'up the road' versus 'down the road'

[Iwanna]

up the road / down the road
up the street / dowm the street

How do I make a choice between up and down, supposing that the street stretchs evenly?

[Mister Micawber]

.
It is a free choice if the road is level.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[Iwanna]

[Mister Micawber]

.
Nope. It may, however, be influenced by what your neighbors say. People have a tendency to use the same in the same stretch of the same street.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[Iwanna]

I just read such sentences from a teleplay script:

---A school bus drives up the road. Friendly 'Good Morning' are exchanged between neighbors.

---A man bursts out of the building and makes off down the road.

but, on the screen, I watched that the roads were level.

[Conchita]

In your examples, Iwanna, the use of 'up' and 'down' seems to imply that the subject is moving, respectively, closer to or further away from a certain place. It may not necessarily have anything to do with road slope.

[Alan]

Hi Iwanna,

Don't you think 'ruleless' is wonderful! That means you can do what you like.

To answer your question I would say that the thought behind the use of 'up' or 'down' is instinctively your sense of north or south. Even if you don't have a compass with you, it is something you sense.

I live just north of London and would say that someone living say in Manchester (north of London) lives 'up north' or someone living in Brighton (on the south coast) lives 'down south'.

Figuratively we say that the stockmarket is 'going north' meaning prices are going up or 'is going south' means prices are going down.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Indirect Speech

[Iwanna]

[Iwanna]

[Conchita]

[Iwanna]