Street vs Drive
The difference between street and drive has its base on the nature of the road. Now, as we can see, we may have many types of scarcities despite all the advancement but, when it comes to street names, there is an overwhelming variety of names given to them which makes the situation very, very confusing. There is a circle, boulevard, crescent, crossing, lane, street, highway, plaza, drive, road, ridge, and many, many more. On top of all the names used for addresses, there are some words that are foreign sounding, as well. However, in this article, we shall confine ourselves to just street and drive that are used for addresses.
There has to be some difference between a street and a drive or otherwise both cannot be used for addresses, isn’t it? To begin with, both a drive and a street are roads and one should not think they are any special addresses.
What is a Street?
When one thinks of streets, a long straight road, just like a highway, is what comes to mind. A street is generally within a town or a city that is dotted with homes or buildings on either side. Also, roads with heavy traffic are called streets. City administration has this habit of calling roads as avenues in one direction while naming them as streets in another direction. You can see this in US. A street usually runs from East to West. This may be confusing for those who are outsiders. As such, one should not think that avenues are any different from streets. A street is an urban road that connects buildings together. It is generally paved or a metal road. 110th Street, 116th Street, 125th Street, Delancey Street and 42nd Street are some examples from Manhattan, United States for streets.
What is a Drive?
A drive is a small road that leads to a private house as in the case of a driveway. Unlike a long straight street, a drive is not as straight and is meandering. Moreover, quieter places, where there is very light traffic, are named drives. Drives are roads that are used for short stretches and exist to take one to private properties. Drives are usually not named as they already are recognizable as leading to a house with a number.
What is the difference between Street and Drive?
• There is nothing to confuse between a street and a drive as both are roads though, a street is one that runs straight for a longer distance while a drive is for a shorter stretch.
• Street has heavy traffic running on it while a drive has relatively light traffic.
• Drive is a type of street that takes one to a private property. Street, on the other hand, is a road that connects different buildings together in an urban setting.
• While a street is urban in setting, a drive does not necessarily have to be urban in setting.
• In North America, a street is usually a road in a city that runs from east to west. However, a drive does not have such a direction attached to it to name it a drive.
• A drive is calmer in nature while a street is not as it is full of traffic.
• Streets, as they are larger roads in a city, are numbered and given names to make it easy for people to find the way when traveling within a city. A drive does not usually have a name of its own such as 42nd Street, 43th Street. That is because a drive leads to a house, which already has a number.
• Streets are designed to go in a speed limit. That is why they are not generally much windy and are straight. However, a drive goes only for a short distance to one property. Therefore, you are not supposed to go in a high speed. As a result, drive can be windy.
• Finding a place in a street can be hard as streets contain a lot of places. However, finding a place in a drive is easy as it only leads to one place.
As you can see, street and drive have some differences between them. They are both roads. However, they are built for different purposes.
Images Courtesy:
- Blaker Street via Wikicommons (Public Domain)
- Drive via Pixabay (Public Domain)
