Avenue Vs Street

[adullstudent]

HI.is there any difference between avenue and street? and what are the prepositions used with them?


thanks

[matilda]

of course there are some differences.
street is narrower than avenue.
an avenue is a wide road that many cars pass fron it.
avenue is a little smaller than highway

[river]

Originally Posted by adullstudent

HI.is there any difference between avenue and street? and what are the prepositions used with them?
thanks

There is no standard definition of street and avenue in the U.S.

In Manhattan north-south streets are avenues and east-west streets are streets. North Carolina is the opposite: north-south are avenues and east-west are streets.

Either can be long or short, narrow or wide depending on where you live.

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by river

There is no standard definition of street and avenue in the U.S.
In Manhattan north-south streets are avenues and east-west streets are streets. North Carolina is the opposite: north-south are avenues and east-west are streets.
Either can be long or short, narrow or wide depending on where you live.

What you say is true up to a point, but there is an element of truth in what Matilda says. In British English at least, an 'avenue' generally means a wide tree-lined road, whereas a 'street' generally means a small road lined with houses. There are many exceptions, but that is the general 'sense' of the words.

I would be surprised to find there wasn't a similar correlation in the US. I have never been to North Carolina, but are not the avenues in Manhattan longer and generally wider than the cross-streets? Also, saying that avenues are north-south in one location and east-west in another conveys no information about how wide or long they are.

[Philly]

Hi Coffa
If anything, I'd tend to associate the word avenue more exclusively with a residential area than the word street. So in that respect, you might be able to say that a street is sometimes longer and wider than an avenue in the US.

But as River said, there really isn't any absolute difference between the two words in US English. Sometimes the difference is only which direction an avenue/street runs in. But probably most of the time there isn't even that difference. Any differences that might exist tend to be locally defined.

Also, saying that avenues are north-south in one location and east-west in another conveys no information about how wide or long they are.

That's exactly the point, Coffa. N-S vs E-W is sometimes the only difference in the US --- if there's any difference at all, that is.
.

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by Philly

Hi Coffa
If anything, I'd tend to associate the word avenue more exclusively with a residential area than the word street. So in that respect, you might be able to say that a street is sometimes longer and wider than an avenue in the US.
But as River said, there really isn't any absolute difference between the two words in US English. Sometimes the difference is only which direction an avenue/street runs in. But probably most of the time there isn't even that difference. Any differences that might exist tend to be locally defined.
That's exactly the point, Coffa. N-S vs E-W is sometimes the only difference in the US --- if there's any difference at all, that is.
.

Vive la difference

[matero]

It seems to me that "avenue" does have an esthetic or emotional component that is missing in "street." I guess that would mean that an avenue is a kind of street. It would be nice, though, to have an agreed upon "northish/southish vs eastish/westish" distinction.

[angus3of4]

I hate to confuse anyone even further, but all the previous posters are both right & wrong.

Here's why: Depending on which school of thought you follow as an Urban Planner determines how you will lay out your city.

In antiquity, cities (if they could be called that at all) were built as a function of superstitions and natural processes. They would be closely packed to maximize materials and the like, but laid out based on the belief that some areas were considered either "sick" or "healthy".

Eventually, the "Father of urban planning" Hippodamus of Miletus designed a regular grid city that incorporated public squares and a city center surrounded by government buildings. This design made every street the same width, and typically followed the cardinal points.

More than a millenia later, under the rule of the Napoleon Empire, Paris saw the next major revolution in urban planning. At this time, a hierarchy to streets was developed. "Boulevards" became the major thoroughfares, while "rues" became secondary. The original use of the word "Avenue" was for long parks usually containing national monuments of some sort. These public spaces were flanked by boulevards.

Then, in the early 1960's American planners started using what is called "street heirarchy". This is where most of us (from the US) get our understanding of the relationship between street types and their use. The irony of this design style is that there was very little standardization. However, the popularity of the automobile did bring about certain commonalities. President Eisenhower further defined this style with the implementation of his Interstate project, and lesser known federal code mandating all new streets must allow two adjacent tanks to travel unhindered. The new "Interstates" became the major thoroughfares, followed by "Highways" as the secondary routes, third are "Avenues" or "Boulevards", fourth are "Streets" and finally "Alleys".

So, after my long-winded explanation let me offer a summary. The use of "avenue" vs. "street" are now completely inter-changable. Although, many city planners (in the US) have chosen to name all roads North-South "avenue" and East-West "street" by blending two styles (Hippodamus grid & Street Heirarchy).

Hope this helps end some confusion.

[justflyingin]

Add "Road" to your choice of words as well. :)

Common words are then Street, Blvd., Avenue, Road, Lane.

Newer cities that were well-planned before they were created may actually attach meaning to the names indicating direction.

I know that my parents live on a "Road" which is more like a "Highway".

[ahumphreys]

Streets are public spaces where people can meet and congregate, as well as pass through.

Roads are paths which we use to get to our destinations.

Streets are themselves, and usually also have many, destinations.

Roads are only thoroughfares.

"Streets," however, are uniquely an Urban phenomenon. Roads, historically, only connected cities.

Therefore we have in English expressions like "City Streets" and "Rural Roads." There can be "Private Roads", but streets are always public. Rail Roads and limited access freeways are amongst the only pure roads we still have.

However, modern cities have created spaces that are at once both road-like and street-like. Which often makes it harder to designate that space as a pure road or street, because they behave somewhat as both.

However, we also have people in "Roads" and "Streets" movements:
People in the "streets" movements are found to be advocating for better public transit, bike lanes, better sidewalks and public spaces and public amenities (like benches, litter bins, public washrooms, and fewer billboards).
People in the roads movements are found to be advocating for the removal of on-street parking, wider roads, higher speed, the removal of cyclists from that space, and the removal of street merchants and putting commerce into malls and plazas with their own parking lots.

An Avenue is a type of street. Avenues are similar to a Boulevard, in so much as both would have had a middle island, but Avenues are typically very Grand, they usually have very wide sidewalks, and still have three or four travel lanes each way. Avenues, at one point, were meant to be very special places within a city. Public monuments and memorials are typically placed on Avenues (even if they aren't so named).

Now, however, it seems like the naming of streets has become somewhat random.

Here's a rule of thumb: People will want to build their homes and businesses close to a street, but will want to build these far away from a road.

Toronto has a great example of an Avenue: University Avenue. A grand boulveard running from Queen Street to Queens Park with many monumnets on the islands in the centre. Avenue Road, the name of the same street when it is north of Queens Park, is named in honour of this Avenue; it was the road to that grand avenue, therefore it deserved the name Avenue Road.