Why do public works departments name roads instead of numbering them?

Why would a city/municipality allow for roads to be named rather than have a numbered grid system? When names are assigned to roads, and not numbers, it is a hassle to find an address. So why create such an innefecient and backwards system of inexplicable road names?Why do public works departments name roads instead of numbering them?
Because it gives the neighborhood personality.





It sounds kinds of impersonal telling someone, ';Go to X coordinate G and Y coordinate 53';.Why do public works departments name roads instead of numbering them?
Usually there is a history to the madness. A city will name an entire section after a specific theme. (Medical center has names of medical people in our history). Why they don't do a grid system probably because as a city is first designed they will start their transit system and think wisely of how to name streets. I travel a lot and I have not seen two cities the same. I think Birmingham, Alabama has the city streets in grid formation using numbers, however from the city center the street numbers go north and south. I found out this the hard way after driving on 26th street for miles before I realized there are TWO 26th streets - north and south. Major butt pain there. In my city, I can usually find some place by the street name because it is identified by the vicinity. (Louis Pasteur - medical center...Main Street - downtown like most cities).
Two reasons. Firstly, there is a finite number of numbers. Secondly, names allow a community to honour pioneers, or special people.


Some communities do have number grids and it is TERRIBLY confusing!


You have north and south and east and west, streets and avenues, and unless you happen to live there, no one knows how to get anywhere.


Believe me, road names work much better!
They dont care about confusion they just honer the dead people such as the 1's that helped clean the mess of the twin towers when they colapsed.
Because names have more appeal than numbers. People like saying, ';I live at 115 Whimsical Lane'; more than ';I live at 112th Ave and 33rd St.'; Also, most new roads, especially in suburban neighborhoods, are not laid out in a grid- they wind about (which reduces traffic to people who actually live there) , which makes a number system less simplistic than you would think.