Explain Aurora street names? (Denver, Boulder: cul-de-sac, house, live)

[Quietude]

Okay, I profess to be completely baffled. With a little experience in sub/urban planning, my weeks of scouring the map in my house search left me completely confused about the street naming system in Aurora.

Generally, my understanding is that you name streets in a way to lessen confusion and simplify navigation and things like package delivery. You choose pleasant or at least relevant names, then use a reasonable numbering system and designators (like "Street" or "Way" that are euphonious and descriptive. You don't add complexity for its own sake. You assiduously avoid duplications and near-duplications that will confuse drivers, residents, UPS and GPS.

The Aurora system contravenes all of the above, almost tauntingly so. If anyone has answers to any of these points, or the whole set, I'd love to hear them.

1. Why are five-digit street numbers used when only a handful of streets are even remotely long enough to need them? When most suburban streets have no more than two dozen addresses?
2. Why are S-E-N-W designators used on every single street, often without any companion designation elsewhere?
3. Why are street-type designators used randomly - Court, Circle, Place on utterly straight streets, Way and Street on cul-de-sacs, some courts and culs not given any designation except the range of addresses?
4. And on the soul of Alferd Packer, why are street names used over and over in the same area? There are no fewer than six roadways with the same name as mine within a half mile, differentiated only by the type designator.
5. Why are some addresses wholly duplicated between cities? I entered one property I'd looked at and was told the same number, street name and designator (an unusual one) existed in Denver, Aurora and Boulder.

Did the Front Range cities all chip in on the same cheap copy of "Great Names for Streets in a Small Town" and then assign the naming to a six-year-old?


Or what?

[randomparent]

I cannot answer your question, but I will confirm that the repeating street names are confusing, and they're all over the Denver metro, not just Aurora.

[Indigo Cardinal]

I've lived in Colorado for nearly 20 years, 15 of them being in Aurora, and I can only partially answer one of those questions (the first one.)

In regards to the five-digit addresses, a lot of it is because they just continue the sequential numbering on a street, even when the street passes from one town to another. Broadway (runs north-south) is the dividing line between the East and West designations for street names--so if you're driving west on E. Evans Avenue, once you cross Broadway, it's W. Evans Avenue. The closer you are to Broadway, the smaller the numbers are. As you go further out in either direction, the numbers get larger. Each 1000 numbers are used for about a mile, so if you are at 11000 E. Mississippi Avenue, then you know you are about 11 miles away from Broadway. (So in a way, it's sort of a measuring tool--likewise, if you're in the 15000 block of Alameda, and you're trying to find an address in the 8000 block of Alameda, you know you have to go 7 more miles.)

As for the east-west running street that splits streets into the north-south designations....that can vary depending on where you are in the Denver metro area, but I think by and large, it's Bayaud or Ellsworth. (I'll let somebody else chime in here.) But same deal--each mile gets a 1000-block of addresses, so you can tell how many miles you are from that street by the addresses.

Now I have to admit, something I've wondered for years about some of the street names that are named after streets is what the reasoning was behind what street got named after which state, because that does seem random. If you drive north on Peoria, for example, you'll see Louisiana, Arizona, Kansas, Missisissippi, Tennessee--which are neither in alphabetical order nor in order they joined the Union (which would have been cool if they'd done that.)

[Katarina Witt]

This might help. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_system_of_Denver Aurora is on the Denver grid. You may have noticed many streets in alphabetical order, from west to east. Many of these oddly named streets are named for towns in Illinois and New York, as there is also an Aurora IL and an Aurora, NY. e.g. Akron (IL), Alton (IL), Clinton (both), Elmira (NY), Dayton (NY), Florence (NY), Fulton (both), Geneva (both), Hanover (NY), Havana (IL), Iola (IL), Jamaica (NY), Joliet (IL), Kingston (Both), Lansing (Both), Lima (B), Macon (IL), Moline (IL), Nile[s] (B), Oswego (B), Peoria (IL), etc.

[SkyDog77]

Yep as others have said, numbers tell you how far East of Broadway you are or how far North or South of Ellsworth you are. Streets are generally alphabetical West to East. Where I get confused is when they get curvy and start naming things Alton Way, Alton Court, Alton Drive, Alton Place.

[davebarnes]

It is a Commie Plot to steal 'Murica's soul.

[Indigo Cardinal]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

This might help. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_system_of_Denver Aurora is on the Denver grid. You may have noticed many streets in alphabetical order, from west to east. Many of these oddly named streets are named for towns in Illinois and New York, as there is also an Aurora IL and an Aurora, NY. e.g. Akron (IL), Alton (IL), Clinton (both), Elmira (NY), Dayton (NY), Florence (NY), Fulton (both), Geneva (both), Hanover (NY), Havana (IL), Iola (IL), Jamaica (NY), Joliet (IL), Kingston (Both), Lansing (Both), Lima (B), Macon (IL), Moline (IL), Nile[s] (B), Oswego (B), Peoria (IL), etc.

Oh, I thought they took cities from several different states--I presumed that Dayton and Lima, for example, were from the Ohio cities of the same name.

In my area, we have Hannibal and Joplin (which I figured were for the cities in Missouri), Kallispell (Montana), Memphis (Tennessee), Mobile (Alabama), and Norfolk (Virginia.)

In regards to the alphabetical order, I lived in Tulsa for three years, and they do something similar. All the north-south streets east of Main Street are named after cities east of the Mississippi River, in (close to) alphabetical order as they go out from Main Street (for example, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit.) The north-south streets west of Main are named after cities west of the Mississippi (Boulder, Cheyenne, Denver). They weren't able to quite stick to the pattern--Tulsa grew and 'swallowed' some smaller towns well after they'd gone through the pattern.

[chilicheesefries]

For the number of street numbers per mile, it varies east-west versus north-south. For east-west, there are 1600/mile and for north-south there are 800/mile.

Denver is so big there are multiple alphabetical sequences. Where it gets confusing is where the Denver numbering grid hits a different grid (such as Broomfield or Parker) and then you can't go off the numbers alone.

[NorthDenverGirl]

Ha! I knew who this was as soon as I saw the subject heading, hope you are still settling in well

[Left-handed]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Where I get confused is when they get curvy and start naming things Alton Way, Alton Court, Alton Drive, Alton Place.

Looking at you, Highlands Ranch!