ZIPCode Question
 

Just a very basic question as to how ZIP codes work. For example does CA 94102 represent an area of San Francisco or does it refer specifically to one address, in this case The Chancellor Hotel on Union Square, as they quote this in their address.

I am wondering in connection with GPS navigation and how precise it will be if I just quote a ZIP code.

Thanks

Peter
UK

PS What does ZIP stand for?

Hi, Peter.

Zip codes in the US cover a much broader area than they do in the UK. Your first guess is correct, it only represents an area of SF. I know for a fact that there are people living several miles away from me who have the same zip code as mine. So if you only enter a zip code into your navigaion system, you won't get a very precise location.

Another thing that confuses some of our UK visitors. Our house addresses usually do not begin with the number 1. My house # is a 5 digit number, and when I gave my address to a British friend, he commented, "Wow, you live on a very long street!!" The fact is that my street only has 20 homes on it, not 14,000 homes, as it might appear by the number of my house. :-))

I don't know what ZIP stands for.... :-)

Just an area-see here:

http://tinyurl.com/4pnk8

R5

Zoning Improvement Plan

R5

No - a 5 digit zip code is an entire neighborhood (usually the area served by one post office - although in some cities there may be more than one office in a zip code).

There are 9 digit zip codes (5 digit with a dash and then 4 digits) which represent either one carrier route - sometimes a very large building - or business post office box.

But you need to use a spcific address to get to the building using GPS. Otherwise you could be an area up to a mile in each direction (in a city - much bigger in the suburbs or country).

For what it's worth, Peter, this is from
US Gov't website:

<i>ZIP code
A Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code is the numerical code assigned by the U.S. Postal Service to designate a local area or entity for the delivery of mail. ZIP Codes may consist of 5, 7, 9, or 11 digits, and may refer to a street section, a collection of streets, an establishment, a structure, or a group of post office boxes.</i>

That really clears it up, LOL !

R5

I think ZIP stands for Zoned Identification Postage or something like that.

CA 94102 would represent an area of San Francisco
and 94102 1234 (zip + 4) would represent an actual address.

I have a P.O. box number and the last 4 of my zip is the po box number.

P_M, I had the impression that American street numbers usually start anew on each block - so &quot;2015 Chestnut Street&quot; would actually be No 15 on the 20th block along. Have I got that wrong? That struck me as a very sensible system, as does the American practice of numbering freeway exits.

Hi, Neil. Well, yes and no.

I can't tell you that the same rules apply everywhere, but here's an observation from my city. The very center of town is the 100 block, and all buildings on that block are 100-something. The next block is the 200 block and all buildings on that block are 200-something, etc. Buildings on one side of the street will have odd numbers, across the street will be even numbers. However, 200 Main Street might be right next to 220 Main Street. (remember, even #'s are on the same side of the street) I do not know where all the numbers inbetween went....

Now let's get back to my street. The first house on the block is 14000 Elm Street. As even #'s are all on the same side, logic would tell you that the house next door s/b 14002, but on our block, it's actually 14004. Once again, I do not know why there isn't a 14002.

When you see a very long house number like mine, it usually means you are far from the center of town. So to sum it up, there is some logic, but not much. :-)

PS My street name is not actually &quot;Elm,&quot; but the numbering system is actually what's used on my street. :-)

Well numbering highway exits only seems sensible.

But the house numbering system is not as you desribe. In a few cities there are areas where the number is related to the cross streets - but most places have completely different - and an incr4edible number of varied numbering systems.

&quot;so &quot;2015 Chestnut Street&quot; would actually be No 15 on the 20th block along&quot;

Not exactly. If you're saying 2015 is the 15th house from the beginning of the block, then no, that's not generally correct. My block goes all the way up to 3645, and there are only about 20 houses on the block (including both sides).

I've also seen instances where 2 distinct block share the same beginning numbers - for example, 1 block is 1901 - 1925, then there's a cross street, and then the next block starts up as 1927 - 1950. So it's not always true that 2015 would be the 20th block along, either.

Well thanks for the swift replies, I feel I now know all I need to know about ZIP codes. The explanation about the 5 digit house numbers is also interesting, and has baffled me for years; now that I understand it, it is entirely logical. Most helpful.

Peter
UK

Have done a search for you - perhaps you might try that - and the only &quot;hotel&quot; in NYC listed in your price range in the 92nd St Y. And that's not in December - that's at all for the year.

And unfortunately it's nowhere near a subway stop - and there don;t seem to be private baths.

There are about 8 others listed at under $100 (but I assume they would be more in December), some have private baths but don;t think any is within a block of a subway. Also - as I mentioned - several seem to rent by the hour.

You're most welcome, Peter. I was afraid we had confused you even further. :-)) Enjoy your visit to the US, SF is a great city.

Sorry - this post appeared on the wrong thread - Fodor's is having hiccups again.

Oh while I was sending the last message some more came in about house numbering, perhaps I don't understand it after all!

The ZIP code system is administered by the US Postal Service, so it's a national system. Systems for numbering houses are decided locally, and until tonight I had never heard of streets that begn with 5-digit numbers.

The only thing I've seen consistently is that odd numbers are on one side and even on the opposite. And usually, if you're going down the street in the direction in which the numbers are increasing, you'll find the odd numbers on your right.

I was twenty years old the first time I encountered a 5-digit street number, and it truly was a very long street that began with single digits. Where I live, they re-start the numbering when a street crosses a town line, and often change the name of the street as well, so the numbers don't get a chance to grow large.

Five-digit ZIPs cannot possibly denote individual locations in a country with 300,000,000 people; there just wouldn't be enough of them. Around here, towns of up to 25,000 or so get their own ZIP code, and larger ones get several. The ZIP-Plus-4 usually denotes a neighborhood.

The fact of the matter is, pdw, there is no uniform system for numbering houses in the U.S. You've been given several different examples of numbering systems, none of which is the primary system in this country, because there is none!.....There is no consistent or official national system for numbering houses.

<b>P_M</b>

my address here on Siesta Key starts with 1 as in 136.

My old Chicago address was 1009, so I'm not sure why you think that 1 is not used?

Well, there's no consistent system here in Australia either, other than even numbers one side, odd numbers the other (usually). We also suffer from having one street name morph into another, sometimes without even the excuse of crossing a municipal boundary. At least I now know that the US system is not quite as straightforward as I'd imagined.

It could be worse - I've been told that Tokyo street numbers aren't consecutive, having been traditionally allocated in the order the building was constructed.

<b>Neil_OZ</b>,

Chicago is a very easy city to navigate. it's exactly as you thought.

Chicago was built on a grid system with a &quot;major&quot; street every half mile - equal to four blocks. The starting point is at the intersection of State and Madison in the heart of the Loop. State Street runs north/south. All of the other north/south streets are numbered as so many blocks east or west of State, with the addresses increasing by 100 for each block (except downtown, where streets do not always correspond to a full block).

For example, Ashland Avenue runs north/south and is 16 blocks west of State and so its &quot;address&quot; is 1600 West. Since there are 8 blocks to a mile, we can also determine that Ashland is 2 miles west of State. Similarly all east/west streets are numbered as north or south of Madison, which runs east/west. The street that runs parallel to Madison eight blocks to the north (Chicago Avenue) is referred to as 800 North, and is one mile north of Madison. Using this system you can always figure out how far and in what direction you have strayed from downtown, and by knowing a cross street's address you can find any building in the city. A building with an address of 800 North Ashland Ave. will be 8 blocks north of Madison on Ashland which is 16 blocks west of State Street, at the intersection of Chicago Ave. and Ashland Ave. A building with an address of 1601 West Chicago Ave. will be on another corner of the same intersection

AAFF, the first digit of my house number is also 1, and I can see now that my description was unclear. What I meant was the address of the first house on the street is not usually going to be 1 Elm Street, then the next house would not be 2 Elm Street, etc. My friends from the UK have an address like this, with single digit house #'s. That's why they thought that because my house # is in the 14000 range, it must be a very long street with 14000 houses on it. In fact, my street only has 20 homes, and the first house on the street is 14000, not 1.

Sorry for the confusion, does this make sense?

Thanks, AAFF - pity we're not going as far east as Chicago. Ironically my city, Canberra, was originally designed by a Chicagoan, Walter Burley Griffin (not to mention his wife, Marion Mahoney Griffin), and there's hardly a straight street in town - our circles are the bane of interstate visitors.

Here's what I know about the Zip Code system. (For background, my father retired as a rural carrier from the USPS and I also worked closely with a mailroom in a former life &gt;wink&lt;).

Zip codes are numbered across the country generally from east to west. Your low number zip codes are in the eastern half of the country, and they go up as you go west. The lowest numbers are in New England -- those starting with 0. The highest Zip codes are for towns in Alaska.

A town can have more than one zip code, depending on its size. Small towns use the same zip code for all city and rural routes as well as post office boxes. Larger cities may have a different zip code for post office boxes and city routes (ie., home/office delivery). In very large cities such as NYC, there may be one zip code serving only one large building.

Each state is divided into postal regions, but I forget the USPS term for them. For example, here where I live in East Tennessee, our zip codes all begin with 376. The main Post Office (which is in my city) is 37601. Other zip codes in my city range from 37602 through 37615.

Zip codes in the other towns of the 376 area are assigned alphabetically. Both 37617 and 37619 are towns that start with B. 37643 is an E town. 37682 is a town beginning with M. 37692 is U. 37694 is W. All mail delivered to or sent from a 376 zip code goes through our 37601 mail facility for sorting.

Towns a little west of here have 377 zip codes, and then you get to the Knoxville area with 379 zip codes. Nashville zip codes are 372. Memphis zip codes are 375. (Notice I earlier said zip codes were *generally* east-to-west -- they are a little mixed up in Tennessee.)

Zip+4 codes were implemented to help pinpoint mail delivery. Post office boxes usually have a +4 that corresponds to the box number. On city routes, I believe a different +4 is typically assigned to the two sides of each block. You'll have some variations of course. By using +4 zip codes, machinery can better sort the mail before it gets to each carrier, who still ultimately hand sorts for delivery on his or her route.

That's how zip codes work to the best of my knowledge.

For reference, I found this website -- http://tinyurl.com/z3z34 -- listing all zip codes alphabetically and numerically by state.

PS -- thanks for helping cure my insomnia. LOL.

Peter, some entities that receive a lot of mail have their own zip codes within a zip code area...maybe the Chancellor fits this description. I know that when I was at US Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC, we had a unique zip code that still fell numerically into the area's zip code.

All you ever wanted to know about ZIP codes but were afraid to ask! ! Thanks to all for sharing your considerable knowledge. I shall bear it in mind when we visit CA next month.

Cheers
Peter
UK

My ZIP is 37700 and refers to Col. Centro here in San Miguel de Allende Gto., Mexico.
Other Colonias have diff ZIPs.
Get no mail here, but it defines our 'hood.
M

Why aren't the houses numbered sequentially, as in 2, 4, 6, etc? The accepted system in the US is to measure the distance in feet from the central point (the main street). In other words, the size of the house lot determines the numbering. As you move away from the central point, the odd-numbered houses should be on your left and the even on your right. Modern subdivisions with cul-de-sacs and looping streets make it difficult to follow the old rules, so sometimes it's really hard to figure out the numbering. I was once a city planner and I was always thrown by doorway numbering problems. Today I live in a private gated community that is unincorporated (out in the country) and we have a very logical system: 2,4,6 on one side and 1,3,5 on the other. The only logical thing about the prevailing US system is the the first number(s) denote the number of blocks from the central point (so 2024 is 20 blocks from the CP). A house at 13531 would be 135 blocks from the CP. The last two numbers are the house number.