Straight and Open Streets
The sources compare a public route that runs openly through the city with one interrupted by walls, gates, turns, or a closed end.
A route open through the city
The classical discussion considers a public route that runs openly through the city. Walls, working gates, a closed end, or a significant change in direction may affect whether it has the form of reshus harabim.
Modern grids often create long continuous corridors even where individual street names change. The physical path and public use matter more than the label on the sign.
Curves and turns
A street that bends or turns is not identical to a straight road open from gate to gate. How much that helps depends on the governing view, the city walls, and whether the connected roads still function as one public way.
In the recorded discussion about Yerushalayim, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu points to the newer city's streets not being straight, and the Rebbe interjects lo mefulash. The exchange treats street form as a real local fact.
The street within the larger network
A local block may feed directly into major avenues, bridge approaches, commercial districts, and transit centers. The analysis follows how the public enters, leaves, and uses the route as part of the city.
A neighborhood boundary on a map does not interrupt that network. Only a halachically meaningful enclosure or change in the route can do so.