I wonder if that happens in Atlanta. Every street seemed to have the word Peach in it.

Just put mooninites near the scene of the crime, that'll speed their response. Who can mistake them for anything other than an emergency beacon?

Having driven in Boston, my suggestion would be to bulldoze the entire city and start over. It probably doesn't help that the first time I drove there was two days before the Boston Marathon...

"Hi, this is Sully, on Washington street..."

Turfshoe: I wonder if that happens in Atlanta. Every street seemed to have the word Peach in it.

No because Atlanta thoughtfully changed the suffix. Now go turn left on Peachtree.

That's because they had second thoughts about naming every other street Yastrzemski after they realized no one from out of town could spell or pronounce it. I still think 90 should be named Yaz Blvd.

I was dabbling around with writing a book about a backwards southern town years ago. Mayor of the town had connections with a roadsign manufacturer. Legislation was soon passed renaming every street in town. Soon there was Martin Luther King Ave., Ralph Bunche Boulevard, Malcolm Crossroads, Tawana Brawley Court, the Idi Amin Bypass...

"My address? 123..Fake Street"

Kinda like my town, where a cul-de-sac called Pioneer Lane shoots off of Pioneer Blvd., to the great confusion of anyone giving their mapping software an address on "Pioneer". Granted, they're at least close to each other instead of in entirely different neighborhoods.

Try coming here to Atlanta and looking for Peachtree Street.
/your head will asplode

There are also a million "Cambridge Streets" and "Harvard Streets".

MBooda: I was dabbling around with writing a book about a backwards southern town years ago. Mayor of the town had connections with a roadsign manufacturer. Legislation was soon passed renaming every street in town. Soon there was Martin Luther King Ave., Ralph Bunche Boulevard, Malcolm Crossroads, Tawana Brawley Court, the Idi Amin Bypass...

To add to your backward southern town thing, there's a town here in Alabama that was supposed to be named after the founder's son, Arad. Instead, the state misread the the registration (as the story goes) and the town was named Arab instead. It's pronounced like Ahab only with the "r". It's a painful reminder of the sheer stupidity that happens in this backwards state.

morgen_benner: Having driven in Boston, my suggestion would be to bulldoze the entire city and start over. It probably doesn't help that the first time I drove there was two days before the Boston Marathon...

Silly tourist:

H31N0US: "Hi, this is Sully, on Washington street..."

"No, the one that lives next to Smitty. No, the other Smitty. Billy's brother. No, the other Billy."

That joke would make it about as far as 128 before falling completely flat.

I think the negative response time might be better attributed to all the doughnut shops to frequent and homeless people to pound and "bombs" to diffuse.

Washington Street is the 'longest' street in the Commonwealth (originally "King Street", but renamed after independence. Without WikiMaps, I believe it goes to the RI border. The problem is that independent towns like Dorchester which were annexed by Boston still had their set of Washington Street addresses.

/TMYK

wicked pissah

OtherLittleGuy: Washington Street is the 'longest' street in the Commonwealth (originally "King Street", but renamed after independence. Without WikiMaps, I believe it goes to the RI border. The problem is that independent towns like Dorchester which were annexed by Boston still had their set of Washington Street addresses.

/TMYK

No shiat. I've lived in Boston my whole life and never knew that. Thanks!

Are you listening, DC?

... well, less for the cops, but 1 St, l street, and I street all look the same on a goddamn tiny map. Hell, I figured out Boston easily enough, and good number of European cities and Toronto - but DC threw me, two times in two days. Ended up at the same gas station at the end of each day, too.

Should've known when Mapquest told us to go to a dead end and turn left on the way there, and we were still in freakin' Maryland. Knew the area was tricky, had another map ready and winged it, but still.

Also, NYC, congrats. I've navigated my way around your city - repeatedly, in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn - armed with only a free subway map. Kudos.

blazemongr: Kinda like my town, where a cul-de-sac called Pioneer Lane shoots off of Pioneer Blvd., to the great confusion of anyone giving their mapping software an address on "Pioneer". Granted, they're at least close to each other instead of in entirely different neighborhoods.

We have a "Delaware Ave." and a "Delaware Rd." two blocks apart that run roughly parallel for about a mile and a half, then converge. One's a commercial thoroughfare, the other is a residential side street. Confused the hell out of me when I first started driving in that area, because a lot of the signs on both roads just said "Delaware" (at least they put up new signs with "AVE" / "RD" suffixes a few years ago).

Kind of like NoVA. Most of the streets tend to be named after Confederate generals. Mostly Lee or Jackson. Except in Burke VA, where every street has Burke in the name: Burke, Burke Lake, Burke Center, etc.

I live in Boston, and this is actually a problem.

The neighborhood specification is a good idea.

What I love is how the street you are on suddenly changes street name with no warning.

As a result, Mayor Menino is encouraging a renaming committee to reassign the northernmost one as Cambridge Street, the next one as Beacon Street, then Commonwealth Ave (and they can call it something like "Com Ave" for short). The remaining ones will be renamed as Mass Ave, Dorchester Street, Tremont, Broadway, etc.

Almost every T station is named after a street or landmark, so when you say "I need to get to Harvard", specify Harvard Str.(of which there are many), Harvard U or the Harvard T station.

Like if you just say "I need to get to Copley" Bostonians will assume you mean the T stop, and others will assume you mean the shopping center or hotel.

Uh huh. "Oops, we accidentally went to a safe area of Boston, instead of farking Dorchester, to respond to a shooting. Our bad. Xoxoxo, White Irish Police."

When I drove a cab for a year I took a look at the street map and once I realized that more than half the streets in Boston were in Dorchester and Roxbury I decided to cut my learning curve and ignore the southside neighborhoods. Yeah, yeah, I know, you're supposed to serve the entire city. Wasn't being racist, they just don't tip as well down there as they do on the Hill or in Back Bay.

And yeah, there are a lot of Washington Streets. And Tremonts. And every town in Mass seems to have a street named for every adjacent town.

Not to be a wise guy but aren't some of these in different zip codes?

/works for Google, Yahoo & Mapquest

My favorite is in Montgomery County, PA outside Philly... where Valley Forge Rd. crosses Valley Forge Rd., and it's a completely different road.

Seattle checks in with numbered streets and numbered aves, streets run east-west, ave's run north-south, they can be the same number. Then streets (ew) and aves (ns) can either prepend (streets) or append (aves) with NE, N, NW, W, S, SW, SE all possible on some of the same street number.

And the changes happen in the middle of non obvious spots, other than 100 yrs ago that was the boundary of Yesler's log mill.

Example. Its possible to drive from 12th ave S, to 12th Ave, on up to 12th Ave E, all without changing the street (unless you missed the curve at Boren, and wound up heading back to I-5)

This could be a real pain in the ass for me, I've got a meeting at 344 Washington in Boston and I want it to go well.

Nestea Plunge Like if you just say "I need to get to Copley" Bostonians will assume you mean the T stop, and others will assume you mean the shopping center or hotel.

No, I assume if someone says they need to get to Copley, they need to get to Copley Square.

Where there is aforementioned T stop, hotel, and shopping center within a block.

/expect those who ask for "Coe-pley"

I just came in here for the Atlanta Peachtree comments. Thread delivers.

Turfshoe: I wonder if that happens in Atlanta. Every street seemed to have the word Peach in it.

I came in here to say this. And Cobb. Cobb Pkwy or Cobb Ave or south Peach Cobbler Pie Pkway street.

It took me a year to beable to navigate successfully through Atlanta.

isamudyson: Not to be a wise guy but aren't some of these in different zip codes?

/works for Google, Yahoo & Mapquest

They are in different zip codes. For example, Beacon St in Somerville turns into New Hampshire St when you drive into Cambridge. Mass Ave is the only street that I can think of that cuts through 2 cities (Boston/Cambridge) and doesn't do some retarded name change.

The 911 dispatcher must not live here. If there was stabbing and a choice between Downtown Crossing and Dorchester, there's a 99% chance it's in Dorchester :P

"They ain't comin'..."

You would think that in todays computer filled world that someone in emergency services could tie common street addresses to their unique property identifier; ie. unit/block/lot. Of course that would make too much sense.

/Well there's Washington street, Washington avenue, Washington circle, Washington place, Washington boulevard, Washington drive, Washington way, Washington trail, Washington highway....

elemenopy:

Where there is aforementioned T stop, hotel, and shopping center within a block.



No shiat Magellen, that's what I said.

That's the disadvantage to a city that wasn't planned so much as happened. All of those Cambridge streets or Cambridge roads are the paths that people used to take to get to Cambridge. It all made a lot more sense in colonial times when there was a bit of space between the various cities. Not to mention that 10 miles was a significant distance to travel.

Things would be a lot better now if there had been a huge fire back in the 1800s or something.

In NYC you have multiple streets named with the same number. In Queens there's a 43rd Street that CROSSES 43rd Avenue. Oh, and also crossing 43rd avenue is 39th Street and 39th Place, which are parallel with each other. Then you have 43rd streets in all the other boroughs.

I've had the misfortune to drive in Boston. Nevermind the similar street names. The road layout is a total farking disaster. Streets just snake off every which way and many are either not marked or poorly marked. That tiny street sign on the opposite corner behind a tree branch doesn't help me much.

The road layout was clearly created by drunk monkeys who were really pissed off at humanity.

Want to see a real drop in response times? Name a street Martin Luther King Blvd.

morgen_benner: Having driven in Boston, my suggestion would be to bulldoze the entire city and start over.

Yes! They could call the project something basic and earthy, like the "Big Dig." It would be inexpensive, efficient, and wouldn't take long to complete.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: Also, NYC, congrats. I've navigated my way around your city - repeatedly, in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn - armed with only a free subway map. Kudos.

That would be because NYC actually had a plan for when they laid out their streets. The streets of Boston, on the other hand, are really just paved-over versions of the farm roads and cattle paths they replaced. Which were laid out by good, witch-fearing Puritan folk, who were probably drunk at the time.

/what Boston really needed was a Baron Haussmann

are really just paved-over versions of the farm roads and cattle paths they replaced

Not really, but this is a common myth.

morgen_benner: Having driven in Boston, my suggestion would be to bulldoze the entire city and start over. It probably doesn't help that the first time I drove there was two days before the Boston Marathon...

So you'll be in town on Saturday?

Lesson for everyone, locals included: Don't drive in Boston, it's just not worth it, it is poorly designed, and the people who DO know where they're going don't know how to drive.

/lives in Boston
//not a native
///never needed a car
////marathon slashies!