# What do you call this type of street? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146 "2019-02-08T01:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/1 "2019-02-08T01:15:13Z")
There’s a major, main, multi-laned, two way road in the center. On each side of this main road is another street running parallel to it, just one lane, sometimes with space for parallel parking, usually one-way, the same direction as the adjacent lane on the main road, often separated from the main with a curb. What do you call those streets on the side of the main road? . ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/2 "2019-02-08T01:18:59Z")
I’ve never called them anything. Is there a name for that sort of road other than the name of the road? I’m really only familiar with “frontage road” which generally applies to a road running parallel, and with access points, to a highway. ETA: I answered before you posted the poll. Access and service roads, to me are roads that lead into a site that would not normally have access to, like a wilderness area with access road leading to a fire lookout. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/3 "2019-02-08T01:24:13Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I’ve never called them anything. Is there a name for that sort of road other than the name of the road? I’m really only familiar with “frontage road” which generally applies to a road running parallel, and with access points, to a highway. It’s my understanding this is a regionalism, and what you call them largely depends on where you’re from, hence the question. I’ve from the DC area, and I’ve always known them as “service roads.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/4 "2019-02-08T01:40:45Z")
Frontage road. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/5 "2019-02-08T01:59:37Z")
Frontage road if it’s next to a freeway, otherwise access or service road are pretty much interchangeable terms in my book. Are you specifically asking about K Street? ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/6 "2019-02-08T03:37:49Z")
If we’re talking about a freeway, then I would say _frontage_, but any of the first four options would work(except that _feeder road_ is very Houston specific). If it’s all surface roads with stop signs and traffic signals I would not use _frontage_ or\* feeder\*, but either _service_ or _access_ would suffice. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/7 "2019-02-08T03:39:56Z")
Called a service road in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/8 "2019-02-08T04:29:37Z")
Service road, though I’ve also heard “access road.” Never heard “frontage” and would have no clue what that meant. New York/Long Island here. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/9 "2019-02-08T04:31:08Z")
Service road, though I’ve also heard frontage road. Grew up in NY state, lived 15 years in the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/10 "2019-02-08T04:52:19Z")
I grew up in the St. Louis area. They were always service roads to me. I’ve heard frontage road, but it’s wrong. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/11 "2019-02-08T05:06:11Z")
I’ve regularly heard the first four options. I tend to think of _service_ or _feeder_ as appropriate usage only for freeways, most notably the Texas model. (Most states passed laws in the 1950s so that freeways didn’t have to allow access to abutting property, but Texas did not until about 20 years ago.) On the other hand, _frontage_ roads were frequently used in the Sunbelt in the 1950s and 1960s to allow residential subdivisions to front onto arterial roads. (Nowadays they design the subdivisions to have backyards along the arterials.) These have 19th century predecessors in the boulevards laid out in Chicago and Brooklyn, which were emulated in Kansas City, Dallas, Minneapolis, and other places during the early 20th century City Beautiful movement. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/12 "2019-02-08T05:17:23Z")
If we’re thinking the same thing, my wife and I always called them “side roads” or “siding roads”. Mostly we seem to hit them around Indiana along highways passing through more heavily commercial sections. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/13 "2019-02-08T06:32:47Z")
There aren’t a lot in my area (central Ohio) but I’d call it a service road. I’ve heard “frontage road” enough to know what it is, though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/14 "2019-02-08T08:08:28Z")
Ventweg (the Dutch name for exactly that kind of road) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/15 "2019-02-08T10:48:07Z")
Service lane. Melb.vic.aus, and I didn’t vote because I thought the statistics were more interesting without foreign interference. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/16 "2019-02-08T12:14:47Z")
I’ve learned them as service roads, and I believe the local traffic report back then used that term (as a alternate to the jammed up expressway). It was explained to me as a child that it is called that because the interstate has no services, and if you need food or gas you would take the service road. Later I heard the term frontage road in a different part of the country, I accepted the term but the wording to me never made sense. There is no front of a highway. As for access road, to me that is a road used to access the highway and not necessarily parallel to it, and usually short - or at least the part used to access the highway short. If someone said take the access road, I would assume they meant access the highway via the access road unless they clarified. Take the service road or frontage road would mean to drive on that road and not get on the highway. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/17 "2019-02-08T12:56:24Z")
I’ve only ever encountered them along limited-access freeways, and always seen them referred to as either frontage roads or marginal roads (which wasn’t an option in the poll). ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/18 "2019-02-08T13:09:59Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Later I heard the term frontage road in a different part of the country, I accepted the term but the wording to me never made sense. There is no front of a highway. Frontage is the edge of a property along water or a road. Like how you might own lakefront property. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/19 "2019-02-08T14:28:22Z")
Access road in New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146/20 "2019-02-08T14:51:19Z")
Wiki says the whole thing is a boulevard: "A boulevard (French, from Dutch: Bolwerk – bulwark, meaning bastion), often abbreviated Blvd, is a type of large road, usually running through a city. In modern American usage it often means a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, often divided with a median down the centre, and perhaps with roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery." I would call the roads at the side “side roads”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-this-type-of-street/829146.md?page=2)