Why is a street called a street and a road, a road?

Wanna know what this blog is all about? Click here to read the initial post and learn why we are learning.

How many metres must a road stretch down, before you call it a road? The answer, my friend...is it's not to do with the length. Ahem, sorry Bob.

Well, not exactly anyway, although a road is usually longer than a street. A road used to run between two towns and didn't have any buildings on it. Historically, roads weren't paved and were created for transit purposes only.

A street on the other hand was paved and created for living on, for meeting, for shopping, for walking. Streets made up the towns and roads connected them.

If you look at my hometown, Auckland, you will see this is no longer true, as a lot of the main roads in the city are developed now. However if you think of our fair city just fifty years ago, before urban sprawl attacked it, you can see the main arterials like Great North and Great South Roads were just that, roads leading from the central city to the north and south.

What about the other names? 

• An avenue is supposed to be the label for a straight road lined in greenery. 
• A boulevard was (and in most cases, still is) wide and multi-laned, with a central median and landscaping on either side. 
• A crescent is a crescent shape, often intersecting with the same road at both ends. Saying this, not all crescent shaped roads are called crescents (the 'avenue' I live on included). 
• A lane is often one-way, or at least very narrow.
• A court is a short cul-de-sac.
• A way is a minor street in a town.
• A drive could be one of two types of roads: either a long and windy road, or it could be short for a driveway, or private access road. 

However, most of these definitions don't apply to the modern city, and these days the names of roads are probably determined more by what rolls off the tongue than the actual use and shape of the street.

Next weeks' Why?

In New Zealand with its temperate climate, the majority of native plants are evergreens, and in the North Island at least, our seasons have a tendency to blur together. This means we don't get the dramatic 'falls' of such places as New England in the USA. Saying this, the Queenstown Lakes District does it pretty well. Ah, Arrowtown. 

Anyway, enough dreaming. This week's Why is pretty simple.

Why do (deciduous) trees lose their leaves in Autumn?

Now I must love and leave my computer to help my husband with my two grizzling children. Happy questioning!