Road naming

[Anonymous]

Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

more specifically, I need USA norms.

I found several nice British lists of road naming conventions, but they
aren't quite appropriate for the USA. As much as I would love to name a
road "Smith Circus", it would probably get vetoed.

[Anonymous]

Hi Doug

Check your local planning board they may have specifics for you locale.

I'm dishing this from vague memory for one of our municipalities - it was
something like this:

courts = Cul de sac ( Duhhh.)

Lanes & Ways connect Drives

Drives connect Roads & Avenues


Joe



"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102682@discussion.autodesk.com...
Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

And Doug, prepare to have some (maybe most?) of your choices for Street
Names "shot down" unless you 1st go through them looking for a-n-y that bear
a resemblance to existing Street Names.

EMT personnel have a hard time finding the correct address - unless they are
somewhat distinct, one from another.

Maybe the time has come for some Spanish or French names for your locale?
:-)

HTH

--
Don Reichle
"The only thing worse
than training your staff,
and having them leave is -
not training your staff,
and having them stay."
Courtesy Graphics Solution Providers
----------------------------------------------------------
C3D/LDT/CD/SVY-2K6
Intel P4-3.00GHz
XPPro 32bit SP2
1GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce2 Ti 64MB


"Joe Bouza" wrote in message
news:5102701@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hi Doug

Check your local planning board they may have specifics for you locale.

I'm dishing this from vague memory for one of our municipalities - it was
something like this:

courts = Cul de sac ( Duhhh.)

Lanes & Ways connect Drives

Drives connect Roads & Avenues


Joe



"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102682@discussion.autodesk.com...
Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

I'm working in an office located on Street Road. Always found that curious.

Bud Miller
www.BudCAD.com

"Don Reichle" wrote in message
news:5102720@discussion.autodesk.com...
And Doug, prepare to have some (maybe most?) of your choices for Street
Names "shot down" unless you 1st go through them looking for a-n-y that bear
a resemblance to existing Street Names.

EMT personnel have a hard time finding the correct address - unless they are
somewhat distinct, one from another.

Maybe the time has come for some Spanish or French names for your locale?
:-)

HTH

--
Don Reichle
"The only thing worse
than training your staff,
and having them leave is -
not training your staff,
and having them stay."
Courtesy Graphics Solution Providers
----------------------------------------------------------
C3D/LDT/CD/SVY-2K6
Intel P4-3.00GHz
XPPro 32bit SP2
1GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce2 Ti 64MB


"Joe Bouza" wrote in message
news:5102701@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hi Doug

Check your local planning board they may have specifics for you locale.

I'm dishing this from vague memory for one of our municipalities - it was
something like this:

courts = Cul de sac ( Duhhh.)

Lanes & Ways connect Drives

Drives connect Roads & Avenues


Joe



"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102682@discussion.autodesk.com...
Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I already new about avoiding the "sounds-like" thing. Along with
that, one should also avoid confusing names. There is a subdivision here
with all the streets named after authors. One of them is called "R Glad
Way". It is my ongoing misfortune that directions to my house often involve
this road.

I more worried about calling something a lane when it should be a drive, or
whatever.
What I'm really looking for is a documented source that is close to a
national or at least statewide standard (I'm in Pennsylvania). Most
municipalities here don't seem to have a standard (but they do reserve final
approval, of course). Joe's criteria makes sense and I'll use something
similar to that if I can't find anything else.
--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children



"Don Reichle" wrote in message
news:5102720@discussion.autodesk.com...
And Doug, prepare to have some (maybe most?) of your choices for Street
Names "shot down" unless you 1st go through them looking for a-n-y that bear
a resemblance to existing Street Names.

courts = Cul de sac ( Duhhh.)

Lanes & Ways connect Drives

Drives connect Roads & Avenues


Joe



"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102682@discussion.autodesk.com...
Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

I'd start with a call to the local post office and the Emergency services
office. They should have some idea of how it works in your area.

My sister lives in Florida. Her subdivision has a Cypress Circle, a Cypress
Boulevard and a Cypress Court. She lives on Linden Dive. The first left
after Linden Street On Cypress Boulevard East. Needless to say I got lost
the first time I tried to visit.

I find this one funny. We have a subdivision near where I work. The
subdivision is called Camelot. All the roads are named after characters in
King Arthur. of course the Main one is King Arthur's Court! One road is
named Lady Godiva Way. Lady Godiva was famous for riding unclothed through
town as a protest. She's the one Peeping Tom saw. She had nothing to do with
Arthur.

I can just see it. The people responsible for the names are sitting around
going "Now who was the girl Arthur was involved with? I know it began with a
G".

Allen

BTW Guenvevere was her name

"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102800@discussion.autodesk.com...
Yeah, I already new about avoiding the "sounds-like" thing. Along with
that, one should also avoid confusing names. There is a subdivision here
with all the streets named after authors. One of them is called "R Glad
Way". It is my ongoing misfortune that directions to my house often involve
this road.

I more worried about calling something a lane when it should be a drive, or
whatever.
What I'm really looking for is a documented source that is close to a
national or at least statewide standard (I'm in Pennsylvania). Most
municipalities here don't seem to have a standard (but they do reserve final
approval, of course). Joe's criteria makes sense and I'll use something
similar to that if I can't find anything else.
--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children



"Don Reichle" wrote in message
news:5102720@discussion.autodesk.com...
And Doug, prepare to have some (maybe most?) of your choices for Street
Names "shot down" unless you 1st go through them looking for a-n-y that bear
a resemblance to existing Street Names.

courts = Cul de sac ( Duhhh.)

Lanes & Ways connect Drives

Drives connect Roads & Avenues


Joe



"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102682@discussion.autodesk.com...
Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

Yeah but Godiva is a lot easier to spell.
Kudos to you if you didn't have to look it up first. 😉

One of the no-nos I've learned is to avoid names with difficult or ambiguous
spellings.
Good idea about the post-office. I know many municipalities require PO
approval on the road names (mostly to avoid duplicates).

"Allen Jessup" wrote in message
news:5102813@discussion.autodesk.com...
I can just see it. The people responsible for the names are sitting around
going "Now who was the girl Arthur was involved with? I know it began with a
G".

Allen

BTW Guenvevere was her name

[Anonymous]

And it's likely that "King Arthur's Court" has how much resemblance to a
Cul-De-Sac? 🙂

--
Don Reichle
"The only thing worse
than training your staff,
and having them leave is -
not training your staff,
and having them stay."
Courtesy Graphics Solution Providers
----------------------------------------------------------
C3D/LDT/CD/SVY-2K6
Intel P4-3.00GHz
XPPro 32bit SP2
1GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce2 Ti 64MB


"Allen Jessup" wrote in message
news:5102813@discussion.autodesk.com...
I'd start with a call to the local post office and the Emergency services
office. They should have some idea of how it works in your area.

My sister lives in Florida. Her subdivision has a Cypress Circle, a Cypress
Boulevard and a Cypress Court. She lives on Linden Dive. The first left
after Linden Street On Cypress Boulevard East. Needless to say I got lost
the first time I tried to visit.

I find this one funny. We have a subdivision near where I work. The
subdivision is called Camelot. All the roads are named after characters in
King Arthur. of course the Main one is King Arthur's Court! One road is
named Lady Godiva Way. Lady Godiva was famous for riding unclothed through
town as a protest. She's the one Peeping Tom saw. She had nothing to do with
Arthur.

I can just see it. The people responsible for the names are sitting around
going "Now who was the girl Arthur was involved with? I know it began with a
G".

Allen

BTW Guenvevere was her name

"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102800@discussion.autodesk.com...
Yeah, I already new about avoiding the "sounds-like" thing. Along with
that, one should also avoid confusing names. There is a subdivision here
with all the streets named after authors. One of them is called "R Glad
Way". It is my ongoing misfortune that directions to my house often involve
this road.

I more worried about calling something a lane when it should be a drive, or
whatever.
What I'm really looking for is a documented source that is close to a
national or at least statewide standard (I'm in Pennsylvania). Most
municipalities here don't seem to have a standard (but they do reserve final
approval, of course). Joe's criteria makes sense and I'll use something
similar to that if I can't find anything else.
--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children



"Don Reichle" wrote in message
news:5102720@discussion.autodesk.com...
And Doug, prepare to have some (maybe most?) of your choices for Street
Names "shot down" unless you 1st go through them looking for a-n-y that bear
a resemblance to existing Street Names.

courts = Cul de sac ( Duhhh.)

Lanes & Ways connect Drives

Drives connect Roads & Avenues


Joe



"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102682@discussion.autodesk.com...
Compatriots,

Apparently I have been doing this job for so long, I now get to name roads
on occasion (call it a perk).

Anyone have a reference to proper use of terms such as lane, way, court,
ave, road, street, etc....?

For instance, when is a "Smith Way" more appropriate than "Smith Court"? Or
is it all just a personal preference thing?

--
Doug K
LDT 2005, XP Pro 2002 sp2, P4 2.40GHz, 1 GB RAM, Dual 19" Dell LCD, NVIDIA
GeForce FX 5700LE, Left Handed Kensington Trackball, Happily Married
w/Children

[Anonymous]

Actually they did terminate the last section in a Cul-De-Sac. You have to
switch a block over to Lady Godiva to get through.

Allen

"Don Reichle" wrote in message
news:5102852@discussion.autodesk.com...
And it's likely that "King Arthur's Court" has how much resemblance to a
Cul-De-Sac? 🙂

--
Don Reichle
"The only thing worse
than training your staff,
and having them leave is -
not training your staff,
and having them stay."
Courtesy Graphics Solution Providers
----------------------------------------------------------
C3D/LDT/CD/SVY-2K6
Intel P4-3.00GHz
XPPro 32bit SP2
1GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce2 Ti 64MB


"Allen Jessup" wrote in message
news:5102813@discussion.autodesk.com...
I'd start with a call to the local post office and the Emergency services
office. They should have some idea of how it works in your area.

My sister lives in Florida. Her subdivision has a Cypress Circle, a Cypress
Boulevard and a Cypress Court. She lives on Linden Dive. The first left
after Linden Street On Cypress Boulevard East. Needless to say I got lost
the first time I tried to visit.

I find this one funny. We have a subdivision near where I work. The
subdivision is called Camelot. All the roads are named after characters in
King Arthur. of course the Main one is King Arthur's Court! One road is
named Lady Godiva Way. Lady Godiva was famous for riding unclothed through
town as a protest. She's the one Peeping Tom saw. She had nothing to do with
Arthur.

I can just see it. The people responsible for the names are sitting around
going "Now who was the girl Arthur was involved with? I know it began with a
G".

Allen

BTW Guenvevere was her name.

[Anonymous]

I had no problem with Guenvevere. It was Godiva I had to look up.

"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102837@discussion.autodesk.com...
Yeah but Godiva is a lot easier to spell.
Kudos to you if you didn't have to look it up first. 😉

One of the no-nos I've learned is to avoid names with difficult or ambiguous
spellings.
Good idea about the post-office. I know many municipalities require PO
approval on the road names (mostly to avoid duplicates).

"Allen Jessup" wrote in message
news:5102813@discussion.autodesk.com...
I can just see it. The people responsible for the names are sitting around
going "Now who was the girl Arthur was involved with? I know it began with a
G".

Allen

BTW Guenvevere was her name

[Anonymous]

Ok here are my findings. I tried to limit the types to those found in the
USA (some a little less than others).
Good ol' Wikipedia was a pretty good source. From there and few others, I
gleaned the following. Everything has multiple exceptions of course and
there ain't nothing here that is carved into sacred tablets that I could
find.

Major roadways:
Avenue (straight, aligned east-west, usually parallels another roadway)
Boulevard (multiple lanes in both directions, straight, often separated
by a median or divider)
Road (meandering, usually following natural shape of land)
Street (straight, aligned north-south)

Smaller roadways:
Alley (narrow, parallels more major roadway, with houses in between,
NOTE many municipalities now prohibit creation of Alleys)
Drive (connects two roadways together, often with a Point-Of-Interest at
one or both intersections)
Heights (a roadway located above another roadway, often with a nice
view, often dead-end)
Lane (narrow, straight, often no on-street parking, may dead-end)
Trail (roadway replacing an existing, smaller, cartway or path)
Way (similar to a Drive, but may dead-end at a POI instead of
intersecting another roadway)

Dead End roads:
Bay (short roadway surrounded on three sides with a feature such as
woodland)
Close (dead-end alley)
Court (residential roadway, similar to Lane or Way, ending in
cul-de-sac)
Gate (Lane with entrance controls, or at least the appearance of)
Grove (short roadway with a singular purpose)
Mews (urban street or alley with multifloor buildings close on both
sides)
Place (residential roadway, usually up-scale [or pretending to be],
often ends as cul-de-sac)
Terrace (residential roadway, built on a slope or hill)

Named for their shape:
Circle (curved, begins and ends on same roadway, may loop back onto
itself)
Crescent (similar to Circle, but with less internal area, internal area
may be open space)
Square (four-sided, internal area usually open space)

[Anonymous]

Hey that looks familiar.........

Joe


"doug k" wrote in message
news:5102981@discussion.autodesk.com...
Ok here are my findings. I tried to limit the types to those found in the
USA (some a little less than others).
Good ol' Wikipedia was a pretty good source. From there and few others, I
gleaned the following. Everything has multiple exceptions of course and
there ain't nothing here that is carved into sacred tablets that I could
find.

Major roadways:
Avenue (straight, aligned east-west, usually parallels another roadway)
Boulevard (multiple lanes in both directions, straight, often separated
by a median or divider)
Road (meandering, usually following natural shape of land)
Street (straight, aligned north-south)

Smaller roadways:
Alley (narrow, parallels more major roadway, with houses in between,
NOTE many municipalities now prohibit creation of Alleys)
Drive (connects two roadways together, often with a Point-Of-Interest at
one or both intersections)
Heights (a roadway located above another roadway, often with a nice
view, often dead-end)
Lane (narrow, straight, often no on-street parking, may dead-end)
Trail (roadway replacing an existing, smaller, cartway or path)
Way (similar to a Drive, but may dead-end at a POI instead of
intersecting another roadway)

Dead End roads:
Bay (short roadway surrounded on three sides with a feature such as
woodland)
Close (dead-end alley)
Court (residential roadway, similar to Lane or Way, ending in
cul-de-sac)
Gate (Lane with entrance controls, or at least the appearance of)
Grove (short roadway with a singular purpose)
Mews (urban street or alley with multifloor buildings close on both
sides)
Place (residential roadway, usually up-scale [or pretending to be],
often ends as cul-de-sac)
Terrace (residential roadway, built on a slope or hill)

Named for their shape:
Circle (curved, begins and ends on same roadway, may loop back onto
itself)
Crescent (similar to Circle, but with less internal area, internal area
may be open space)
Square (four-sided, internal area usually open space)

[Anonymous]

Where I'm from (Albuquerque) avenue and road are east and west and drive and street are north and south, but that's for public roads only. The Private stuff (usually owned by a Home owners Association) we use Lane, Trail, and Way.

[Anonymous]

This is a nice topic to compare conventions from differing "venues" but it's
really going to be the local municipalities that "decide" this issue - in my
experience.

Which covers quite a bit of the West Coast (oops, where's my brain - Left
Coast), and so I can imagine that others will have different considerations.
But I'm guessing that they won't be too far off of my statement above.

HTH

--
Don Reichle
"The only thing worse
than training your staff,
and having them leave is -
not training your staff,
and having them stay."
Courtesy Graphics Solution Providers
----------------------------------------------------------
C3D/LDT/CD/SVY-2K6
Intel P4-3.00GHz
XPPro 32bit SP2
1GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce2 Ti 64MB


wrote in message news:5103194@discussion.autodesk.com...
Where I'm from (Albuquerque) avenue and road are east and west and drive and
street are north and south, but that's for public roads only. The Private
stuff (usually owned by a Home owners Association) we use Lane, Trail, and
Way.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, during my "research", I found that the preferential direction for
streets and avenues become juxtaposed as you travel south.

My list is tailored more for NE USA.

You may find it interesting to know that private roads are usually forbidden
in my area. All roadways are dedicated to the municipality having
jurisdiction. Its mostly a school-bus and snow-plow thing.

--
Doug K


wrote in message news:5103194@discussion.autodesk.com...
Where I'm from (Albuquerque) avenue and road are east and west and drive and
street are north and south, but that's for public roads only. The Private
stuff (usually owned by a Home owners Association) we use Lane, Trail, and
Way.