major streets between Wall Avenue and Washington named Lincoln and Grant (skipping Johnson). There are no more streets east of Buchanan or west of Wall thanks to the mountains and a huge UP rail yard.

[DenverBrian]

I like Denver's solution which has N-S streets in alphabetic order once outside the city's core.

Kinda sorta. It's two streets at a time in alpha order, but the two same-first-letter streets are often not in alpha order. Examples: Clermont is before Cherry; Dexter is before Dahlia; Eudora is before Elm.

[DenverBrian]

This is what I would design:

E-W streets north of center are numbered (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
E-W streets south of center are named for plants/flowers/trees alphabetically (Ash, Beech, Cedar)
N-S streets east of center are named for Presidents chronologically (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
N-S streets west of center are named for the states chronologically (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

Which means your city can only grow 46-50 blocks to the east or west.

[zachary_amaryllis]

I like Denver's solution which has N-S streets in alphabetic order once outside the city's core.

Kinda sorta. It's two streets at a time in alpha order, but the two same-first-letter streets are often not in alpha order. Examples: Clermont is before Cherry; Dexter is before Dahlia; Eudora is before Elm.

i literally never knew that. i know about the 'two of each letter' thing, but it never occurred to me that the two streets themselves weren't alphabetized..

learns something new every day.

[index]

Numbers! Lettered streets are dumb they often repeat and it gets confusing fast!

Do it like Excel and double into AA, AB, AC, etc past Z. Base-26 numbering, or hexavigesimal if you really want to make somebody's eyes glaze over.

[Dirt Roads]

Raleigh originally had a nice, mostly clean grid system.  The city was bounded by North Street, East Street, South Street and West Street.  These streets still remain, although the Legislative Complex and Capital Boulevard (US-70/US-401) wiped out a good sized chunk of North Street.  The junction of the Seaboard and the North Carolina Rail Road also cuts off part of West Street in the southwest corner of the grid.  Here's what it looks like today (down the spine in each direction):

North -to- South Grid (streets running East-West)
North Street
Lane Street
Jones Street
Edenton Street
Hillsborough Street
Morgan Street
Hargett Street
Martin Street
Davie Street
Cabarrus Street
Lenoir Street
South Street

West -to- East Grid (streets running North-South)
West Street
Dawson Street
McDowell Street
Salisbury Street
Fayetteville Street
Wilmington Street
Blount Street
Person Street
Bloodworth Street
East Street

Today, there are also a couple of old alleys that have been upgraded to streets in there own right:

• Commerce Place (runs north-south, sits between Hargett and Dawson, runs between Martin and Davie)
• Gale Street (runs north-south, sits between McDowell and Salisbury, runs between Davie and Cabbarus)

Plus there is the southwest-northeast diagonal connecting Morgan Street to New Bern Avenue (which runs in the same corridor as Hillsborough Street east of the State Capitol).  I guess I should also consider the southeast-northwest diagonal connection from McDowell Street to Capitol Boulevard (part of which sits south of where North Street should be).

[paulthemapguy]

Numbers are far better than letters, but only the latitudinal OR the longitudinal streets should have either.  At least one set of the latitudinal or longitudinal streets should be named--but they can be named according to some thematic or alphabetical pattern.  Instead of using letters, you can use words starting with the letters in an A-B-C-D pattern, or have clusters like AAAABBBBCCCCDDDD etc.

[CtrlAltDel]

Numbers! Lettered streets are dumb they often repeat and it gets confusing fast!

Do it like Excel and double into AA, AB, AC, etc past Z. Base-26 numbering, or hexavigesimal if you really want to make somebody's eyes glaze over.

Bijective hexavigesimal if you want to get technical.

[Flint1979]

This is what I would design:

E-W streets north of center are numbered (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
E-W streets south of center are named for plants/flowers/trees alphabetically (Ash, Beech, Cedar)
N-S streets east of center are named for Presidents chronologically (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
N-S streets west of center are named for the states chronologically (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

I like this idea, but how would you handle the Presidents with the same last names (e.g., Adams, Bush, Harrison, Johnson)? Include their initials or just skip over the duplicates?

I don't know anywhere President names get beyond Polk. In Green Bay, the second Adams is Quincy St.

For Gratiot County, MI it goes
Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Washington, Filmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Johnson, Hayes, Grant, Garfield, Cleveland, Roosevelt, Taft. Not every single mile road is named after a President but that is the names they used.  So that's 21 President's there.

For Michigan Governors it goes
Mason, Woodbridge, Barry, Ransom, McClelland, Wisner, Blair, Crapo, Baldwin, Bagley, Croswell, Jerome, Begole, Alger, Luce, Pingree, Bliss, Warner, Osborn, Ferris. So that's 20 Michigan Governor's there. Again not every single mile road is named after a Governor.

This county is about 23 miles by 24 miles so it's almost every mile.

[SkyPesos]

For some reason, I prefer not naming streets after politicians, especially ones in the last 30 or so years.

[thspfc]

For some reason, I prefer not naming streets after politicians, especially ones in the last 30 or so years.

Along those lines: I don't mind roads being named after living people. If I was to get a road named after me I would want to see it for myself.

[Henry]

In Washington, DC, going north on e.g. North Capitol Street from the direction of the Capitol itself, first you intersect lettered streets, A-W, then single-word two-syllable streets, and then single-word three-syllable streets, both in alphabetical order. Going on 16th Street NW, which lasts longer in the District, you encounter streets named after trees, flowers and plants, also in alphabetical order northward. Then you've got the diagonal state-named streets.

Except the diagonal streets are called avenues, and they work better that way (Pennsylvania Avenue is so much better than Pennsylvania Street).

In Los Angeles, the main arteries are called boulevards, and they're usually named after various locations in SoCal (Ventura, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Crenshaw, etc.). In this respect, they complement the similarly-named freeways well.

[US20IL64]

Orange Co. California's grid is laid out well, in the northern part. And with Blvd's as main routes, Beach and Harbor.

[hotdogPi]

Orange Co. California's grid is laid out well, in the northern part. And with Blvd's as main routes, Beach and Harbor.

Not quite in the northern part, but still... (2012)

Kinda surprised LA is on there and definitely surprised Irvine is on there. But if that's based on ALL forms of eating out then nevermind. If it was just fast food then that would blow me away

there are restaurants in Irvine?  I've always seen that place as a hellhole of corporate and bank headquarters buildings. 

it is next to impossible to find a gas station or a convenience store in Irvine.

[djsekani]

This is what I would design:

E-W streets north of center are numbered (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
E-W streets south of center are named for plants/flowers/trees alphabetically (Ash, Beech, Cedar)
N-S streets east of center are named for Presidents chronologically (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
N-S streets west of center are named for the states chronologically (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

I like this idea, but how would you handle the Presidents with the same last names (e.g., Adams, Bush, Harrison, Johnson)? Include their initials or just skip over the duplicates?

I don't know anywhere President names get beyond Polk. In Green Bay, the second Adams is Quincy St.

Amusingly there's an example right in your neck of the woods!

Starting with Washington Street in Bermuda Dunes, California, every mile road east is named after the next president. The second Adams is skipped, but the pattern holds up all the way out to Cleveland Street in North Shore.

[NWI_Irish96]

This is what I would design:

E-W streets north of center are numbered (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
E-W streets south of center are named for plants/flowers/trees alphabetically (Ash, Beech, Cedar)
N-S streets east of center are named for Presidents chronologically (Washington, Adams, Jefferson)
N-S streets west of center are named for the states chronologically (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

I like this idea, but how would you handle the Presidents with the same last names (e.g., Adams, Bush, Harrison, Johnson)? Include their initials or just skip over the duplicates?

John Adams = Adams St
John Q Adams = Quincy St
William H Harrison = Harrison St
Benjamin Harrison = Benjamin St
Andrew Johnson = Johnson St
Lyndon B Johnson = Baines St
George HW Bush = Bush St
George W Bush = Walker St