"There is a car on/in the street"

Do we use in or on when we want to talk about some action or event that takes place in/on the street?

• This car has been parked [in/on] our street for a week now.
• There's nobody [in/on] the street.
• Let's go play [in/on] the street.
• There was an accident [in/on] their street yesterday.
• I guess I lost my necklace [in/on] the street.

And so on.

In the UK we would not use 'on' in any of the examples given. When talking of a specific street it is always 'in the street'.

If you are talking about streets in general, there are circumstances in which you can use 'on'. e.g 'The price on the street is high'. 'You see them on the streets of London'

Now many people reading this will refer to the song in 'My Fair Lady' , 'On the Street where you Live', and infer that I am talking rubbish. But remember that MFL was originally a Broadway production.

I doubt George Bernard Shaw said 'On the street where you live...', but if someone now tries to prove that he did, it will have been because he was Irish!

When it comes to 'road' the position is quite different. Generalised terms such as being out 'on the open road', or 'on the road to nowhere' take 'on'. When it comes to named roads the position is complex. If it is a road in town with a name such as 'Chelsea Bridge Road' you could use either 'on' or 'in'. If it is a major out of town road such as the M6, you would use 'on'. That is unless you wanted to stress the very road itself. e.g. ''on' the M6 some silly old geezer was walking 'in' the road.'