is a court a cul-de-sac?

I was never aware that a street named court is always a cul-de-sac, but I’ve heard that is the case. In other words, if a street is named “blah court,” it means it’s a cul-de-sac. So far, I have been unable to confirm or disprove the claim. I found a few pages about street types and cul-de-sacs but they didn’t mention the association with courts.

The closest thing I’ve found so far is the 2.d definition from Merriam Webster, defining a court as “a wide alley with only one opening onto a street.” That sounds kind of like a cul-de-sac, but I don’t know anyone who refers to the street they live on as wide alleys.

Does anyone know one way or the other? Another option is if you live on a road ending in court and it isn’t a cul-de-sac, which would at least show there are exceptions, if not disprove the claim.

Comments

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  1. that is funny I thought this would be an article about the legal systems
    Turning around people and realasing them like a cul-de-sac

    btw I live by a cul-de-sac that is a court

    Comment by christopher on May 25, 2006 @ 5:51 am
  2. Heh. You give me far too much credit for coming up with imaginative titles.

    Comment by dan on May 25, 2006 @ 8:53 am
  3. Not all courts are culs-de-sac! I found a street guide to Littleton, CO. http://www.littletongov.org/museum/streetnames.asp Tada! :-)

    Comment by Princess Jami on May 25, 2006 @ 10:05 am
  4. Oh, and that explains the confusing street names we have out here. If you’ve ever visited Colorado Suburbia, you understand what I’m talking about. :-)

    Comment by Princess Jami on May 25, 2006 @ 10:07 am
  5. Wow, that was quick! I’m impressed. I guess that settles it; courts are not always cul-de-sacs.

    I’ve been to Colorado several times but I don’t remember the roads being especially confusing. At least there was a method that was used to name the streets. I have a feeling in some areas it was a fairly random process.

    Comment by dan on May 25, 2006 @ 11:43 am
  6. Dan,

    Courts are almost always cul-de-sacs. But, remember that each municipality basically rubber-stamps approval of street names from developers. It isn’t like there is some national agency that approves street names. There is bound to be exceptions because of this.

    Comment by scott on June 1, 2006 @ 8:26 am
  7. That sounds plausible, but if enough developers make courts that aren’t cul-de-sacs, then the general rule becomes less and less general.

    Comment by dan on June 2, 2006 @ 7:46 am
  8. when my uncle lived in NJ he lived on a court and it was indeed a cul de sac. I never knew that it is very interesting.

    Comment by whaleman on June 13, 2006 @ 8:06 pm
  9. Personally, this topic reveals a substantial amount of frustration in all of us. Why hasn’t there been an immeadiate solution to this growing problem? It’s similar to the controversy of soda being called pop. Hopefully, somewhere in the near future our competent law making officials will irradicate us of this grief and seemingly irreversible bias.

    Comment by Ian on November 4, 2006 @ 7:15 pm

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