Street names in Canada

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

We do have the Ben Jungle...

Yep, it took me a second to realize that wasn't a Calgary hood.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Ottawa, Toronto, and Kingston are all like that--'Main Street' is a tiny street that is so named because it was the main street of an old village that has long since been annexed to the city.

Saskatoon is kind of like that too

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by Trevor3

And the area is called Bendale? Please tell me the developers name was Ben Bennett.

I like how the first line of the Wikipedia page says

"Bendale, also called Cedarbrae"

[Rico Rommheim]

Originally Posted by Trevor3

And the area is called Bendale? Please tell me the developers name was Ben Bennett.

Is there anything jewish about this area?

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by niwell

That Saskatoon example is madness. How does that even work??

It actually makes a certain amount of sense. Instead of having dozens of forgettable street names, you assign a small number of names to distinct areas containing various closely connected "streets" and then (presumably) have signs that direct you to the ranges of house numbers that you might be looking for.

It's similar to Winnipeg's famous Wildwood suburb. The whole thing is just "Wildwood" and the various little bays are distinguished by letters, from what I remember, within that. I don't know that that arrangement is really "madness" as compared to furnishing the same neighbourhood with 20 different street names.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Kingsway runs through Vancouver and Burnaby, and it doesn't have a street type -- it's not Kingsway Street or Kingsway Avenue, it's just Kingsway. Are there any other roads in Canada that are like this?

As far as I can find it didn't start out as Kings Way either. It used be called Westminster Road and Vancouver Road until it was officially opened in 1913 as Kingsway.

Simcoe, Ontario has a "Queensway" - it's the local name for Highway 3. (Some maps have incorrectly shown it as "Queensway Drive", but no signs or official municipal maps show it as such.)

Orangeville, Ontario has a "Broadway".

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Okay, I take it back, Ontario comes nowhere close to that nightmare.

Edit: Holy cow, that insanity is almost true for every single neighbourhood in Calgary. Is there some sort of savant in the planning department there for which this naming scheme actually makes sense?!

I've noticed that about Calgary as well. I saw one neighbourhood in NW Calgary where every street contains the word "ranch".

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Now the trend seems to be to have themed street names - trees from the Eastern Temperate Forest ecoregion, towns from Baden-Württemberg, left-hand pitchers in the World Series and so on.

There's a neighbourhood of Mexico City that has all the streets named after Olympic events. I guess in a city that size you do eventually run out of names, and they did host the 1968 summer games. Perhaps Calgary could do the same thing if they need some new street names - Bobsled Drive? Hockey Crescent?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

There's a neighbourhood of Mexico City that has all the streets named after Olympic events. I guess in a city that size you do eventually run out of names, and they did host the 1968 summer games. Perhaps Calgary could do the same thing if they need some new street names - Bobsled Drive? Hockey Crescent?

I can't imagine you could ever run out of names if you actually put some effort into it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Okay, I take it back, Ontario comes nowhere close to that nightmare.

Edit: Holy cow, that insanity is almost true for every single neighbourhood in Calgary. Is there some sort of savant in the planning department there for which this naming scheme actually makes sense?!

I would assume or hope that in a neighbourhood with a Fox Run Way, Fox Run Drive, Fox Run Avenue, Fox Run Gate and Fox Run Chase, that the house numbers would not be duplicated on each street.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

Weird St. John's tidbit:

We prefer to name our streets. In fact every street in the city has a proper name.

Except 18th street.

We have no idea how it was named this. The city website has a blurb about each street name, and information about its origins. We thought that maybe there was a military connection or something along those lines.

Nah. Just 18th street. No signs of 1 through 17th streets, and nothing past 18.

Just 18th street.

Interesting tidbit 100 percent of streets in st john's are named Road.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I would assume or hope that in a neighbourhood with a Fox Run Way, Fox Run Drive, Fox Run Avenue, Fox Run Gate and Fox Run Chase, that the house numbers would not be duplicated on each street.

Surely you jest.

[speedog]

Maybe the worst of the worst, Calgary has a new community called Cityscape and currently every road in that community starts with Cityscape - that community name is bad enough on its own but to have every current road start with the same name? Really?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by speedog

Surely you jest.

It would have been the smart thing to do.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Loco101

AND....

There is a Gatineau Blvd. in Timmins (Mountjoy sector) that is about 300 m long! There is nothing boulevardish about it either. https://www.google.ca/maps/@48.47898...7i13312!8i6656

The Mountjoy part of Timmins is about 65% francophone (the city as a whole is about 43% according to StatCan) and many francophones in Timmins trace their family history to Gatineau, QC.

Been to Timmins a few times but never on Gatineau Blvd.

[Blitz]

When I first visited Edmonton I found all of the numbered streets/avenues really confusing to navigate but after a few days it actually became really easy to figure out exactly where any address in the city is located. I can see the value in it but I do think it's sterile too.

Windsor has a good compromise...it only has named streets but all of the street signs have the block number on them too (for example 2800 on a north-south street means you're 28 blocks away from the river). Apparently this type of system is very common in the U.S. but not in Canada.

[MonctonRad]

One of the streets bordering CF Champlain Place in Dieppe NB is Paul Street.

Since Dieppe is a bilingual city, the street signs say"Rue Paul Street".

American tourists find this hilarious........

[holhm22]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I've noticed that about Calgary as well. I saw one neighbourhood in NW Calgary where every street contains the word "ranch".

Even better, many of the nearby communities to Ranchlands are the same, all Edgemont streets start with "Ed", all Arbour Lake streets start with "Arbour", all Hamptons streets start with "Hamp", all Citadel streets start with "Citadel", and on and on and on.....

[ssiguy]

The worst systems are when they are all numbers {ie Surrey/Edmonton},talk about sterility. The Vancouver system isn't too bad with names for streets going north/south and numbers for those going east/west. That said I don't like any numbered streets.

It's so damn bland, ordinary, sterile, and utilitarian. It's like one day someone decided to make a city and gave someone else 15 minutes to name all the streets for the next 200 years. The person only had a grade 4 education but thankfully literacy was not a job qualification.

[manny_santos]

London, Ontario has exactly three numbered streets, none of which are located in or near downtown. First, Second and Third Streets are located between Highbury and Clarke.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by Blitz

When I first visited Edmonton I found all of the numbered streets/avenues really confusing to navigate but after a few days it actually became really easy to figure out exactly where any address in the city is located. I can see the value in it but I do think it's sterile too.

Windsor has a good compromise...it only has named streets but all of the street signs have the block number on them too (for example 2800 on a north-south street means you're 28 blocks away from the river). Apparently this type of system is very common in the U.S. but not in Canada.

It's very annoying though when you get things mixed up. Hamilton has a bunch of East # numbers. My one Aunt had lived on East 34th (I think), but I could never remember if it was East 32nd or East 36th, just that it was an east 30 something street. It's much easier to confuse a bunch of similar numbers that are right near each other than distinct names (similar names however...).

[flipv]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

One of the streets bordering CF Champlain Place in Dieppe NB is Paul Street.

Since Dieppe is a bilingual city, the street signs say"Rue Paul Street".

American tourists find this hilarious........