Buzz
“Hey! Ever wonder why we drive on parkways and park on driveways? Huh? Get it?!”
Good grief. This tired joke has been around for ages, but few realize it actually has an answer.
The terms “drive” and “park” were in use long before cars even existed. Remember, every time you write or speak, you're casting your vote for the language you use. Languages evolve over time, and words take on new meanings depending on how people choose to use them.
In the 1800s, the term “parking” referred to planting trees, flowers, and other types of vegetation. A “parking place” had nothing to do with cars—it was a space created to promote the growth of plants for non-agricultural purposes.
However, many of these areas were soon repurposed for an entirely different use. As historian Kirk Savage notes, “By the turn of the century, such parking areas were sometimes used to hold horse-drawn carriages during special events... When automobiles began flooding cities in the early 1900s, parking areas were taken over for car storage, and the word evolved to refer to cars rather than the trees and grass they replaced.”
During this transition, America’s parkways began to take shape. Urban reformers—concerned about the health effects of industrialization—began creating wooded parks in cities across the country, hoping the trees would improve air quality. As cars grew in popularity, new routes were carved through these parks specifically for automobiles, and they were aptly named “parkways.”
So, parkways don’t actually have anything to do with parking cars. But what about “driveways”? This term has been in use since at least 1884, and its meaning has stayed largely the same: a path connecting a private property to a public road. However, while long driveways were once common and suited to more driving, today's typical driveway is little more than a small personal parking spot.
