I grew up in a tiny village, on a very quiet single track lane, with tarmac, but no road markings, and no traffic, except for residents. It wasn't prohibited, it just didn't go anywhere, so there was no point anyone else driving down it. As a kid, it was great - I could walk to school, then cycle to school when I got old enough to go the big school, there were fields on 3 sides. When I was a teenager it was horrible, I felt trapped in the middle of nowhere, when elsewhere things were happening.
The house I live in now is on a quiet singletrack residential road in the middle of a very small town. There are houses on all sides, which actually help to block the noise from the main road.
Soon I will be moving into the city, to a new flat on a busy 4 lane main road. I always said I'd never live on a main road, but after a few nights in a hotel on a main road, I realised it actually wasn't that bad. There are few residences near me, mostly shops and offices, and opposite, no buildings - just a view over the harbour. There certainly won't be kids playing in the street, as there were in the other two places I've lived, but as I'm not likely ever to have kids, that doesn't bother me - in fact as I get older and more grumpy, it suits me. It's a quarter of a mile from the city centre, and even closer to the bus and train stations, and has no parking.