Confucius once said, “If names are not correct, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things.” Seattle Metro just made Confucius very happy by correcting a long-standing error in its enunciator system. Previously, all stops referring to Broadway or Broadway East were announced on board as “Broadway Avenue,” a street that as far as we can tell, does not exist.
CHS brought the issue to the attention of Metro’s project manager for the enunciator system, Gary Shumway.
“A small project to clean up this data along Broadway and Broadway East a few years ago did not get finished. This incorrect data did not seem to cause any problems internally for Metro, so no one seemed to notice,” Shumway said. According to Shumway, the problem should have been fixed as of the weekend.
Below is an audio snippet of the erroneous “Broadway Ave” recording, taken on the #8 line:
For now, Broadway’s identity still doesn’t seem set on Metro’s website or in its route pamphlets, with the erroneous “Ave” tag appearing half the time and the correct name the other half.
But in the immortal words of Bill Shakespeare. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
I’d usually say something like “look at the signs, folks,” but I have actually seen incorrect Broadway Ave. street signs in the past. I let SDOT know and they were replaced.
I think it’s still out there though, at my doctor’s office, when asking where I wanted my prescription filled, and asking which of the 2 QFC’s I wanted, she said Broadway or Broadway Ave.? I said, “Which is which?”
Having grown up in a city that infamously named about 20 different roads “Peachtree,” I can see how someone unfamiliar might be thrown by that.
Even if maps don’t label it as such, Broadway fits the typical definition of an avenue:
av·e·nue
Noun:
1. A broad road in a town or city, typically having trees at regular intervals along its sides.
2. A thoroughfare running at right angles to the streets in a city laid out on a grid pattern: “7th Avenue”.
It parallels the other Aves on the Hill, and most of its intersections are with Streets.
You could also say it’s a “Way”.
It’s neither though. It’s null.
Atlanta! Yeah that was crazy confusing when I visited there.
Washington, DC
I’ve lived here for 23 years and always thought it was technically “Broadway Avenue,” but that everyone referred to it as simply “Broadway.” One learns something new every day.
So a question–why is it NOT “Broadway Avenue”? I thought all the North-South streets were “avenues” while the East-West were “streets” (with the occasional “Way,” “Place,” and “Drive” thrown in)? Does anyone know the explanation for it being simply “Broadway”?
Addresses in Salt Lake City (and many Utah towns) are confusing as hell until you understand how they work. Once you do, you can easily find ANY address. Just look at the written address, you know exactly where it is in the city.
somebody needs to check in the City archives. It MIGHT be Broadway Avenue from decades ago. At one time, the EAST streets were Norths. You can still see some of the brass words on street corners.
Worth checking into.
What grates on me is when you phone Walgreens on Broadway and the recording says “Broadway Boulevard”
Given that Seattle streets are laid out in a post Civil War manner – with Streets running E-W, and Avenues running N-S, this is pretty understandable.
It’s a contraction of “Broad Way.” Broadway Avenue would be redundant.
I’d like to know who is responsible for naming of Airport Way, between 4th and 6th, “Seattle Blvd.” That’s just dumb and confusing.
I’m not at all convinced that the official name is just “Broadway.” For all other major north-south streets, they are designated “…Ave East” north of Denny, and just “…Ave” south of Denny…until, I think, Yesler, where the designation is “..Ave South”.
There’s no agency called “Seattle Metro”
Thought I caught all of those. Of course I didn’t. Shame :(
Technically it _is_ Broadway Avenue and Broadway Avenue East though it does seem a bit redundant. The truth of it is that Broadway _is_ an avenue and goes (pretty much) north and south while streets go (pretty much) east and west.
When I arrived in Seattle almost nineteen years ago it was confusing to me that if you were on Broadway past a certain point it became Broadway East. This made no sense at all to me since I was going north on Broadway why wouldn’t it be called Broadway North?! It wasn’t til someone explained to me that the city/county is actually divided by quadrants that it made any kind of sense to me. Some areas of the city still can be confusing. You can be in Queen Anne and within three or four blocks the street directional can change from 4th Avenue to 4th Avenue West to 4th Avenue North.
and in the distant past it WAS Broadway Avenue North. Redundant as all get out, eh?
Streets north of Denny were designated “north” then came the NE thing when the city expanded toward Wedgwood and Maple Leaf. It seems to me that’s also when the EAST thing came to anything beyond Boren and Minor and Eastlake