Planning... yeah, that wasn't invented yet. *laughs*

All our streets have names. Some are at funny angles, and there are places where the only way to get there AFAIK is to walk or go against a oneway.

Still, it is easy to figure out. Go north- if you've crossed the river, you've left town. Go west- if you found the lake, well, it is self explanatory. Go up hill- that means you are going towards the university. Go south and find real Vermont.

Stockton CA is the usual historical hodgepodge; it grew like Topsy. When the city wanted to know where the fire hydrants were to add colred reflectors in the streets to guide fire fighters, they had a service paint crosses in the streets near the fire hydrants and used aerial photography to plot them.

Edit: Learned today while at the fire department that following the aerial photos they took the one departmental GPS and went into the field to record where each fire hydrant was located. That was years ago and the department still has one GPS. They have been talking about having a class to teach how to use the GPS.

You know you're in Connecticut when:

- From the right turn lane if you go straight you are "bearing right" and if you turn right, you turn right.
- Going "straight" on a road means at least one 90 degree turn
- To go Northwest, start by going south and follow the road around counter-clockwise.
- Reflectors are non-existent.
- Only the name of the cross street, not the street you are on, is on the road signs at minor intersections. "I haven't a @*#*@ clue where I am, but I know I've crossed Maple, Pine, Birch, Oak. I'm in the *&@* forest and I don't even know which *(@*@ way I'm going!"
- Like anywhere, someone selfish 30 years ago has doomed us all to traffic headaches. If that 2.5 mile stretch of road had gone where it belonged, we wouldn't be sitting here in this slow ass traffic.
- There is no county government. It's easy to tell how much money a town has. It's inversely proportional to the state of the roads in the town. Rich town? Crappy roads. Poor town? Nice, flat, no cracks, easy on the shocks road.
- Google Maps gives a 35 point directional instruction on how to get somewhere that has only 3 actual turns.
- It's much easier to use the phrase "Follow the center line of the road" instead of directions like "bear left" or "bear right".

Oh, I'm sure I'll think of more.

In most of the city the roads apparently go where the cows went. In newer subdivisions I think they used drunk cows.

Modern subdivisions are designed to be hard to drive *through* so that you won't try. That helps sell homes. There are places within a mile of my house where I'd be lost despite living here 15 years, and that was the developer's goal.

Once out of a neighborhood maze I can find my way around just about any part of town. I invariably do a better job of picking a route than the car's GPS navigation system, except for the first and last miles if they are in a designed subdivision maze.

My weakness is knowing secondary evacuation routes. I live in the NW side of town and in an urban disaster situation I'd flee to Dallas for initial sanctuary with friends. But driving north on I-35 in that situation would be hopeless - I need to know routes west and then north so I can avoid the traffic mess.

PS. Not only do we have three roads named "Anderson Lane" in the same part of town, all three used to meet at one intersection.

No one from Atlanta speaking up yet?

When I left in the late 80's there were 27 streets with Peachtree in their name. West Peachtree is parallel to and one block west of Peachtree Street, until they merge in Midtown. And you can drive on the same road and have both the numbering re-set and the road name change several times. Though my dad claims that they fixed that on Peachtree Industrial Ave.

The major roads were laid out by the afore-mentioned drunken cows (Upper and Lower Roswell in Cobb County).

The story goes that the roads are so confusing on purpose, so that if Sherman ever comes back he will get lost.


That West Peachtree thing nailed my wife and I when we went house hunting in a 'logically' laid out city (Rochester MN). We could find Center Street... could not find West Center.

Remember the old "Road Legally Closed" signs that were used at constuction sites? If I remember correctly, the Danbury newspaper did a story on them, saying that, at that time, it was impossible to get from Danbury to Brookfield(the neighboring town to the north) without having to drive on one of those "closed" roads...

When the Pilgrims originally layed out the cart paths here in Massachusetts, they didn't really have the concept of traffic management and urban development down to a science yet. Unfortunately, the roads today in a lot of our little coastal towns are just wider, paved versions of the cart paths in many cases.

In my town, the major industry of days gone by was shipbuilding, specifically huge sailing ships for whaling. Today, the waterfront still is layed out the way it was when there were many more active commercial shipyards. That's where everything radiates from in town. The other area that has been built out over time is the area along the river, where the farms were located that fed the shipyard workers, and where the timber from inland traveled to the mills, before going to the shipyards.

We are blessed to be in a beautiful town on the ocean, but, the downside is...we have 3 Harbor Roads in town, 3 Shore Roads, 2 Water Streets, a couple Bay View, Harbor View, Water View, Ocean View etc roads. If you tell someone you're on Harbor Road for example, you have to also specify which part of town you're in. It's quite an adventure for the Post Office. Sometimes giving directions sounds like an old "Bert 'n I" skit: "take a right at the rock that looks like a bear, and then a left at the bear that looks like a rock, then go down the shore road until, wait a minute... no, come to think of it, you can't get there from here"

Connecticut is a strange place. All the roads seem to dead-end at the river. There are no signs leading you back to Hartford across the river. And when it rains decently hard, everyone pulls over to the side of the road.

Once you're in CT, I guess you're always in CT, because without a guide, you can't escape.

Sue

We have stairways that are marked on the map as a road. I've had my in car GPS tell me to drive down at least two of them, and across a bridge that is not only not there but never was there( but the road on both sides is the same name.)

Look at downtown Pittsburgh, it has two grids that start from the rivers that come together at the point, and if you want to go above Grant Street for get it. As we say "If you want to get from here to there the road will be under construction or one way the wrong way. No matter which way you want to go.

Outside the city we use to joke that the road crew would follow a cow and where ever the cow went is where the road would go.

I had someone give me directions to turn at the Hays barn, It burnt down in 1969. The road that I had to turn on is a new road built in the last two years.

That's when I knew I was a "local" and no longer a Manhattan resident at heart.

I was asked to give directions to a place. The person was a "recent" resident - maybe a year in the area. Here is exactly what I told them:

"You go up the hill, past the the place that has the sheep sometimes, and then keep going until you're about a quarter mile before where the burned out trailer used to be, and then turn left there on the lane. There's no sign on the lane, so be careful."

The look on his face was great.