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I remember when I first moved to DC I thought it was confusing after a few months it made perfect sense.
I think with Miami it's a grind system in the whole county which make things easy. However the barrier islands have a different grid then the mainland which I can see now that gets confusing. Also some cities have their own grid like Hialeah and come cities are not part of the grid like coral gables a place where I can still find myself lost in.
With that said no doubt I am picking LA. Besides for downtown there is no grid, at least I haven't seen it. It is all by only road names and nothing else. Living in DC and Miami I am certainly not used to that. And the amont of freeways is insane. Very confusing city.
I remember when I first moved to DC I thought it was confusing after a few months it made perfect sense.
I think with Miami it's a grind system in the whole county which make things easy. However the barrier islands have a different grid then the mainland which I can see now that gets confusing. Also some cities have their own grid like Hialeah and come cities are not part of the grid like coral gables a place where I can still find myself lost in.
Yeah, the grid only applies strictly to Miami itself. Some of the other suburbs have it (North Miami Beach, for example), but it is inconsistent. Coral Gables is particularly weird because they kept the grid, but renamed it. At least they didn't change it to different numbers. The Beaches are a different grid, but the cross streets are close (163 becomes 168, 79 becomes 71). Those would be more confusing, but the islands are so narrow that it's hard to get lost and because there are a lot of signs to warn you. Still you don't expect to see New York's grid in the suburbs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nei
In New York City, I've found myself at the intersection of 4th and 10th streets in Manhattan. So, I wonder how many more blocks is it to the 14th street subway station?
In Long Island City (Queens), streets go 21st street, 14th street, 13th street, 12th street, 11th street (some of the last few streets may not exist in the entire neighborhood). Most of the east-west roads are avenues, and the numbers increase as you go south. But after 41st ave...
There's 43rd ave. Then 43rd road. 44th ave. 44th rd. And 44th drive. and the same pattern for 45th rd/ave/dr.
I've been pretty lost/confused in Brooklyn (maybe Queens, it was close). There was an area where we need to turn in one direction, ran into a bunch of one-way streets the other way and then we were forced to go in an entirely different direction. I'm still not sure what happened there.
Parts of Manhattan confuse me too. 1st Ave, 2nd Ave, 3rd Ave, Lexington Ave, Park Ave, Madison Ave, Fifth Ave.
Boston is the most confusing city to drive in with it's layout, it's like a mini-London (London has the worst layout man kind has ever seen from my experience) when it comes to layout.
LA has a very easy to navigate grid system and not only do the large majority of major streets keep the same name when going through various cities, but so do the block/address numbers. Once you learn the names of the major north/south and east/west streets, it's almost impossible to get too lost.
That being said, what did confuse me at first was trying to use the ocean to gauge direction. I kept assuming that the ocean was west, but the ocean is often south, especially in Orange County.
The city that continues to confuse me is Salt Lake and other LDS cities, because I have never bothered to figure out what is going on with their numbering system. I heard that everything is numbered from the temple, but I never really investigated it. I could google I guess, but don't feel like it.
Same LA is actualy very easy to navigate. The only thing i can see hard about navigating LA is it long hard to spell names! I think San francisco is hard with all the hills and density you can get easily lost here. Also in LA the major streets like supulvada go on for a very long time in a straight line like morst LA major streets so if you just saty on that street be a defensive driver and stay away from central LA you will be fine!
What's so confusing about Miami? Miami Ave divides the city East/West and Flager divides it North/South. Aves run North/South and Streets run East/West. The first few digits on the address tells you the cross street. For example 1700 NE 5th St is at the corner of NE 17th Ave and NE 5th. If you have an address anywhere in Miami-Dade, you instantly know where it is.
I remember when I first moved to Miami, someone told me that Streets all run east-west and Courts, Roads, Avenues, and Places all north-south, and the way to remember it is this way: C-R-A-P always runs downhill.
I agree that Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami are actually pretty easy as they're basically on a grid. Dallas, like Atlanta, isn't really on a grid, especially in the central, older areas. It's very confusing, especially for newcomers. And the street numbering system makes no sense and seems to follow little order.
The city that continues to confuse me is Salt Lake and other LDS cities, because I have never bothered to figure out what is going on with their numbering system. I heard that everything is numbered from the temple, but I never really investigated it. I could google I guess, but don't feel like it.
You don't need to google it, 2Easy. Here's how it works:
Salt Lake’s unique street numbering system is almost identical in concept to that of longitude and latitude. Think of the point at which the Equator intersects the Greenwich Meridian – in other words, 0 degrees longitude and 0 degrees latitude. On the globe, that zero-point is just south of Ghana off the West African Coast. In Salt Lake City, it’s at Temple Square. Salt Lake is laid out on a simple grid system. Virtually every address in the city has a set of two coordinates telling how far east or west and how far north or south it is from Temple Square (or the corner of Main and South Temple Streets to be exact). Although an address such as 682 East 400 South may look strange to you, just remember that it simply describes a location on the grid. Consequently, both “halves” of the address (“682 East” and “400 South”) are equally significant, the second half being the street name and the first half being a specific point on that street. Even streets with ordinary names (like Harvard Avenue, for instance) also have a numbered “coordinate.” If you were looking for Harvard Avenue, it would be helpful for you to know that its coordinate is 1175 south.
Driving east from Temple Square, you’ll find that the numbers on the street signs get larger. You’ll come to 5th East, 9th East, 13th East, etc. These streets run parallel to Main Street, which borders Temple Square on the East. Driving south from Temple Square, you’ll reach 4th South, 17th South, 39th South, 45th South, etc. These run parallel to South Temple, which borders Temple Square on the south. The same principle holds true, of course, when traveling north from North Temple or west from West Temple.
A couple of things still tend to confuse newcomers and visitors to Salt Lake City, though. To begin with, the street signs will generally say both “Fifth East” (the street name) and “500 East” (the coordinate). In order to make sense of this seeming discrepancy, imagine a decimal point just prior to the two right-most digits. In other words, Fifth East = 5.00 East = 500 East. Any way you look at it, you’re talking about a street 5 blocks east Temple Square, running parallel to Main Street. Likewise, 350 West is really 3.50 West. That’s 3½ (or 3.5) blocks west of Temple Square. To find a business located at 1633 East 4500 South, look first at the second half of the address. Your destination is located on Forty-fifth South, the street which runs parallel to and is 45 blocks south of South Temple Street. The first part of the address, 1633 East, designates where on 45th South the business is – in this case, 16 and one-third blocks east of Main Street.
One last thought. Think of a “block” as a unit of measure. There are just under seven blocks to the mile in Salt Lake. And because a “street” is not necessarily the same as a “block”, it’s important to understand the difference. For instance, if you were walking from Fifth East to Sixth East, you might pass Oak Street. The sign on the corner would give both its name, “Oak Street”, and its coordinate, “525 East” (think 5.25 East). In other words, the distance between Fifth East and Sixth East is one block, while the distance between Fifth East and the first street east of it is only about ¼ of a block.
The system is unusual, and generally confusing to people at first. Then, suddenly, the light goes on and it all makes sense. When that happens, you realize that you simply cannot get lost in Salt Lake City, and you will rarely even need instructions to get to a completely unfamiliar address. The bottom line is that if you can count and can tell the differece between north, east, south and west, you can find your way around Salt Lake City.
You don't need to google it, 2Easy. Here's how it works:
Salt Lake’s unique street numbering system is almost identical in concept to that of longitude and latitude. Think of the point at which the Equator intersects the Greenwich Meridian – in other words, 0 degrees longitude and 0 degrees latitude. On the globe, that zero-point is just south of Ghana off the West African Coast. In Salt Lake City, it’s at Temple Square. Salt Lake is laid out on a simple grid system. Virtually every address in the city has a set of two coordinates telling how far east or west and how far north or south it is from Temple Square (or the corner of Main and South Temple Streets to be exact). Although an address such as 682 East 400 South may look strange to you, just remember that it simply describes a location on the grid. Consequently, both “halves” of the address (“682 East” and “400 South”) are equally significant, the second half being the street name and the first half being a specific point on that street. Even streets with ordinary names (like Harvard Avenue, for instance) also have a numbered “coordinate.” If you were looking for Harvard Avenue, it would be helpful for you to know that its coordinate is 1175 south.
Driving east from Temple Square, you’ll find that the numbers on the street signs get larger. You’ll come to 5th East, 9th East, 13th East, etc. These streets run parallel to Main Street, which borders Temple Square on the East. Driving south from Temple Square, you’ll reach 4th South, 17th South, 39th South, 45th South, etc. These run parallel to South Temple, which borders Temple Square on the south. The same principle holds true, of course, when traveling north from North Temple or west from West Temple. Simple so far, right?
And yet a couple of things still tend to confuse out-of-towners. To begin with, the street signs will generally say both “Fifth East” (the street name) and “500 East” (the coordinate). In order to make sense of this seeming discrepancy, imagine a decimal point just prior to the two right-most digits. In other words, Fifth East = 5.00 East = 500 East. Any way you look at it, you’re talking about a street 5 blocks east Temple Square, running parallel to Main Street. Likewise, 350 West is really 3.50 West. That’s 3½ (or 3.5) blocks west of Temple Square. To find a business located at 1633 East 4500 South, look first at the second half of the address. Your destination is located on Forty-fifth South, the street which runs parallel to and is 45 blocks south of South Temple Street. The first part of the address, 1633 East, designates where on 45th South the business is – in this case, 16 and one-third blocks east of Main Street.
One last thought. Think of a “block” as a unit of measure. There are just under seven blocks to the mile in Salt Lake. And because a “street” is not necessarily the same as a “block”, it’s important to understand the difference. For instance, if you were walking from Fifth East to Sixth East, you might pass Oak Street. The sign on the corner would give both its name, “Oak Street”, and its coordinate, “525 East” (think 5.25 East). In other words, the distance between Fifth East and Sixth East is one block, while the distance between Fifth East and the first street east of it is only about ¼ of a block.
The system is unusual, and generally confusing to people at first. Then, suddenly, the light goes on and it all makes sense. When that happens, you realize that you simply cannot get lost in Salt Lake City, and you will rarely even need instructions to get to a completely unfamiliar address.
I prefer the Chaos of Boston to that crap.
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