Does your city's main street run N/S or E/W?

[krazeeboi]

For some reason, it seems to me that the "normal" main street would run N/S, but I know of many that run E/W, including that of the city in which I now reside. What about your city's?

[hood]

The Main St. In Lansing runs E/W, it actually isn't much of a Main St, it's not a business district or anything, not even in the oldest part of town.

[cheeriokid61]

In Franklin, it's E/W. And in Nashville, I'm not sure which would be the main street, Broadway, Demonbreun, West End Blvd, IDK, but they all run E/W too.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

N/S. Tryon St. = Main St.

[Michi]

The Main St. In Lansing runs E/W, it actually isn't much of a Main St, it's not a business district or anything, not even in the oldest part of town.

I always thought Lansing's main street was Cedar, which runs north/south. Are you referring to Saginaw Street?

Detroit's main street also runs north/south. Woodward Avenue. It's tilted to the west though.

[ironchapman]

Peachtree Street in Atlanta runs N/S throughout most of town. However, as you head out of town, it starts turning in a more E/W direction.

[hood]

I always thought Lansing's main street was Cedar, which runs north/south. Are you referring to Saginaw Street?

No, I figured by main street, he meant "Main St." When it comes to the main street it would likely be Michigan Ave. which runs E/W or Washington, which runs N/S. I guess it depends on how you define the main street, I define it by the street(s) that the addresses are based off of.

[dimebag1980]

Shreveport's main downtown street is actually called Texas St, and it runs east and west. If you stay on Texas Street beyond downtown, it becomes Greenwood Rd and then US Hwy. 80 which runs from coast to coast.

Shreveport's OTHER "main street" is called Line Avenue, and it runs north and south. It begins in downtown as Common Street and changes to Line Ave in the Mid-City area, and then Ellerbe Rd in the far southern suburbs.

[JDC]

In Durham NC, Main Street runs E/W.

[ChattyPlanner]

Q: "Does your city's main street run N/S or E/W?"

A: Yes.

I think a better question would be: Why does your main street run the direction that it does? Many main streets run in a perpendicular (sometimes parallel) direction from an historic travel route. These historic routes can include rivers and railroad tracks. In many older cities, these main streets don't run true north or south because the cities were originally laid out along rivers and railroads that didn't run true north or south. In younger cities, main streets tend to run n/s or e/w because they were laid out after more sophisticated surveying techniques and after the country was divided into the 5-mile grid system.

Other main streets connect geographical points within a city and are not based on a historic travel route. Main streets can connect a capitol building, a cathedral, or courthouse, etc. New main streets have popped up because of interstate highways. Other cities like St. Louis, San Antonio, and Milwaukee have some "main-street-like" streets that developed because they were old cowpaths, trading routes, or plank roads.

The last city I lived in had a main street that ran NW/SE because it ran perpendicular from the river running through the city. The original city was platted before the grid system.

[ZachariahDaMan]

Main Street in nearby Plymouth for the most part goes north/south but as you take it north it starts to swerve off to the east.

[dtown]

the main street in my city (called main st) runs north to south

and in Flint, Saginaw Street runs north to south, then turns and runs Ne-se and then turns and pretty much runs north to south, but on a slight angle

[Cadeho]

Well we have a Main St. and it runs NW/SE for the most part, thenit changes its name in the west. It is a westbound street from 12th westward. Eastward it is east-west traffic. It used to end at Orleans St. but it's been rerouted to flow with a fairly rural turnpike. But Main St. is that only by its name. THE main street is Broad St. which has the same orientation as main, being the third street north in the same grid. It runs from a dead end in a residential neighborhood northwestward where it runs through downtown and hooked up with a long-forgotten turnpike farther west which kept Broad Street's name. The road continues toward Charlottesville under different names.

[Eastwestrob]

Well we have a Main St. and it runs NW/SE for the most part, thenit changes its name in the west. It is a westbound street from 12th westward. Eastward it is east-west traffic. It used to end at Orleans St. but it's been rerouted to flow with a fairly rural turnpike. But Main St. is that only by its name. THE main street is Broad St. which has the same orientation as main, being the third street north in the same grid. It runs from a dead end in a residential neighborhood northwestward where it runs through downtown and hooked up with a long-forgotten turnpike farther west which kept Broad Street's name. The road continues toward Charlottesville under different names.

I totally agree with Broad St. being Richmond's Main St.