Street Names with Asides

What good is an address?  Useful as a place-indicator and functional to our scanner/identifier mammalian brains, to be sure.  And Nav-Man and Tom-Tom love them, too.   I’m quite fond of the postie being able to find ours — and friends as well.  

 

However, I prefer my exploration of “Basin,” “Brace,” “Bend,” and “Broadway” to be with my hands on the wheel, wind in my hair, and the road underneath me, rather than sitting in my chair with hands on keyboard and mouse.

 

I’d been shopping online at a bookstore in Australia.  I got as far to the address part of the ordering exercise when I found that, while I was encouraged to type in the name of my street, I was not allowed to type in the street identifier itself.  For that, a fabulous and extensive drop-down menu appeared.  While one expects a drop-down menu for state names, lest we get our abbreviations askew, one does not expect to wade through 200 permutations of road, avenue, and street, nor to have to spend the time scrolling through those 200 options to find the one that suits.  

 

I was suddenly diverted from spending money to wondering many things, as one does, including:  how much research was required to develop such a list, why the list was compiled, who in the Australia Post was having a very, very bad day if/when the list was required, whose nephew was hired one summer to create the list — and, not the least, how many addresses actually included the street identifier “Underpass”?

 

And so I scrolled:

 

Access

Alley

Alleyway

Amble

Anchorage

Approach

Arcade

Artery

Avenue

Basin

Beach

Bend

Block

Boulevard

Brace

Brae

Break

Bridge

Broadway

Brow

Bypass

Byway

Causeway

Centre

Centreway

Chase

Circle

Circlet

Circuit

Circus

Close

Colonade

Common

Concourse

Copse

Corner

Corso

 

Court — I arrived here with some relief, and could have stopped.  But stopping is impossible sometimes, especially when presented with the temptation to explore, so I scrolled on:

 

Courtyard

Cove

Crescent

Crest

Cross

Crossing

Crossway

Cruiseway

Culdesac

Cutting

Dale

Dell

Deviation

Dip

Distributor

Drive

Driveway

Edge

Elbow

End

Entrance

Esplanade

Estate

Expressway

Extension

Fairway

 

Firetrack — Now this is the rural living at its best.  Is this for the postie, for CentreLink or the tax man?  I really like the picture of the little orange scooter that the postie rides zooming along the firetrack three times a week, arrival announced by a trail of dust. While the romance of the picture probably does not live up to the arduous nature of living in a remote area, I still like the image of the lonely postie on his little orange motor scooter, negotiating pot-holes and rivulets, mail bags full of hope and connection with the rest of the world.

 

Firetrail — Ditto.  Firetrack or Firetrail, wombat pads or wallaby runs.

 

Flat

 

Follow — You will notice when you scroll down that there is no “Lead” to complement “Follow,”  which has to make this list somewhat incomplete.  What else was left off, one only has to wonder?  Why was the cutoff 200 rather than 250?  I think this deserves at least one bottle of fine Aussie red out on the back deck to work up a few more, don’t you?  Join me?

 

Footway

Foreshore

Formation

Freeway

Front

Frontage

Gap

Garden

Gardens

Gate

Gates

Glade

Glen

Grange

Green

Ground

Grove

Gully

Heights

Highroad

Highway

Hill

 

Interchange — Really?  On the Interchange is an address?  Scary.

 

Intersection –  Since an intersection is theoretically the point at which two lines cross, your address might be #3 Highway 1 & State Route 392 Intersection?  Do not let your pets out to roam by themselves!

 

Junction

Key

Landing

Lane

Laneway

Lees

Line

Link

 

Little — 689 Storer’s Little?  Little what?  Would any male of the human species actually live there?  Or admit it?

 

Lookout

Loop

 

Lower — 4-1/2 63rd Lower?  I’m particularly fond of this one.  And of course, if you scroll down, you’ll find “Upper” as well.  Wouldn’t it be lovely if the firm that supplied dentures was located at the above address?  

 

Mall

Meander

Mew

Mews

 

Motorway — In a chat with the NRMA man on the side of the M-1, he noted that unless you give a specific address, taxi firms will not pick you up.  Their GPS finders cannot locate you without an address, of course.  However, if you have a breakdown and your car is being towed, you will need a ride — which makes NRMA dispatch a second vehicle to pick you up, as they will respond to “just past the onramp to the M-1 off Ewingsdale Road.” NRMA’s costs are rising due to the dispatch of two vehicles (one to tow, one to ferry people to safety) and there is a small argie-bargie with the taxi companies under way to resolve this issue.  Stay tuned.

 

Mount

Nook

Outlook

Parade

Park

Parklands

 

Part — I know of a person whose property abuts her brother’s in Tasmania  He won’t let her on his property.  She does not care to tread on his.  Maybe her address reads “#1 Her Part.”  I want that to be the case — lots.

 

Pass

Path

Pathway

Piazza

Place

Plateau

Plaza

Pocket

Point

Port

Promenade

Quad

Quadrangle

Quadrant

Quay

Quays

Ramble

Ramp

Range

Reach

Reserve

Rest

Retreat

Ride

Ridge

Ridgeway

Rightofway

Ring

Rise

 

River — Possibly these folks have a mail box at the Post office — access during the rainy season might be tricky.  

 

Riverway

Riviera

Road

Roadside

Roadway

Ronde

Rosebowl

Rotary

Round

Ronte

Row

Rue

Run

Serviceway

Siding

Slope

Sound

Spur

Square

Stairs

Statehighway

Steps

Strand

Street

Strip

Subway

Tarn

Terrace

Thoroughfare

Tollway

Top

Tor

Towers

Track

Trail

Trailer

Triangle

Trunkway

Turn

 

Underpass — Underpass?  A dwelling on the road under the bridge?  How permanent must the dwelling be, one wonders, to warrant an address that includes “Underpass”?

 

Upper — I am an equal opportunity mangler of language, and love the twists and turns that make language dynamic, but using a modifier such as “Upper” as a noun just doesn’t sit right in this instance.  “Lower” rankles too.  Must consult the aforementioned Aussie red to calm down.

 

Vale

Viaduct

View

Villas

Vista

 

Wade — Wouldn’t this be an address to make a real estate salesperson shudder?  164 Walton’s Wade.  Wellies provided for the inspection?  In a delta, maybe, or at high tide?  On pilings or in the swamps?  A fixer-upper only during the dry season?  Or maybe this is one of those obscure Welsh words that really means “a wide place in the road” but its translation from Welsh into English (like my maiden name) needed to borrow some vowels and became “wade.”  It’s possible, just not probable.  I like the real estate salesperson’s bad-dream scenario better.  

 

Walk

Walkway

Way

Wharf

Wynd

Yard

 

That’s it.  You were expecting more? (by the way, the spelling of culdesac, rightofway, and statehighway is directly from the list, just in case you felt the need to email me regarding spelling issues.)

 

Just to be fair, and I’m sure in response to customers’ feedback at having to scroll through 200 options, the list is topped by “street” “avenue” and “road” — all of which are repeated in alphabetical order as well, just in case they’ve been overlooked at the top.  But if you happen to live on a street called Turner’s Trunkway, or Walker’s Yard, you have a long scroll ahead of you.  

 

It has to be said that it’s Retail 101 to remove barriers that get in the way of customers who want to spend money.  And while I’m glad I stumbled on this wonderful list (which I’ve hugged to myself to chuckle over for months now), I avoid this particular book seller (unnamed, of course) when I’m shopping online, unless all else fails.  Just an occasional scroll through the “ramps,” “ranges,” “reaches” and “rows” is enough for me.