This Main that Cross!

I always had this curiosity about Main roads and Cross roads of Bangalore. The Mains are not exactly Main as they are often single lane roads running through residential neighbourhood. The Cross roads do intersect the Mains and are wider, two-lane roads with a conglomerations of shops, schools, garages that spill onto the side-walk, bhelpuri walla’s mobile shops, beggars and cobbler’s makeshift sheds. Whether it is Indiranagar’s 100feet road or Basavanagudi’s Bull Temple road, they all intersect Main roads. In contrast the Mains are quiet, narrow, single lane and sometimes unpaved roads with motorbikes or cars are parked on one side of the road. Growing up in this city, I assumed that Main roads are residential roads and Cross roads are bigger roads with sidewalks and are used for commercial purposes.

Thanks to my job in computers, I had an opportunity to travel to Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne’s history is associated with the English; very similar to Bangalore. The Cross roads of Bangalore can be compared to ‘Toorak Road’ and ‘St Kilda Road’ in Melbourne. Buses and trams commute on these roads and there are pedestrian walkways and traffic intersections. The shops and laundries are on a ‘street’ beside the ‘Road’, a concept similar to Bangalore’s ‘service roads’. An interesting twist here is that the name changes for a section of the street. So St Kilda Road becomes ‘Spencer Street’ as it enters the City Centre! This street has pedestrians walking, sidewalks lined by innumerable convenience stores, coffee shops and Boost outlets. Busy shoppers, street musicians, pub hoppers and beggars throng this road on weekends. My world of roads now included streets. To make the matters worse, every street in the city had a ‘little street’ running next to it. A ‘Queen Street’ had a ‘little Queen Street’. I was now thoroughly confused about the city planning with ‘mains’, ‘crosses’, ‘roads’, ‘streets’ and ‘little streets’.

My job also took me to Cardiff in Wales, UK. If you think that English town planning is confusing, you should see the Welsh. Cardiff is a young city. I lived in an posh block of flats in the uptown Bay area. I assumed the place will have a main and a cross or atleast a street. So imagine my surprise  when the address read ‘Lynton Court, Chandlery Way’. To call a cobbled route from the gated entrance to my apartment block as a ‘Way’ was amusing, especially since the distance was hardly a few metres. Its Welsh name was ‘Heol’ something. Heol is a Welsh equivalent for ‘Street’ or ‘Road’ or ‘Way’. I gave up.

Dictionaries came to the rescue. The Oxford defines a street and road as -

The terms may frequently apply to exactly the same thing. However, ‘road’ is a general term, whereas ‘street’ is narrower in sense and chiefly urban in application: a street typically has buildings on either side, and is paved or metalled.

Dictionary.com was more helpful.

A road usually runs between two more distant points, such as between two towns. A street is described as being a paved road or highway – in a city, town, or village, especially one lined with houses, shops, or other buildings. The implication is that if a street does not have these things, it will probably be called a road. When a town expands, sometimes what was formerly a road will become a street. The word road is the more general term, though, and can be applied to a street. Street is the narrower term.

Bangalore’s Cross roads can be compared to Melbourne’s streets. Our ‘MG Road’ and ‘Brigade Road’ are in reality streets! And the only street in Bangalore I know is Commercial street. Not convinced, I did some more research.

From Wikipedia, I learnt that road and street are used quite interchangeably. What about the Way or Avenue (Bangalore’s Avenue road is synonymous with shopping)’?

Yahoo had an answer.
A road is a one that runs between two given points for example going from one town to another.

A street is within a town, and lined with homes, buildings and is usually a paved street or highway.

A drive is a small road leading up to a private house (driveway).

An avenue is usually a tree lined street or cobbled street with rows of houses and pavements on either side.
A Way is a minor or smaller street off a road in a town.

A Court is a very short street usually leading to a court of houses in a compound.

A Blvd is a Boulevard is a widen avenue with scenery like trees, flowers and bushes on both sides and in the centre. It is landscaped and scenic. It has also lawn between the walking path on each side and the kerb.

To conclude from the many definitions, all the short roads, off the MG Road then should be Ways as many roads like the ‘Primrose Road’ were actually Ways that led to a bungalow and are now used as realty space for hotels or other commercial establishments.

Of all the terms used, Bangalore’s Avenue road takes the cake. Today, Avenue road is neither a leafy Avenue nor a Road but a Main street and serves as one of the city’s main commercial hub.