further adventures in edmonton
the desert castle is in the far south east corner of edmonton.
when i first got here, the city's handy and efficient grid system was explained to me. avenues run east west, streets run north south. numbers increase as you go north and west.
this is not the case in the neighbourhoods surrounding my current abode. i live in mill woods.
avenues and streets intersect, and run parallel to one another. roads turn slight beds and get renamed. 33rd avenue is on the left after 33rd street. 34 street ends in a cul-de-sac and resumes in the next subdivision over, only to be interrupted by the hydro lines and then picked up somewhere on the other side.
i threw up my hands in defeat and resigned myself to never understanding it.
it has just been pointed out to me why the roads near my house are so weird and confusing.
mill woods was surveyed out to be in the shape of a wild rose. the provincial floral emblem.
i wish i was joking.
type my address (3010 33rd ave NW) into google maps then scroll out a bit. and look to the west. mill woods town centre is the middle of the rose.
all the streets zigzag and curve around the rose petals. notice at the far south, 10th avenue starts and stops, starts and stops, as roads curve around the petals and reach the outermost tips becoming and unbecoming 10th ave as they approach an east-west direction.
the origin of edmonton was originally 101st and 101ave, though at first all the avenues were named and all the streets were numbered from 1. the expansion of the city lead to all the street numbers being increased to the hundreds, and the avenues being remaned numerically. a few streets and avenues have retained their original names, like jasper ave. when edmonton and strathcona merged across the river, strathcona's named avenues became renamed to be numerically less than 100. the streets were given numbers to roughly approximate what street they would meet if they crossed the river. in old stathcona all the signs have their old historic names noted in smaller text.
in almost the entire city of edmonton, all the roads are designated North West, even at the desert castle in the extreme south east corner of the city. this is because edmonton wants to expand further and is running out of numbers. the whole city was placed in the northwest quadrant of an imaginary axis, thus allowing the city to expand to a huge size without running out of street numbers. sherwood park, which is a separate town to the east of edmonton is actually edmonton north- east and south of the new anthony henday ring road is the south west and south east quadrants.
so here in the rose of mill woods, with all the streets and avenues having their curves and arcs describing the petals of a flower, the numbering system is still enforced. awkwardly, incomprehensibly, and disjointedly.
the insanity continues with roads inbetween already numbered streets getting a, b and c added to thier numbers. so you can imagine 34a ave inbetween 34 and 35 ave.
the rose thing is what screws up the gird system in mill woods, that's why avenues intersect avenues and run parallell to streets out here.
you don't have to take my word for it. check the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_Edmonton you will be shocked and awed.
when i first got here, the city's handy and efficient grid system was explained to me. avenues run east west, streets run north south. numbers increase as you go north and west.
this is not the case in the neighbourhoods surrounding my current abode. i live in mill woods.
avenues and streets intersect, and run parallel to one another. roads turn slight beds and get renamed. 33rd avenue is on the left after 33rd street. 34 street ends in a cul-de-sac and resumes in the next subdivision over, only to be interrupted by the hydro lines and then picked up somewhere on the other side.
i threw up my hands in defeat and resigned myself to never understanding it.
it has just been pointed out to me why the roads near my house are so weird and confusing.
mill woods was surveyed out to be in the shape of a wild rose. the provincial floral emblem.
i wish i was joking.
type my address (3010 33rd ave NW) into google maps then scroll out a bit. and look to the west. mill woods town centre is the middle of the rose.
all the streets zigzag and curve around the rose petals. notice at the far south, 10th avenue starts and stops, starts and stops, as roads curve around the petals and reach the outermost tips becoming and unbecoming 10th ave as they approach an east-west direction.
the origin of edmonton was originally 101st and 101ave, though at first all the avenues were named and all the streets were numbered from 1. the expansion of the city lead to all the street numbers being increased to the hundreds, and the avenues being remaned numerically. a few streets and avenues have retained their original names, like jasper ave. when edmonton and strathcona merged across the river, strathcona's named avenues became renamed to be numerically less than 100. the streets were given numbers to roughly approximate what street they would meet if they crossed the river. in old stathcona all the signs have their old historic names noted in smaller text.
in almost the entire city of edmonton, all the roads are designated North West, even at the desert castle in the extreme south east corner of the city. this is because edmonton wants to expand further and is running out of numbers. the whole city was placed in the northwest quadrant of an imaginary axis, thus allowing the city to expand to a huge size without running out of street numbers. sherwood park, which is a separate town to the east of edmonton is actually edmonton north- east and south of the new anthony henday ring road is the south west and south east quadrants.
so here in the rose of mill woods, with all the streets and avenues having their curves and arcs describing the petals of a flower, the numbering system is still enforced. awkwardly, incomprehensibly, and disjointedly.
the insanity continues with roads inbetween already numbered streets getting a, b and c added to thier numbers. so you can imagine 34a ave inbetween 34 and 35 ave.
the rose thing is what screws up the gird system in mill woods, that's why avenues intersect avenues and run parallell to streets out here.
you don't have to take my word for it. check the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_Edmonton you will be shocked and awed.