[dabbledash]

“ city residents and urban planners draw a crucial modern distinction: a road's main function is transportation, while streets facilitate public interaction.[1] Examples of streets include pedestrian streets, alleys, and city-centre streets too crowded for road vehicles to pass. Conversely, highways and motorways are types of roads, but few would refer to them as streets.[2][3]”

I lived in NYC for a decade and know plenty of city residents, none of whom make this distinction. I really hope this doesn’t turn into a case of niche experts redefining a common word and then insisting that people using the normal definition are somehow wrong or less precise.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

I know lots of people who would never make that distinction either, but that's mostly because they've never actually thought much about urban planning, pedestrian/vehicle interaction, mixed-used neighborhoods and so forth. That doesn't mean they are bad or stupid people, it's just not their thing.

What are the normal definitions of "road" and "street"? What words would you use to describe the differences that Strong Towns is referring to?

[dabbledash]

‘What are the normal definitions of "road" and "street"?’

The wikipedia article gp linked and I quoted says that street is another word for road and is usually used for paved roads. I’d say that that is consistent with how i’ve seen people use those words.

And of course using words as they are commonly used doesn’t make people bad or stupid. Similarly, using a non-standard definition of a word in some narrow setting doesn’t make the people doing that bad or stupid. But it’s silly for people in that latter group to behave as if the definition they’ve made up is the REAL one that other people just don’t know about.

ETA: I don’t think I have a word for what they’re calling “streets.” Which makes sense; I’m sure if there were an existing word for this, urban planners would just use that instead of repurposing “street.” If it were up to me, I probably would have chosen a different word, since this usage is so at odds with the norm, but I don’t think it matters much as long as the usage is consistent within the discipline itself.