US ( and few other countries) have a nice, compact postal address format e.g. 10, Main st. -90210
The last 5 digits being zip code.
However there is a problem with street names. They don't tell me what the next street is going to be. For example, while I am trying to find a location and travelling along a road, if I am looking for Ruby Ave., I would not know how many streets I will have to cross till I get there. But with number that isn't the case. 57th streets will be 4th street after 53rd street.
In US, Manhatten follows this scheam. There you can give addresses like 4th building from intersection of 23 rd and 54 th street. But I think house counter don't reset at every intersection. SO you have addresses like 11458, hudson ave. ( with house number running into five digits)
I think postal addresses should be of the form:
3rd house on 53 rd, (counted) from 34th, -90210
i.e.
3-53-34-90210
In other words, 3 rd house from intersection of 53rd and 34 th street, on 53 rd street.
Since there will be very few houses/buildings within a city block, house numbers will be in general 1 digit ( at the max 2).
Advantage of this format is that intersections are part of address. Hence very easy to locate. Remember, one can get an intersection any number of ways. Then it is easier to find the nearby house. However, to find 11243rd house on a street, I will need to drive on that street for quite some time.
Secondly since addresses are consist only digits, they are very easy to punch into telephone if other party is a computer. This will help in automating lot of processes which handle addresses. A computer will be able to readout these addresses to you perfectly, each time. These addresses can be put into bar codes, helping more automation.
If people can remember their SSNs, they can remember these addresses too.
North-south streets will have to be even numbers and e- ast-west streets will have to odd, or vice-versa.-- VJW, Dec 09 2010 [Ian Tindale] does this count? http://www.metmuseum.org/cloisters/"date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century" [mouseposture, Dec 10 2010] Historical enough? http://www.flickr.c...os/ruzek/303745641/If age is all you care about. [MechE, Dec 10 2010] Why not longitude and latitude coordinates? Even if you don't have GPS, it makes a house easier to find on a normal map, rather than needing an A-Z map.
//The last 5 digits being pin code.// so you can access their bank accounts?-- marklar, Dec 09 2010 Houses are sometimes razed and replaced by apartments, and most cities are not orthogonal grids of streets and avenues.
You would need to address these issues to make use of the advantages you cite.
Usually, people remember their own SSN, and maybe those of a few family members. But one may need to remember hundreds of addresses, and most people find names much easier to remember than a string of numbers.
[-]-- csea, Dec 09 2010 My address *is* an x-y coordinate. Almost every address in my state is an x-y coordinate. So I'm going to call "baked", but not "widely known to exist", because people from not-here typically have a very hard time adjusting to not having street names, and the non-confusion confuses them.
lurch, 3645 W. 3395 S.-- lurch, Dec 09 2010 //My address *is* an x-y coordinate.//
Given address does not mention house number.
can you give an example in your state ? I believe proposed format is not implemented anywhere in US. e.g. House counter does not reset at every intersection.-- VJW, Dec 09 2010 //most people find names much easier to remember than a string of numbers.//
Well Manhatten people manage such addresses.-- VJW, Dec 09 2010 Where is "Manhatten"? I've only ever heard of Manhattan. (wonders how it got its name.... old indian name after the chief who always wore a head covering - BIg Chief Man-With-Hat-On.... shortened (and somewhat corrupted of course) to the now familiar Manhattan.-- xenzag, Dec 09 2010 Why not extend the scheme to the occupants of these numbered boxes?
Rather than giving everyone cumbersome and non-logical names, perhaps we should be issued with serial numbers at birth. Each number would contain digits from both parents numbers and date of birth. This could then be used for taxation, surveillance etc.
Blatantly not applicable to older settlements where houses are dotted about willy-nilly.-- Twizz, Dec 09 2010 Great idea Twizz. Now if there were a way to permanently affix said number...-- pocmloc, Dec 09 2010 France has, or had, a system where the zip/post code, number/license plate and STD 'phone code were all the same. I've also occasionally seen that on letters sent from France to addresses in Kent (which is "next door" to France), the post code being replaced by our STD code. Hence the whole lot could be combined, with the feature or bug that number plates and telephone numbers would be traceable - your post code is your telephone number is your address code. More convenient for the police and stalkers, probably less convenient for the driver/'phone subscriber/addressee. It would also gradually drift due to people moving, selling cars etc., unless they were required to change numbers when they did that.
However, as to your idea itself, i've been thinking about how this could be applied here in Europe. There are cities and towns with grids of streets here, often because of a Roman influence. It can be seen in Canterbury, Rome, London and lots of other places, and also the centre of Glasgow (which isn't Roman but presumably is like that due to slum clearances) and i think Milton Keynes. So it could be applied there but not beyond it. There are plenty of other places where it wouldn't work, for instance Madrid is a total tangle of streets and has no apparent plan. What you could maybe do instead, and this would work well here in Leicester, is use polar coordinates radiating out from the centre, so one coordinate represents the angle and the other the distance from the centre, in our case the Clock Tower. Having said that, there's a bit of Leicester which is rectilinear.-- nineteenthly, Dec 09 2010 <<there's a bit of Leicester which is rectilinear>>
Is that why I can never find my way out of the damn place? (Try following the A47 through Leicester - I'm sure it's a conspiracy to try to increase the town's population)-- Twizz, Dec 09 2010 //given address does not mention house number//3645 *is* the house number.-- lurch, Dec 09 2010 // I can never find my way out //
That's because it's not just rectilinear, it's a 5-dimensional tesseract.-- 8th of 7, Dec 09 2010 //3645 *is* the house number.//
that means address given is not of the format being proposed.-- VJW, Dec 09 2010 Sure it is. We just don't write it as 45-36- 39.35 because without the directionals, it'd be ambiguous.-- lurch, Dec 09 2010 //Sure it is.//
What intersection is being referred to in this address ?-- VJW, Dec 09 2010 // I can never find my way out //
It's a common problem. Everyone who leaves Leicester without coming back dies in the end, so it's quite risky. It even happened to Richard III.-- nineteenthly, Dec 09 2010 Do you count up or down from an intersection?
How do you handle houses on opposite sides of the street?
How do you handle cul-de-sacs?
How do you handle two houses on one street where one is behind another (not unusual where there is a converted carraige house or similar)?
How do you count when one street crosses another twice?
Or are you proposing to buldoze all sub-divisions (not that it's a bad idea) and replace them with simple grids?-- MechE, Dec 09 2010 // are you proposing to buldoze all sub-divisions (not that it's a bad idea) and replace them with simple grids? //
You perhaps jest, but this has pretty much been done, at least here in the UK. In order to stop slums being rebuilt or turning back into slums, whole districts of towns and cities with their very streets have been demolished and replaced by newer estates or quite frequently major road developments.-- nineteenthly, Dec 09 2010 e.g. coronation street, this very week.-- po, Dec 09 2010 Ah, here in the US we do it differently. We bulldoze either perfectly good historical buildings or farmland for this purpose.
No it's been done here, but it's more likely to be done where the streets are already gridded. The places where our streets get weird are almost always suburban developments, not city cores (with a few rare exceptions).-- MechE, Dec 09 2010 Thanks for answering my implicit question. I've long wondered if your cities frayed at the edges. Except i could've just looked on Google Earth - duh!-- nineteenthly, Dec 09 2010 I have a good impression of Prince Charles, under which I own most of Cornwall.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 09 2010 //What historical buildings are you under the impression you have?// <link>
[MaxwellBuchanan] did you use Plasticine or Milliput?-- mouseposture, Dec 10 2010 //Do you count up or down from an intersection? // Take your pick. I think it really does not matter.
These problems are doable, I think. Somebody should put efforts into it.-- VJW, Dec 10 2010 Okay, I'm not usually a pedant, but this is bugging me. It's spelled scheme. S-C-H-E-M-E. Go memorize.-- RayfordSteele, Dec 10 2010 //Okay, I'm not usually a pedant..//
I claim that English is not my first language..-- VJW, Dec 10 2010 [MB], they not only have the Pueblo buildings but also L'Anse Aux Meadows, at least.-- nineteenthly, Dec 10 2010 add z for tall buildings.-- popbottle, Feb 01 2016 random, halfbakery