# Numbered streets outside of North America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356 "2025-07-01T15:18:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/41 "2025-07-02T11:45:15Z")
Here’s a [half avenue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6%C2%BD_Avenue) ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/42 "2025-07-02T12:00:11Z")
In my town there are areas with themed street names. Where I live it’s stately homes with Woburn, Charlecote, Chatsworth, and more. In another area it’s scientists/inventors with Newton, Faraday, Fleming, and Baird. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/43 "2025-07-02T12:05:52Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > In another area it’s scientists/inventors with Newton, Faraday, Fleming, and Baird. There’s a neighborhood near here where all the streets are named after Jewish Nobel Prize winners. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/44 "2025-07-02T12:17:34Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Oh, and for maximal numbered street confusions - Chicago not only has numbered streets, it also have very similar named numbered streets right next to each other. One is called “street” and the next “place”. So you can have _66th Street_ and the next one over if _66th Place_ (as completely random examples). Hilarity occasionally ensues. Likewise in Queens, where it’s not uncommon to find (for instance) 66th Street, 66th Avenue, 66th Road, and 66th Place within a four-block radius. There was a meme going around a few years back: “I live on 44th Street, but my friend lives on 45th Street.” Manhattan: ⬆ Brooklyn: ↙ Queens: ⤵ ↩🔀 🌪 ⁉ ---
**Author:** ![tetranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@tetranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tetranz)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/45 "2025-07-02T12:40:37Z")
Tauranga in New Zealand has 1st Ave to 23rd Ave but I think that’s unusual at least in NZ. > **[Google Maps](https://maps.app.goo.gl/5P2gWqub2CrfU4ur6)** > > Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. A few in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland. > **[Kingsland · Auckland 1021, New Zealand](https://maps.app.goo.gl/2GxZxtvYrcXD8PGd7)** > > Auckland 1021, New Zealand ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/46 "2025-07-02T12:48:31Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > Has anyone ever run across a ‘fractional’ numbered street - something like 2-1/2 Street? I have run across that, but I’ll be damned if I can remember the city. Somewhere in the US or Canada, though. (ETA: not the fractional mile roads in the Detroit area. Some other place.) One thing I’ve noticed about cities in western Canada is that many use cardinal numbers instead of ordinals. For example, in the area south of the Frasier River in British Columbia, they start the numbering at the US-Canada border, with 0 Ave (that’s a zero) running right on the border. Numbered avenues in that area run east-west and numbered streets run north-south. But I’ll be hanged if I can find where the streets are numbered from. The lowest numbered street I can find is 34 St. which is fairly close to the ocean. Vancourver, which is north of the Frasier, has their own numbering using ordinals. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/47 "2025-07-02T13:07:31Z")
Doing some searching on Google Maps, I find that fractional streets are not that uncommon. For example, there’s a section of Rochester MN that has 9 1/2, 10 1/4, 10 1/2, and 11 1/2 Streets: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.0089335,-92.4620504&z=17&output=embed&dg=ntvb&q=44%C2%B000%2732.2%22N%2B92%C2%B027%2734.1%22W ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/48 "2025-07-02T13:23:18Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > “I live on 44th Street, but my friend lives on 45th Street.” > > Manhattan: ⬆ > > Brooklyn: ↙ > > Queens: ⤵ ↩ 🔀 🌪 ⁉ I don’t quite get this ( and I live in Queens) - but similarly named streets being close together is not so bad compared with similarly named streets being far apart. B116 St is nowhere near 116 St and 14 Road in College Point could hardly be furthe away from W (or E) 14 Road in Broad Channel ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/49 "2025-07-02T13:52:04Z")
I get the feeling that sometimes those creating names for streets are just having a laugh. Being now curious about street names here, I did some idle scrolling around the street maps. There are some amusing oddities. I found a few more suburbs with numbered streets. One had fourth, fifth sixth and seventh streets on the sides of a square. The other numbers were just randomly sprayed about nearby streets. In a nearby suburb West and East streets are at least parallel and West is to the west of East. Nearby, Western Parade runs 90 degrees to West and East streets, and at least if you are driving to the beach you will be travelling West. My favourite is a suburb where you will find such streets as, Secant, Tangent, Traverse, Chord, Parallel, Quadrant, Bearing, Meridian, Decimal, Mantissa, Degree and Log. One has the feeling the surveyors were very keen to make their mark. This one did know about. Nearby is Newman, Heston, Gable, Bogart, Brando, Mcqueen, Reynonds, Fairbanks, Redford. So maybe their wives got a say as well. Another coastal suburb has: Arafura, Heron, Fireball, Tornado and Dutchman. Which would puzzle most, but these are all classes of off the beach racing yachts. The Tornado and (Flying) Dutchman both being Olympic classes in their day. It made my day seeing those. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/50 "2025-07-02T14:38:29Z")
I used to live in a town (OK, census designated place) called Audubon, where many of the residential streets are unsurprisingly named after birds. Nobody has mentioned Washington, DC and its idiotic duplicated numbered streets - 1st Street, 2nd street, 3rd street, etc. heading east of the Capitol and 1st Street, 2nd street, 3rd street, etc.heading west. Only quadrant designations (NE/SE for those on the east side, NW/SW for those on the west). I remember visiting Washington as a kid. We were trying to find our hotel late at night. It was on some numbered street, call it Nth St. NE. My dad was driving, he found Nth St. NW and figured that if he drove along the street it would eventually turn into Nth St. NE like it would in any city with reasonable street naming. Can’t remember how he found out that we were on the completely wrong street, but we did eventually make it to the hotel. Phoenix has a similar system with north/south streets numbered ascending both east and west from Central Avenue. However, they have the decency to call the streets west of Central “Avenues” and those east of Central “Streets”. Some of the adjacent towns and cities continue the numbering system, Scottsdale goes up to at least 136th Street in the East Valley. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/51 "2025-07-02T14:44:40Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > However, they have the decency to call the streets west of Central “Avenues” and those east of Central “Streets”. Now _that’s_ nuts. Talk about confusing! And I lived in greater Phoenix for a year. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/52 "2025-07-02T14:50:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And I lived in greater Phoenix for a year. Phoenix was a nightmare for me to navigate before phone directions became a thing. It’s genuinely absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/53 "2025-07-02T14:55:39Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Now _that’s_ nuts. Talk about confusing! Not as confusing as Washington. At least when I hear “Avenue” I know it’s clear across town, I don’t have to listen for(and decode) the directional. We also have the occasional “37th Place” type names for small residential streets (generally not through streets) next to “37th Street”. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/54 "2025-07-02T14:59:50Z")
I grew up in Salt Lake City, laid out in a grid, with 2nd East, 3rd East, etc. and 2nd South, 3rd South, etc. so you immediately knew the direction of the street and where it was. Then I went to Japan, with no street names (except for some large streets) and house numbers that ran around each block. Thank god for GPS first, and now google maps. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/55 "2025-07-02T15:09:31Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Nobody has mentioned Washington, DC and its idiotic duplicated numbered streets - 1st Street, 2nd street, 3rd street, etc. heading east of the Capitol and 1st Street, 2nd street, 3rd street, etc.heading west. And its lettered streets from A through W, but skipping from I to K. Brooklyn has a similar array of lettered avenues, but the one between Avenue P and Avenue R is called “Quentin Road.” (“J Street” was eventually used as the name of a lobbying group, and “Avenue Q” as the title of a musical.) ---
**Author:** ![ThisOneGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/56 "2025-07-02T16:28:17Z")
An unusual one is Kyoto in Japan. Was laid out as a grid back in the 8th century, the numbered streets do partially remain. As an example the “Nijo” in “Nijo Castle” is 2nd street/avenue. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356/57 "2025-08-26T21:00:20Z")
Bumping this as I just found some more in the UK. Looking up an address, I came across first to sixth avenue in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England. https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m10!1m8!1m3!1d2346.7837869748037!2d-1.07276278917752!3d50.84624164262228!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1756241885528!5m2!1sen!2suk j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbered-streets-outside-of-north-america/1020356.md?page=2)