Dictionary

stroad en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /stɹəud/

Etymology

Blend of street + road. Coined by American engineer and author Charles Marohn in 2011.

Meanings

1. (Canada, US, derogatory, qualifier:urban studies) A combination of a street and a road that is too wide and fast to be friendly to pedestrians while having too many intersections and driveways to move cars efficiently.
   • While Marohn came up with the neologism partly in a spirit of fun, he considers stroads a deadly serious problem. Not only are they dangerous and aesthetically repugnant, he argues that they are economically destructive as well. 2014 January 7, Sarah Goodyear, “Defining the Worst Type of Street Design”, in CityLab, Bloomberg:
   • Roads I ride on: […] Very frequently, a four lane suburban stroad with 30,000 to 40,000 cars per day. 12 foot lanes. That's a tough one, because it's sort of sharable with a tiny car (Fiat 500, VW Beetle) if the driver is careful. But anyone else will be passing too close. 2019 January 27, Frank Krygowski, “AG: Lit Crit wanted”, in rec.bicycles.misc (Usenet), message-ID <q2lvot$tda$1@dont-email.me>:
   • A stroad has the driveways, intersections, and crosswalks (sometimes!) of a street, but the higher speed-limit of a road, perhaps 45 mph (70 kph) or more. Oh, and one more thing. The stroad has the multiple lanes of travel one might associate with an avenue (in Manhattan, say) or a limited access highway. 2024, Jonathan Maskit, Bicycle, Bloomsbury, →ISBN:
   • Whether or not it includes light rail, Graham appears to agree with the mayors that Parramatta Road’s future should involve turning it from a “stroad” – a confused mix between road and street design for cars with big shop fronts, common in the US – to a tree-lined boulevard that supports the Sydney growth plan for medium rise housing centred around public transport stations. 2024 July 26, Elias Visontay, “‘Boulevard of broken dreams’: could Parramatta Road really become Sydney’s Champs-Élysées?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • The federal government pitched in $11.5 million for this stroad, so it requires this step before construction begins. 2017 June 30, David Sachs, “DPW Moves Forward With Making Quebec Street a Wide, Dangerous Stroad Instead of Prioritizing People Over Cars”, in Streetsblog Denver:

Forms

Coordinates

arterial route · arterial road · arterial · major thoroughfare · urban boulevard · arterial street

Deriveds

stroady

Translations (3)

ru шулица (a road too wide and fast) · fi kadun ja tien välimuoto (a road too wide and fast) · sw barabara ya mtaa (a road too wide and fast)

wikipedia: New York State Route 324