This retirement life allows my wife and me to spend more time holding hands while walking through our southwest Amarillo neighborhood.
While we do this activity with Toby the Puppy, I am free to look at my surroundings and entertain strange thoughts.
This one popped into my noggin this morning.
We live on a “place.” The street that t’s into our street is a “drive.” It originates from another right-of-way labeled a “lane.”
They all do the same thing: They convey motor vehicle, non-motorized vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
What’s the difference among them?
I looked the terms up in the dictionary I keep on my desk. I found the term “lane” and saw that it refers to a narrow roadway. “Drive” has many applications, most of them are verbs. There’s no street reference to “place.” Get this: The “lane” one block north of our house is the same width as the “place” where we live. Go figure.
I noticed long ago, too, that Amarillo labels its major east-west thoroughfares as “avenue,” while those that run north-south are “streets.” My hometown of Portland, Ore., does something similar. Hmm. Streets and avenues do the same thing, too.
Boulevards are different. They usually refer to broad streets with medians. I’m aware of only one “boulevard” in Amarillo. It does have a median west of the major commercial area through which it passes.
I know I could solve all this curiosity with a phone call or two to City Hall. What fun is that?
I’ll entertain any suggestions or ideas.
