Template talk:Streets in Chicago

Layout
I like the idea of doing this road template, but there are a few points I am going to bring up. There is no such thing as a diagnal road. The road is either east-west or north-south. Also, the South Side, North Side, this is something that only pertains to Chicago, and no one is really going to know what this means outside of Chicago. I suggest just making two sections, one being North-South and the other East-West and listing the roads afterwards. This is all just a suggestion in doing so, but ultimately it is up to you. I don't have examples of other city projects doing this, but I would suggest getting ahold of the US Highways project, or atleast seeing if they have a template already designed.--Kranar drogin 23:19, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I've been thinking about this, and it is possible to list the E/W streets in order from N to S; Devon Avenue (6400N), Foster Avenue (5200N), Belmont Avenue (3200N), Diversey Parkway (2800N), North Avenue (1600N), Division Street (1200N), Oak Street (1000N), Chicago Avenue (800N), Hubbard Street (430N), Lake Street (200N), Randolph Street (150N), Madison Street (0N/S), DeKoven Street (1120S), Roosevelt Road (1200S), Maxwell Street (1330S), 95th Street (9500S), and the N/S streets in order from W to E; Pulaski Road (4000W), Western Avenue (2400W), Halsted Street (800W), LaSalle Street (150W), State (0E/W), Michigan Avenue (100E), Columbus Drive (254 E), Prairie Avenue (300E), Stony Island Avenue (1600E). The "diagonals" (and Wacker Dr) don't have a single number E, W, N or S, and so will have to be listed separately. Speciate 05:21, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
 * What does this mean? Just list them north to south if you want to, don't confuse it with a bunch of parenthetical numbers that make absolutely no sense. IvoShandor 01:00, 1 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Alright, I have finally done some searching on this subject, and I find that this template is a mess (no offense intended to those who created and expanded). I did a search, and I find that two examples up in Canada [:Template:Streets in Toronto]] and Template:Streets in Montreal and one on the east coast Template:Streets of Manhattan. I personally would rather see the Chicago template more reflective towards the Canada templates, those look real nice.--Kranar drogin 01:12, 1 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I just got sent here from Talk:Rush Street (Chicago). All I can say is that I tried to get something startedt that would be useful.  Everything here is always a work in progress.  Just make changes you think are improvements and it will get better as long as there are no major dsagreeements.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 17:39, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Listing streets in geographic/radial order rather than alphabetical order
I think this template should be organized in geographical order rather than alphabetical. For example, instead of listing north-south streets like so:

"Ashland Avenue (1600 W) - Halsted Street (800 W) - Racine Avenue (1200 W)"

They should be

"Halsted Street (800 W) - Racine Avenue (1200 W) - Ashland Avenue (1600 W)"

I think it would be easier for Chicagoans and non-Chicagoans alike to navigate this template and/or learn about the city. The Chicagoans are probably far more used to navigating the streets by where they are, rather than how they're spelled, so it's easier to sort through our many streets by distance from State/Madison. Non-Chicagoans probably aren't going to know where any of our streets are in relation to one another anyway, since we don't have a 1st street/2nd street system except on the South Side, and the alphabetical street orderings only work on the West and Far East Sides. The template already lists grid position parenthetically, so people aren't going to be terribly confused as to why our streets are sorted the way they are.

Note that this does not apply to diagonal/non-grid streets like Blue Island or Lincoln or Clark, which should still be in alphabetical order. Also, the "North of Madison"/"South of Madison"/etc. sections will still be kept, I'm saying the streets should be sorted "outwards" within each section. Unless there are significant objections to sorting the streets this way I can change it sometime this week.

– John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 18:58, 4 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Since this hasn't received much attention, I've decided to go with geographic order. It takes some getting used to, but overall I think it's better for navigation and also shows the gaps of coverage (Racine, Ashland, and Damen don't yet have articles, for one). – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 01:19, 6 December 2022 (UTC)