Zompist Bboard Again

To me "thoroughfare" indicates a pretty good-sized road, the kind you would drive on if you were trying to get to some destination a distance away rather than just the last half-mile to get to someone's front door. And yes, a "circle" certainly is not a "thoroughfare" to me.

zompist wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2024 10:04 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2024 8:14 pm Here in Wisconsin, city streets have names, while state and US highways have numbers, interstates have I- followed by numbers, and county highways have letters ─ with one notable exception ─ everyone refers to Highway 100, which is definitely a city street, in Milwaukee County as Highway 100 and only uncommonly by its other names such as 108th Street or Mayfair Road, while practically no other numbered or lettered highways are referred to by such in Milwaukee County.

Unless things have changed (milennials ruining everything), people refer to the interstates in Chicago by name:

290 - Eisenhower
90/94 - N, Kennedy; S, Dan Ryan
294 - Tri-State

Numbered routes may or may not be referred to by names... e.g. it'd be odd to call North Avenue "route 64". It probably helps that the major streets keep their name across the whole region. E.g. Ogden Ave. keeps its name from the city 30 miles out.

In referring to interstates by names, in Chicago, it makes sense: the numbers for some of them do change, particularly the toll roads. For example, the Tri-State changes from I-294 to I-94 en route to the IL–WI border. Similarly, in Snowhio, at least, one refers to the Ohio Turnpike and not the individual route numbers (I-80, I-90, and I-76), and same for the Kansas Turnpike in Kansas. But especially when the name changes (e.g. I-40 in North Carolina), it's often more common to use the route number.

That said, often a lot of motorways here in Luxembourg are referred to by their names, which normally refers to where the road goes to; in Belgium, most motorways are referred to by the E-route number rather than the Belgian A-number (the A4 towards Brussels, for example, is the E411 between Arlon and Brussels; it's sometimes also called the Autoroute des Ardennes, but most commonly traffic reports will talk about the E411).

TomHChappell wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 4:19 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 3:46 pm A "lane" or a "place" or a "court" doesn't sound like a "thoroughfare" to me.

I mistyped something.
To me a “lane” is possibly the smallest kind or least “thorough” kind of thoroughfare.
But a “drive” is a thoroughfare. The second time I mentioned “drive”, I meant “circle”.
“Circles” don’t strike me as thoroughfares.

There's an Oval in Glasgow, and it is an actual oval, almost an ellipse. There are two roads joined on to it, so it might qualify as "thorough" if you go from one to the other.

doctor shark wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 5:23 pm In referring to interstates by names, in Chicago, it makes sense: the numbers for some of them do change, particularly the toll roads. For example, the Tri-State changes from I-294 to I-94 en route to the IL–WI border.

This isn't quite right. Interstate numbers don't change: 94 is a national route that goes from Billings MT to Detroit MI, just as 90 goes from Seattle to Boston. Within the Midwest it goes through St Paul, then Milwaukee, hugs the lake as it goes through Chicago, then heads east to Detroit.

3-digit interstate numbers are spurs or ring roads:294 is a ring road that goes farther out from downtown, skirting the whole city.

But the Tri-State is also a thing, and consists of parts of three different interstates, including the entirety of 294.

Curlyjimsam wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 1:47 pm In the UK I would expect an "avenue" to be lined with trees and/or to be used on a housing estate to give the impression of some idyllic setting.
….

In the system I was taught, avenues have trees lining each side, whereas boulevards have trees planted down the middle, like a kind of divider.
But note that system could allow a thoroughfare to be neither an avenue nor a boulevard. Or both an Avenue and a boulevard, if there were enough trees.

And besides all that, I’ve never been anywhere that this system wasn’t honored more in the breach than in the observance.