RoadWarriorFromLP

I'm American, and I'm only chortling slightly.

No, not really. There is no universal method used for street plans and numbering, and the systems can vary from perfectly sensible to confusing and absurd.

Some cities, er, address this quite logically. Chicago has it nailed -- there is a single center point which serves as the basis for N/S/E/W, and the numbering is completely consistent from block to block.

Then you have Manhattan, which does have a formula for assigning street numbers but is one of the most convoluted nonsensical things that you could hope to find. If you can figure this out, let me know, because I never have: http://www.bigapplevisitorscenter.com/gakmsts.htm

The types of anomalies describe in the OP tend to occur when cities failed to coordinate with each other. There is an example of this in Los Angeles with a particular street that has Beverly Hills on one side and LA on the other -- because Beverly Hills has its own numbering system for north-south streets, the addresses on the LA side of the street bear no resemblance to those across the road.

You'll just have to learn how things are done in your area. If you drive a lot for a living, then good maps combined with a GPS are probably a good idea.

Ethelred_the_Unready

Driving over here is a pain in the arse, wider roads and all. Too many traffic lights, brainless drivers with no regard for safety and endless bottlenecks.

jackattack

I wonder how many Americans would have a heart attack if they came across the Magic Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead. Even I had to pause and think about it the first time I had to drive round it. You can drive clockwise or anti clockwise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_R...emel_Hempstead)

GeoffM

Pah! Tis a mere walk in the park compared to Swindon's Magic Roundabout!

Sally Redux

I don't think they'd worry, just make up their own rules

HarryTheSpider

I worked here for about 3 years. The best way to tackle the Magic Roundabout is to do what a typical driver here in the Valley does... Just assume you are the only driver on the road and just don't stop!!!

rallybug

Here, if the cars have a green, even turning right, the pedestrians also have a green, so the cars have to wait for them, and with Brigham Young's love of wide boulevards, it can take a while for pedestrians to cross some of the streets

If you find North Temple and State Street on a Google map of SLC - when North Temple has a green to go east and/or south by turning right onto State St, pedestrians are also crossing State St at the same intersection.

md95065

The problem is that there are lots of ways that you can legitimately go round it, but if you don't do it the way that the locals expect you to do it then you are in trouble ...

Ethelred_the_Unready

Hiro11

Chicago does make a lot of sense. The main avenues also extend into the suburbs, some of them go for more than 100 miles due east west. This makes it very easy to figure out what "Chicago Latitude" you're, even way out in the cornfields.

One thing that drives me nuts in Chicago is Interstate 55: it's due east-west in the entire Chicago area, yet labled as north-south (which makes sense, I know) . When I get out of Midway and want to head due west, I'm never sure if I need to get on 55N or 55S.

For your reading pleasure, a few interstate numbering scheme facts:
1. N-S is odd, E-W is even. Numbers get higher as you go north or east.
2. Main highways are two digits, secondary highways (beltways, spurs, alternates etc) are three digits.
3. Beltways and alternates around cities are generally numbered sequentially by the third digit depending on how far they are from the city center. E.G. the closest will be 195, next out 295, next out 395 etc. The last two digits of beltways are aligned to the primary "feeder" interstate.
4. Secondary interstates that will return to the primary feeder interstate are given an even first digit, ones with odd digits are spurs that will not return to the primary feeder. E.G. 495 will return to 95, 395 is a spur and will not.
5. Exit numbers are always sequential, but can be either ordinal (exit 1, exit 2 etc) or correspond to the nearest mile marker.
6. Mile markers on beltways are clockwise.
7. There are exceptions to all of the above rules.
8. The numbering system of the older US highway system is confusingly the exact opposite of the interstate system (higher as you go south or west). Also, there are so many exceptions that there are really no rules.

My favorite address scheme (yes, I have such a thing) is the one they use in the Florida keys. All addresses are given by mile marker on US 1. Since there is really only one linear road along the entire archipelago, it's extremely easy to figure out the relative placement of any address.

jeffreyhy

Been gone long enough that I'd almost forgotten, but in many parts of New Jersey one describes where they live with their GSP or NJTpk exit number.

Regards, JEff