Читать книгу Confessions of a Recovering Engineer - Charles L. Marohn Jr. - Страница 15

The following words and phrases, when used in this Manual, shall have the following meanings: 225. Street — See Highway

— Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices¹

Destiny Gonzalez was killed on State Street. There are many reasons we call it a “street” instead of something else. Likely, that is the name given to it in the original plat: the initial layout and design of the city of Springfield. That would make the designation of “street” a tradition more than anything else.

Some communities use “street” for places that are more residential — or less residential. It is often used in parts of the community that are designed with a network of grids, although not always. When used in places that also use terms like lane, access, boulevard, or drive, it might just be a random choice. For State Street, it could also be a preference for alliteration.

What is not often seen is calling something in the center of town a “road.” I am not saying that it never happens, but when one thinks of a road, it is often in the context of the “open road,” the conjecture of a more expansive kind of space.

Before I became a civil engineer, this is how I understood things: Streets were in the city and roads were outside them. I grew up on a farm, so we lived on Mapleton Road. My grandmother lived in town on I Street NE. It seemed clear to me that roads were rural and streets were urban.

Clear, until I began designing transportation systems.