Before discussing house addressing grids we should make a ranking of house addressing ordering.
This table isn't fixed up yet, just quickly cobbled together.
| Houses | Streets | |
|---|---|---|
| No houses (points, nodes, addresses) to order. | Even if there are houses, they are just scattered around the hills, with no streets to be found. | |
| Have houses, but they have no numbers, or even names, to compare. | The streets are indeed present, but well, their names, if any, are one big mystery. | |
| The houses have numbers, but some or all share the same number. | The roads over there would all be considered Nerbleston Road, because that's what the addresses of all the buildings over there are. | |
| Each house has its own number, but they are not all in sequence: 1, 5, 3. | All the roads are east-west roads, except 17th St. which, after a bend, runs north-south, and which, after a second bend, would run along the alignment of 14th St. | |
| The numbering is sequential, but not actually a full decimal system, because e.g., it has been robbed of its fours, due to uncontrolled tetraphobia. Naturally if not balanced by additional deletions on the odd side of the street, the two sides will grow at different rates, deforming the system even further. | Again due to tetraphobia what would have been called 14th St. is nowhere to be found. Its grid location being replaced by 15th street, needing additional special coordinate system conversion rules. | |
| The numbering is sequential, but not consistent with distance: 1|3|_|5 (vs. 1|3|_|7.) When that empty lot is finally built on, it will be forced to accept some form of bastardized number. | The 500 block is 100 meters long, but the 600 block is 150 meters long. | |
| Ratios all correct, but not bound to origin. Passing 5th St. we enter the 2300 block. Passing 6th St. we enter the 2400 block. | ||
| House numbers are bound to origin, but tied to end of each block, not the beginning. 23rd St. lies between 2399 and 2401, instead of 2299 and 2301. | ||
| "Numbers start at 1, not 0." (Well, they had better, else all people, and most software, would consider it an error.) | First block is the 100 block. No 000 block. Thus e.g., walking from 200 S. to 200 N. only is two blocks, wrecking our computation of (200 - -200) / 100 = 4 blocks, and thus needing additional software components to calculate correctly. | |
| Having negative numbers (expressed as e.g., 143 W., 512 S. ) adding worry of mistakes. And then what indeed would you call the house at 0? | Having N/S systems instead of continual systems. And few dare to say 000 Rd. (Baseline Road is more common.) | |
| The distance per number ratio is constant, but horseshoe numbering around a cul du sac is used, thus inconsistent with a grid system, and breaking the "odd this side, even the other side" custom. Indeed, one side is getting higher, but the other lower, as we walk along. | ||
| Both sides of the street are numbered in the same direction, but there is loss of coordination with the other side of the street. This side 212, 214, 216, but across the street is 373, 375, 377. | ||
| Both sides are consistent with each other, but not with parallel streets. It's the 300 block of this street, but one block over it's the 900 block of that street. | ||
| The houses on parallel streets are numbered in lockstep. The 300 block of both streets. | ||
| We remove all overlap. The corner of 25th St. and 25th Ave. becomes the corner of 25th St. and 75th Ave. | ||
| "St." and "Av." are no longer significant, now it is safe even in emergencies to just say "the corner of 25th and 75th." | ||
| We connect the two axes into a folded single axis system. |
Some places might only have house number ordering, and some places might only have road number ordering, and some might have both, and some even have smartly integrated the two.
Some road orders are 1, 2, 3. Some A, B, C...Z, AA, BB, etc. One should skip letters that look like numbers. OK, A is 100, B is 200... But after just a few letters people will have a hard time thinking of e.g., what hundred block crossing P Street is supposed to begin.
A variation of road numbers where all e.g., north-south roads are odd numbered, and east-west roads even numbered exists. Then the suffix (St., Ave., etc.) doesn't matter anymore, and they can be safely spoken as 3rd, 7th, etc. But the problem comes at how are the house numbers supposed to be assigned? 301-399, 501-599, as we walk down the street?
Last modified: 2025-02-14 12:57:23 UTC