Avenue

An avenue is a type of urban street designed as a broad, important thoroughfare that links parts of a city. It is typically wider than a standard street and often features landscaping along the sidewalks, a central median, and multiple traffic lanes. Avenues are commonly used as ceremonial routes, major transit corridors, or connectors between districts. The design of an avenue can reflect historical planning or modern urban renewal.

Etymology traces the term to the French avenue, originally meaning an approach or widening of a road. The concept gained prominence in European city planning in the 17th through 19th centuries, with the creation of tree-lined, aesthetically oriented routes. Notable early examples include the grand boulevards and avenues of Paris and other capitals, which aimed to improve circulation, sightlines, and public space. In contemporary cities, the exact boundaries between avenue, boulevard, and street vary by place, but avenues are generally treated as the principal, often more expansive corridors in a street network.

Famous examples include Fifth Avenue in New York, Champs-Élysées in Paris, and Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires. In North America, avenues often run north–south and serve as major metropolitan arteries, while in other regions planning practices differ. In practice, the term is used flexibly to describe a wide, important street, sometimes with a central median and formal landscaping, but the exact characteristics depend on local regulations and history.