Need help with a debate...

[DanTCFD]

So we were doing some driver training today and got into the debate of what makes a road a "road", a street a "street", an avenue an "avenue" etc..
For example we have some streets that are bigger than roads and roads bigger than streets. We have a "highway" that is a 500 ft dead end road. We have a "main st" and a "road" that are about the same in terms of traffic flow etc.

Wondering if anyone has seen a link online or anything that can settle the debate... Thanks!!
-Dan

[Catch22]

Your 911 director may have some info on where to find the definitions. I had a similar conversation a few years ago. From what I remember...
Lane= dead end street
Highway= divided roadway, federal, state, or county maintained
Blvd= wider, lined with trees and more scenic
Drive= connects two "lanes" (similar to a circle, but all four sides have different names)
Road= county or rural roadway.
Street and avenue are similar, but an avenue is more residential.

Don't take me to the bank on it, but that's what I remember from like 3 or 4 years ago. We ended up talking with the 911 director who explained it to us. I very well could be mixing up our thoughts and what she told us.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways?

PS: cul de sac is a fancy French term for dead end street with a turning area!

[Catch22]

Why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways?

That there is a damn good question.

[ThNozzleman]

Street and avenue are similar, but an avenue is more residential.

Here, our avenues run north-south, while streets run east-west, for the most part.

[ChicagoFF]

Why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways?

Hmmmmm....... here a parkway is that space between the sidewalk and the street, as in "If you ask, the city will plant a tree in the parkway in front of your house for free"

[DFDMAXX]

Depends on where you go. Kenosha county in the south east corner of Wisconsin has streets going north and south, and avenues going east and west. All streets / avenues are numbered starting in the southeast corner, numbers growing as you go west or north. The house numbers corespond to the street / avenue numbers. The advantage is that with the address you can pinpoint the exact block very quickly. You can find an empty spot on a map and tell what the numbers would be if they put a road there, as the entire county is laid out according to this number grid. Go to an online map site and check out Kenosha, Wisconsin. It's a very efficient system once you are familiar with how it works

[BFDNJFF]

Why do we pay tolls on freeways ???????????

[ChicagoFF]

How come Hawaii has interstate highways??

[FlyingKiwi]

How a bout Esplanade.

Fancy French word for "The road by the beach eh"

The name road, street, or avenue is usually decided by tossing a coin down here.

[Firefighter1219]

Well, I am a Master Debator (say that three times fast), but I can't help you with this one.

[FWDbuff]

There is a road in the next-over local named "Street Road."

[dmleblanc]

Lane= dead end street

Yeah, that seems to be the rule of thumb around here as well (we have a lot of "lanes", which is where we get most of our medical runs).

We also have at least one state highway that is actually a gravel road running through the sugar cane field (go figure that one out...I guess some political type years ago had the stroke to get the State to take it over for maintenance).

Then there are the "lanes" that are also state highways. We have at least 4 of them that go by common names locally, but are actually state highways. The annoying thing about them is that our dispatchers always give us the highway number, so we sometimes end up scratching our heads for a second...."Is that XXX Lane or is it YYY lane?"

The names are easier to remember....

[ALSfirefighter]

Funny enough we asked a probie in one of our academy's the parkway/driveway question and that monday he came back with an answer on his cell phone.

parkway's were built generally as state roads that led to state parks and were for cars only to keep buses and trucks from operating on them.

driveway's were called that due to many moons ago, houses were on farms and you had to drive basically up a 'road' (no pun intended on the other questions) to get to them.

[fireman4949]

Why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways?

For that matter, why does my nose run and my feet smell.




Kevin