Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Street
Summary
A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable surface such as tarmac, concrete, cobblestone or brick. Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt, embedded with rails, or otherwise prepared to accommodate non-pedestrian traffic.
Originally, the word street simply meant a paved road (via strata). The word street is still sometimes used informally as a synonym for road, for example in connection with the ancient Watling Street, but city residents and urban planners draw a crucial modern distinction: a road's main function is transportation, while streets facilitate public interaction. Examples of streets include pedestrian streets, alleys, and city-centre streets too crowded for road vehicles to pass. Conversely, highways and motorways are types of roads, but few would refer to them as streets.
The word street has its origins in the Latin strata (meaning "paved road" – an abbreviation from via strata); it is thus related to stratum and stratification. The first recorded use of word stratæ referring to the road has been made by the Eutropius. Ancient Greek stratos means army: Greeks originally built roads to move their armies. Old English applied the word to Roman roads in Britain such as Ermine Street, Watling Street, etc. Later it acquired a dialectical meaning of "straggling village", which were often laid out on the verges of Roman roads and these settlements often became named Stretton. In the Middle Ages, a road was a way people travelled, with street applied specifically to paved ways.
The street is a public easement, one of the few shared between all sorts of people. As a component of the built environment as ancient as human habitation, the street sustains a range of activities vital to civilization. Its roles are as numerous and diverse as its ever-changing cast of characters.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related publications (4)
Related concepts (23)
Street name
A street name is an identifying name given to a street or road. In toponymic terminology, names of streets and roads are referred to as odonyms or hodonyms (from Ancient Greek ὁδός hodós 'road', and ὄνυμα ónuma 'name', i.e., the Doric and Aeolic form of ὄνομα ónoma 'name'). The street name usually forms part of the address (though addresses in some parts of the world, notably most of Japan, make no reference to street names). Buildings are often given numbers along the street to further help identify them.
Utility cycling
Utility cycling encompasses any cycling done simply as a means of transport rather than as a sport or leisure activity. It is the original and most common type of cycling in the world. Cycling mobility is one of the various types of private transport and a major part of individual mobility. Utility or "transportational" cycling generally involves traveling short and medium distances (several kilometres, not uncommonly 3–15 kilometres one way, or somewhat longer), often in an urban environment. It includes commuting (i.
City block
A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within the area of a building or comparable structure. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, and form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric. City blocks may be subdivided into any number of smaller land lots usually in private ownership, though in some cases, it may be other forms of tenure.
Related courses (4)
CIVIL-457: Fundamentals of traffic operations and control
The objectives of this course are to present the major elements of traffic operations and to develop basic skills in applying the fundamentals of traffic analysis and control. Students should be able
PHYS-100: Advanced physics I (mechanics)
La Physique Générale I (avancée) couvre la mécanique du point et du solide indéformable. Apprendre la mécanique, c'est apprendre à mettre sous forme mathématique un phénomène physique, en modélisant l
AR-365: Theory and architectural culture
Le cours offre un résumé de la théorie et la culture architecturales depuis 1789 dans le monde occidentale. Le but est de comprendre des textes dans lesquels l'architecture est définie comme une disci
Related lectures (13)
EPFL DH Students Internship Report
Showcases EPFL DH students' internship experiences through their work during mandatory internships.
Fusion Energy: ITER Project Overview
Introduces fusion energy and the ITER Project, discussing technical challenges, physics of tokamaks, and experimental challenges.
Urban Space: Exploration
Explores the urban space through a journey in a city neighborhood.