Anyone know?

[liverpoolfoo]

Hi Folks can anyone please help? In America when they talk about somewhere being a block or several blocks away. How far do they actualy mean? Is the equivalent to a street over here? Hope you guys/gals can help Thanx

[thebigchill]

I think a block is the area around your house that isn't broken by a street...

[thebigchill]

Aha! Managed to think through the haze of alcohol...if you go out your house and turn left, and keep following the pavement without crossing the road until you arrive back at your house - you just walked around the block...

[DebsyDoo]

Hi !
It's the distance between intersections of other roads (if you remember that most streets in the US are laid out in a sort of grid pattern) it sort of makes sense (?) so I suppose it would depend on how close the next street was in relation to where you are !!

[liverpoolfoo]

Thanx DebsyDoo your answer seems to make more sense than thebigchill's. But thanks to you both & have a good weekend

[thebigchill]

...The distance between intersections of other roads is a road/street. A block is a block of land surrounded by roads and streets. Doesnt matter what shape or size they are or how they're laid out.

[Buenchico]

As others have indicated, American cities often have their streets laid out on a grid-like pattern. A 'block' is the distance from one street intersection to the next.

However the size of a block isn't fixed. For example, someone posting on this forum states that their city has about 8 blocks per mile (i.e. one 'block' equals about 220 yards). Another contributor suggests that a more usual layout is 12 blocks per mile (i.e. one 'block' equals roughly 150 yards):
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20 071126230823AAzBgMZ

Taking a rough average, it seems that a 'block' is equal to around two minutes walking. (I wish I'd have known that, a few years ago, when an American couple asked me for directions in London. I told them exactly which way they needed to go but I was completely stumped when they asked "So how many blocks is that?").

Chris

[thebigchill]

Again i have to take issue with the comment "A 'block' is the distance from one street intersection to the next." Suppose you are walking on the pavement, and take a left without crossing any roads. Up ahead, the pavement on the left of the road carries on unbroken, dissapearing into the distance. On your right however, the pavement breaks at a right turn. By both your meanings then does the block end at the intersection on your right?

[DebsyDoo]

Que ?

[dr b]

In the US, where I'm currently sitting, a block is indeed the distance from one street intersection to the next. So, in your example, if a street intersects from the right but does not continue on (i.e. it dead-ends on the street you're walking on), we'd still refer to that distance as a block. So, if you're standing at an intersection and someone says walk two blocks north, you'd go past the first cross-street and stop at the next.

In Chicago, where I grew up, streets were laid out 8 blocks to the mile as Chris suggests above.

[DebsyDoo]

I'm glad that's sorted out dr b !!
What part of the States are you in now ?

[dr b]

I live in St. Louis, Missouri, where a block is also 1/8 mile!

[DebsyDoo]

Ah, what time is it there ? I'm just waiting up to phone my daughter, who's living in LA !

[dr b]

8:42 pm. I lived in LA from 1984-1991. What part of LA is she in?

[Buenchico]

It's a quarter to seven in LA, Debs. (Just type 'time los angeles' into Google).

Chris

[Buenchico]

Well, I don't know where Dr B is, but he certainly isn't on Pacific Daylight Time (which is what LA is using)

[Buenchico]

Oops, sorry. I should learn to read (or learn not to post when I'm p!ssed!). I've just seen where Dr B is.

[DebsyDoo]

It's okay Buenchico, I knew what time it is in LA, but didn't know if dr b was in same timezone !!

She lives in a place called Winnetka (can't seem to find it on the map - must be quite small ?)
Last time we went out to see her she was at Ventura.