Street
|
- “Street” may also refer to Street, Somerset, a town in England.
- “Street Form” refers to financial securities held in the name of a broker or other nominee.
Ynysybwl-street.jpg
A street is a public strip of land adjoining buildings in a town or urban environment. It is often smoothed or otherwise prepared, e.g. with asphalt or cobblestones, to allow easier travel along and across its length. Rural and suburban folk often use the word “street” synonymously with “road”; however, whereas “road” emphasizes travel along the length of the thoroughfare, “street” implies a greater degree of active street life. This can include businesses, gangs, parks, pedestrians, dining, and children at play—hardly activities one could expect on a so-called “road.”
Many streets have served (and continue to serve) as catalysts for local culture and neighborhood solidarity. New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, for example, is famous not only for its active nightlife but also for its role as the center of the city’s French Quarter. The Bowery in New York was, for many years, the nation’s center of underground punk culture.
Other streets have served to be the divider between two sides of a city. For example, Yonge Street divides Toronto into east and west sides. East Capitol Street divides Washington D.C. into North and South.
Blurred distinction
It should be noted that this distinction between road and street is far more common in North America than in other English-speaking countries. In the United Kingdom many town will refer to their main thoroughfare as the High street, and many of the ways leading off it will be called roads. Thus the arterial route that connects to the rural highway will be the most prominent street in the town, whereas the town's roads are likely to be totally urban.
In some other English-speaking countries, such as New Zealand and Australia, cities are often divided by a main road, with streets leading from this road, or are divided by thoroughfares known as streets or roads with no apparent differentiation between the two . In Auckland, for example, the main shopping precinct is around Queen Street and Karangahape Road, and the main urban thoroughfare connecting the south of the city to the city centre is Dominion Road.
See also Jane Jacobs, lanesimple:Street de:Straße fi:Tie fr:Route fy:Wei it:Strada ja:道路 nl:Weg pl:Droga (komunikacja) pt:Rua ru:Дорога zh:公路